Like many great things in life, the Stroud Sacred Music Festival started as an idea among friends in the autumn of 2014. Our aim was to create an event that promotes unity and peace, the plan was to do this by celebrating the power music has in bringing people together and breaking down boundaries.
We could never have imagined how successful we would be in bringing these thoughts and ideas to life.
We have had a series of beautiful festivals and other supporting events so far that have each brought together a soulful and eclectic mix of music from many sacred traditions – including Christian, Hindu, Muslim and Jewish, as well as the music of indigenous people.
With each year we have grown and more people have joined us for this vibrant and heartfelt celebration of difference and diversity within the community.
Whether or not you are a person of faith, everyone is encouraged to join in at our events. We want as many people as possible to experience the interplay between movement and stillness, between sound and silence. This shared experience is the heartbeat and lifeblood of our events, and we hope you will join us in the future.
We could never have imagined how successful we would be in bringing these thoughts and ideas to life.
We have had a series of beautiful festivals and other supporting events so far that have each brought together a soulful and eclectic mix of music from many sacred traditions – including Christian, Hindu, Muslim and Jewish, as well as the music of indigenous people.
With each year we have grown and more people have joined us for this vibrant and heartfelt celebration of difference and diversity within the community.
Whether or not you are a person of faith, everyone is encouraged to join in at our events. We want as many people as possible to experience the interplay between movement and stillness, between sound and silence. This shared experience is the heartbeat and lifeblood of our events, and we hope you will join us in the future.
"Sacred music is a call and response between the human heart and the divine. As such, music can be a purifying fountain of beauty that washes away all traces of illusory separation and disconnection, uniting us with the wholeness of life. It is also sacred medicine, a healing balm of tender love that can soothe the ravaged places of our pain, brokenness and sorrow. We are brought home again to our soul’s truest belonging in the Beloved. And what sweet nectar for our insatiable thirst sacred music is as well! It can raise us to the ecstasy of the stars, to the secret prayers of longing and glorification of the angels. We are finely tuned to the harmony of the spheres and the Divine Presence." |
The Co-Founders of Stroud Sacred Music Festival
Girish Patel
|
"In the autumn of 2014, Revd. Simon Howell, then of Holy Trinity Church, Stroud asked if I would work with him to create a Sacred Music Festival. He did not need to say any more as I instantly new that we were on the same wavelength. In February 2015 we invited a few friends to meet and began working to form the first Stroud Sacred Music Festival (SSMF) based in St Laurence Church. The success of this event during the first weekend of July 2015 went beyond our expectations and we have not looked back since. I have a very varied taste in music and I am part of The Raga Babas that are a multi faith world fusion devotional dance band of 13 members, based in Stroud. I consider most heartfelt music as ‘sacred’ and love the growing community around this. I believe that one of the most effective ways to create harmony and peace in the world, is to unite in celebrating the diversity that exists all around us, with Sacred Music and dance. In this way we can meet with open hearts and leave behind any separation created by opinion orientated dialogue."
|
Revd Simon Howell
|
"Born in the West of England, I trained as a professional musician (drums/percussion/piano), and taught in schools and as a management trainer, then becoming a church minister in Hong Kong, London and Bristol, before moving to Stroud. I have a Pastoral Theology MA, majoring in inter faith studies, and am an adviser on inter faith matters. For me the Sacred Music Festival is about taking inter-spiritual relations to a new level: a place where we touch and taste the mystical depth in spiritual traditions other than our own. Music definitely can go way beyond words in this pursuit - and it is precisely this kind of peace making through the arts that bought Girish and I together to formulate the Stroud Sacred Music Festival project."
|
