Cornerstone

Wantage Civic Hall was packed on Tuesday for the Acoustic Gospel concert by the legendary Christian singer/songwriter Graham Kendrick.

Three hundred people from as far afield as Swindon, Oxford and Reading flocked to the Civic Hall to enjoy over two hours of songs performed by Graham on acoustic guitar accompanied on bass by Simon Dennis on and on percussion by founder of Psalm Drummers - the fantastic Terl Bryant.

It wasn't just Christians having a good time either. One of our guests said afterwards: “I was looking for entertainment rather than spiritual content - Graham Kendrick is s first-class entertainer – one of the best.”

Graham Kendrick is best known for his modern hymn Shine Jesus Shine which is just one of hundreds of songs he has written that are popular in churches today. However there's another side to his music and that is what we saw on Tuesday. Songs such as Thorn in the Straw and Crucified Man that tell a story - the story of Jesus life told in the gospels.

And then, just for fun, there was Big Day Out - a new song which Graham has specially written for the Big Church Day Out at the end of May performed by Terl Bryant on washboard, Simon Dennis on banjo and Graham on a ukulele-sized mini acoustic.

The Wantage concert was part of a nationwide tour being used to promote the work of Compassion International - a charity that Graham is passionate about.

Compassion International exists as a Christian child advocacy ministry that releases children from spiritual, economic, social and physical poverty and enables them to become responsible, fulfilled Christian adults. Founded by the Rev. Everett Swanson in 1952, Compassion began providing Korean War orphans with food, shelter, education and health care, as well as Christian training. Today, Compassion helps more than 1 million children in 25 countries.

Over twenty people signed up to sponsor children through Compassion International on the evening which also raised £400 for Compassion International and Cornerstone.

The concert coincided with the release of a new album The Very Best of Graham Kendrick which is available to order from Cornerstone. If you could not make it on Tuesday you might like to know that a recording of one of the concerts in the tour will be available later in the year - get in touch with cornerstone and we'll tell you when it's available.