When Glorious was born ten years ago, two people put their faith in our future. One gave us a stage to perform - Maj.S.S. Wesley, thank you for your encouragement when we needed it the most - and the other has given us a roof over our heads every Sunday afternoon for the last ten years - we are ever grateful to you, Dr. B.K. Pramanik. Glorious has a Godfather who hovers benevolently in the background and thoughtfully gets things done for us before we even realize we have a need Dr. A. Ebenezer, God'li bless you abundantly for the way you quietly touch the lives of so many people. lngrid Albuquerque, you should really be here on stage with us tonight! We love you for saying just the right things in the right way, right when we need to know there's someone somewhere who's with us in prayer. Mrs. lndrani Sudarshan, we owe you one for always being "in the backside" with your genuine concern. Suri, thank you for the music! Concert after concert you keep our cup running over. Rev. Selwyn and Rev. Macwana, for your generous help with practice venues, we thank you. Uncle Vydhian and Jikky, without that serene getaway, these songs would never have been put together. Abraham Manasseh, we are soundly blessed to have you at controls. Sheela and Richard William Joseph you continue to light up our lives and our concerts!.

Mr. P.N. Benjamin, we are still adding up the dollars to thank you. Rev. and Mrs. Ironside, you're with us in spirit tonight, we know. Herbert Paul, you'll soon have to start signing autographs on your posters, but you may please leave your shoes outside next time, okay? Domnic, Darryl, Jerry and the team at Insight Folders, we promise we won't keep you up two nights before our concert. Thank you for tolerating our maddening last minute brochures and tickets and posters and handbills and bookmarks and --- SORRY! Mrs. Rani Victor, your kind deeds are such an inspiration to us - we hope we'll be like you someday. Thank you, Kemp Fort, Guardian Bank and Br,itannia for contributing towards brightening up the season. Karen Rebello and Eippa, noteworthy help, we must say! Brinda Jacob, you have truly moved us! Maria, we thank you for all the sleep you've lost on our account. Dr. . Mrs. K.C. Abraham, we are grateful to you for taking over the canteen-we wish all of God's blessings upon Lisa Home. Chuck and Joan, you will always be a pot of Glorious-many thanl,,s. Mr. Anandan, we are grateful to.you for framing us. Mr. Amjad, a BIG thank you. Mr. Mohanial, your dresses are truely Lovely. SuperMarl<et, Casa Piccola, White Dove, ELS and The Pinnacle, thank you for putting up with the confusion of the season. All our Advertisers, thank, you for your continued support. Joshua, for many things, especially for being our soundin board. Finny and Joy, so far, yet so near-you mean the world to us.

There goes our Sunshine

She wafted into our lives like an unbidden sunbeam on a winter's day, startling us with unexpected gentle warmth, lingering on in our memories with her sunny-smiles. Her drenching joy burst down on us like bubbles of blessing during the brief time she was ours.

We didn't quite know how to react when a common friend brought her to join the choir three Chirstmasses ago. Being kind of older than all of us, we wondered how she would fit in. just one Sunday practice and she had snuggled cozily in the deepest recesses of our hearts where she will always be treasured.

There are so many frozen snap shots of her in the picture frames of our mind: images that remain vibrantly alive as a tribute to her unquenchable passion for life. My favourite is one of her strumming her guitar and singing softly over a flickering-candle in a dark chain-prayer cell at Music Camp when someone forgot to relieve her for a couple of hours.

When we travelled with the choir, she would be the last to sleep despite her troublesome arthritic knee, keeping us awake and in splits with her wicked one-liners. These mumbled asides often landed the rest of us in big trouble at rehearsals when she carried on singing unblinkingly and we collapsed in helpless heaps under Reji's explosions of rage.

It was always difficult for her to get an auto back home on Sunday evenings because she stayed so close. She would lean into the nth. refusing auto, smile disarmingly at the bewildered driver and purr, " I hope you have a flat tyre when you do decide to go somewhere."

Her irrepressible mirth gave her poor cancer a rotten time as she always managed to have the last laugh. After several failed group attempts at losing weight we met her twenty kilos lighter after chemotherapy and she giggled, "Look at me - I'm Mrs. Bangalore now, only 1 don't have a single hair on my head!"

All through the ten months of her agonizing surrender to God's will, her victorious faith moved us, never once allowing us to weep, but always assuring us of the land of eternal sunshine ahead.

Last Christmas, you saw her on stage with us. On the 1 6th of October this year, the Lord decided she'd passed the furnace test and called her home.

Raw grief tore us as we laid to rest one of our own, but her smiling calm face told us she was but moving on to prepare us for our arrival in that Great Beyond.

The wound is still tender, and tears flow unsuppressed when we sing the songs she sang with us. But tonight we know that she's smiling down at us with all of Heaven's angels and one very proud Father.

Dearest Minoo, we will always cherish you and the lessons of love and laughter we learnt from you.

And you know, if Heaven's a place filled with angels like you, we do look forward to getting there soon.

Come Just As You Are

Our tenth year was a crash course in growing up and facing reality.

As we began celebrating in right earnest the anniversary, our umpteenth unexpected blessing and the approaching M-Word Year, we were cut short in our tracks and prodded to stop and take stock.

Four of our members, Sabita, Surekha, Karen and Suri lost their mothers in a span of a few short months, each through tragic, untimely circumstances.

We watched Minoo Chopde on her awesome journey home, witnessing first-hand the peace which passed all understanding settle like a mantle over her and her own.

We continue to pray for Solomon Rajkumar as he wrestles with a mean tumour, enriching us all meanwhile with his serene acceptance of God's very different plans for his life. When we touched the hem of their faith, God spoke to us through Minoo and Solomon in words more real than any preached from a pulpit.

Then there were a couple of weddings. And of course there were the births - every month last year, there was a Glorious baby born in different parts of the world.

The surreal mists that veiled the beauty of life blending into LIFE have been lifted for us this past year as the renewed value of our mortal and spiritual existence was made plain to us.

It is true, we realized, we are but passing through.

Which brings us to the question of the Cross at Christmas time. A couple of people asked us why we were shadowing the good cheer of the season with the disturbing spectre of the Crucifixion. To which we can only reply that without the Cross, the Cradle would have absolutely no significance.

It is His death that allows the Christmas message of Hope and Happiness to be born again in our hearts year after year.

The festive stars fade in the light of the Eastern skies, but the nail-pierced hands beckon ever patiently, season through season, while we tarry waiting for ideal settings and situations to approach him.

Our blemished imperfect present state is what He loves us for, and this Christmas, He wants you to COME, JUST AS YOU ARE to claim this love.

We at Glorious would like you to join us as we accept His invitation.