Upcoming Events -- Mark your calendars, and for folks that are not in Hong Kong, get your tickets!

Rehearsals -- Clear your throats and get ready for a challenging and satisfying rehearsal!

Sunday Masses -- It's 9 o'clock and time for the GoodNewSingers to sing!

Easter -- Holy Thursday, Good Friday, Holy Saturday (Easter Vigil), and Easter Sunday.

Christmas -- Midnight mass on Dec 24, and X'mas mass on Dec 25, year after year…

Carolling -- A week or two before X'mas, on the streets of Tsim Sha Tsui......

Weddings -- GNS sings at wedding ceremonies and masses …

Fun Places -- Places you don't want to (and you probably won't) forget…

Choir rehearsals every Sunday at 8:00a.m. on the 3rd Floor of St. Teresa's Parish.

Carolling Carolling Carolling we go........

Organizer: Wincy miao

When: Dec 22 2000 8:00PM

Duration: 4 Hours

Occurs: Only once a year

Details: This is our show time brothers and sisters. Do remember to bring along your friends as well as your favourite muscial instruments and play along that night!

Where: Star Ferry at Tsim Sha Tsui

Rehearsal Schedule:

Rehearsals will be on Saturdays - 25th Nov., 2nd Dec., 9th Dec. and 16th Dec. 6pm to 9:30pm on Sarm Lau (3rd Floor).


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3rd Floor - Circle of chairs... Circle of lives!!

Everyone knows where to find us - 3rd floor at the St. Teresa's Church. This is the world of the GoodNewsSingers - one of our favorite gathering hotspots for pre-mass rehearsals every Sunday 8:00am ... rain or shine!!!

 3rd Floor stairwells - The echo chamber

When we want better echoing effects, the stairwells come in handy!! This is also our favorite getaway when our rehearsal spots are occupied by other church functions.

Room "00"

With our relationship with MCS, Room "00"(music room) used to be our stand by rehearsal place. What's really good about this place was...we didn't really need to bring song books with us, we can find hymnals behind the blackboard at the back of the room as well as music stands and of course a P-I-A-N-O!!

 MCS Primary School Covered playground

Long benches... more benches ... and more long benches!! Besides rehearsal, that's where the early generations held their elections and choir meetings.

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Imagine yourself walking into the St. Teresa's Church from the main entrance. As you go towards the altar, there is an organ on the right side of the aisle. That's where church choirs are located during various masses of the day. By 8:55a.m., everyone from the GoodNewsSingers would come down from the 3rd Floor, and occupy a seat on one of the benches behind the organ. The musicians would set up their instruments. And when all's set, we are ready to sing.

Entrance Song

This is the song we perform when the priest enters the mass. We usually pick joyful and rhythmic songs to start our 9 o'clock masses. This helps the congregation prepare themselves by opening up their ears and minds for the liturgy. Songs that belong to this category are Song of Good News, Sing to God a Brand New Canticle, Prepare Ye the Way of the Lord...

Offertory Hymn

When donations are collected and offerings are brought to the altar, we perform our offertory song -- a pick from our mellower hymns. There is a sense of communicating with God, letting out our feelings, asking for forgiveness and healing. Most of us like these songs: Hosea, Song of the Wounded, Here I am Lord, Be Not Afraid...

Communion Hymn

This is a time for the congregation to receive communion, meditate and say their personal prayers. During this period of time, our songs would reinforce the Readings of the particular mass . Favorite picks for communion songs are: City of God, Turn to Me, Make Me a Channel of Your Peace ...
Recession Song

This is the time when the priest leaves the altar. It's a time for joyous notes and cheerful music. The contents of the songs mainly concentrate on celebrating God's blessings, living out the liturgy, and to love one another. These are songs that we usually sing: Walk with Faith, A Song of Blessing, Blest Be the Lord, Happiness... And with this note, we leave the mass joyously, and prepare for the next mass to come. The mission of the GoodNewsSingers goes on and on ...

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This is a series of 4 masses/services, spanning from Holy Thursday, Good Friday, Holy Saturday to the joyful Easter Sunday. Besides singing at the St. Teresa's Church, we also perform at the Maryknoll school hall.

Holy Thursday

Mass starts in the evening before Good Friday. This is a day to remember how Jesus taught his apostles during the Last Supper. A Song of Thanksgiving is usually chosen for the occasion.
Good Friday

The Good Friday service is solemn and tranquil. We remember the crucifixion of Jesus. The choir is dressed in dark colors. Chit-chats and giggles are not tolerated. Although the songs are sad and low-keyed, they serve the purpose of spreading clear messages about Jesus' sacrifice for us. Anyone who has participated in a Good Friday service would remember Watch with Me and My People.
Holy Saturday

The priest begins the ceremony by lighting the Easter candle, then he leads the congregation into the church. With the candle giving us hope, we are ready for Jesus' resurrection. On this special occasion, we sing more complicated versions of every song, as we have a whole gang and want to sing our best. Favorite songs are Wood Hath Hope, Glory to God...
Easter Sunday

It's 9o'clock on Easter Sunday, and the GoodNewsSingers is back to the St. Teresa's Church Sunday mass schedule. We usually start off with the well-known Easter Song, and then proceed onto other appropriate songs e.g. Mary's Song. By now we are all worn out, and when we say "Happy Easter" after the mass, we are all so relieved.....

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Christmas usually starts earlier in the choir's calendar. About 5 to 6 Sundays before Christmas, we will start to choose songs for Midnight mass as well as practicing christmas carols for carolling. In the 70s' to late 80s'all English Midnight masses were held in the Chapel of the Pastoral Center, a very cozy place for the congregation but we never had enough seats. Now Christmas masses are held in the Maryknoll school hall.

There are special traditions during this time of the year: Additional rehearsals other than the regular choir practices, extra throat drops, members coming back from overseas... and the partridge in the pear tree...... and we all dress up for the occasion. Here is a picture showing faces from the 70s celebrating the season at a member's house.

Hot songs from early years:

Shepherds and Kings, A Child is born, Morning Softly Awakens, Let Heaven rejoice,

Sing a new song, In the morning, This is the Day, With Merry Dancing ...

Hot picks from recent years:

City of God, Magi, Wake from your sleep, Shepherds and Kings, Exult you just ones

Song of Good News, Alleluia... I have come, The people that walk in darkness,

The beautiful mother, Something which is known... and more..

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"Once in a year, it is not for a miss, to visit our neighbors and sing out like this……….."

To all GNS members, the combination of these ten, twenty words conjures a lot of wonderful memories of festive atmosphere, cold weather and endless singings of christmas carols in the busy streets of Hong Kong. These words are the first few lyrics of the song "We wish you a Merry Christmas" by Peter, Paul and Mary, weaver's version. They are near and dear to every choir members around Christmas time, that usually means around October. As a tradition of the GNS, we sing this song as the prelude of all Christmas carols.

Carolling is widely considered to be the most exciting event of GNS. It is quoted by a large number of members as the most memorable event. The reasons are many for this. It is a time for celebration, a time for performing freely, a time for singing on the top of our lungs and out of control, a time for having fun. In the early years - 70s to early 80s, we used to jingle along the streets of Kowloon Tong. But in the late 80's we relocated our singings and fun to Tsim Sha Tsui and Central. During those carollings when we migrated from Tsim Sha Tsui to Central, we would continue to sing while we're on the ferry and it's well received by all the passengers aboard. Since the last few years, we have permanently stationed by the entrance of the Tsim Sha Tsui Star Ferry. Why Tsim Sha Tsui?? Because it is crowded!!We derive a lot of fun and satisfaction using singings to tear down the barriers between strangers. You don't see very often that passerbys in Hong Kong to stop and enjoy or join in our singing. Because of our years of presence carolling at the entrance of the Tsim Sha Tsui Star ferry around Christmas time, it feels as if Christmas is not Christmas without us singing there.

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GoodNewSingers has traditionally helped to sing during weddings. We use our natural voices, guitars and flutes to enhance the warm and lively atmosphere in the sometimes too solemn occassions.

People who invite us to sing for their weddings are usually friends and relatives of our members, old and new, and of course our members themselves too. There are also people who have heard us sing during masses or other weddings, and would think about us when it became their turn to make the vows.

Preparation work is very important. Firstly, the couple will meet with us several months before the wedding day, usually during our 11am practice. We will try out some songs and then they will choose what they want us to sing for them. Some of the songs we usually pick are: The Wedding, Song of the Wounded, Wherever You Go, If You Love Me Really Love Me, He and Peace. Usually, the wedding couple will choose about 3 to 4 songs for ceremonies, which last for about half an hour, or 4 to 5 songs for masses, which last for an hour including the eucharistic prayer. We will also sing the responses, alleluia and The Lord's Prayer as needed, so as to make the wedding as perfect and memorable as we can.

On the wedding day, the GoodNewSingers will be dressed semi-formally to respect the occasion.We will gather together half an hour before the ceremony begins, to practise the songs and finalize the details. After the ceremony, we will be invited to take a photo or two with the couple and to congratulate them. We will then receive red packets from the couple as a reward for the efforts and time we have put in.

We do not necessarily have to stay in St.Teresa's Church for the weddings; we also go to other churches, for example St.Margaret's Church, Rosary Church and the Cathedral.


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Front Lawn

Strike a pose!!! Our all year round outdoor location for crazy... fun ... colorful memorable good stuff. There's no other place in our history with so many choir pictures taken.

The basic rule was..."Do not wear BLACK!!"

 Pastoral Center

Choir's "Holy Place"!! We used to sing for all Christmas, Easter and 1st Communion masses in this Chapel before the masses were relocated to the MCS school hall in the late 1980s. And that was the reason why we picked this place for our "Spirit be our Spirit Farewell Concert" in the summer 1986. We liked to do a cappella songs here!!! Haunted??!!! That's what rumour says?
Favorite street vendor - Cheung Fun Lady!!

There is nothing you can find around the area you can compare to the hot congee and "chu cheung fun". This is the first stop before you step into the perimeter of the choir. Never walk into choir without having a dish of yummy "chu cheung fun"!!... Yummmm!

 Canteen - King Tin restaurant

There used to be a canteen located in the Caritas building by the church. You can call it a canteen, a cafeteria or a food stalk. That was our after mass, after "cheung fun" gathering place. Since we just wanted to kill time before the next choir rehearsal, we would occupy a few tables and begin singing in the canteen. People hated us because we were the noisy bunch but deep down ...they loved us!!
Kam Wah Store

The church is located kind of in the middle of nowhere. Therefore this general store is the actual oasis in the middle of the desert - "Jewel of the 4 ways Intersection" - our last chance for food and drinks after canteen and before climbing up the pebble stone road to Maryknoll.

 South Sky Restaurant

Usually restaurants are closed during holidays. But God is fair. South Sky (Nam Tin) Restaurant became the best location for dinner before Midnight mass and Easter service rehearsals. What's so good about this restaurant?? It was the closest resturant we could find within a mile's radius.

Coffee House

Our only hope for breakfast on Christmas day when..... cheung fun lady had her day off, Canteen and Kim Wah and everywhere else were all ... closed.

 

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