September 27th 2003, The Clergy Revue - a review
Keen anticipation fuelled the crowds pouring into the City Hall in Sheffield on Friday September 26th. Why?
Well we were about to be treated to the sight of our parish priests "strutting their stuff "as the jargon goes, by revealing their thespian talents. Great gales of laughter greeted the chorus line of thirty or so priests in their white Cafod sweatshirts as they launched into the first number. Merriment continued as we saw our own parish priest (Fr. Roy Pannell) in the hot seat of "Who wants to be a Millionaire?" being grilled by the suave Chris Tarrant ( aka Fr. Shaun Smith). The Bishop joined in with great good humour from the audience as the friend confirming the answer to the dreaded question "What do Sheffield Wednesday supporters call Sheffield United?" The answer, if you didn't already know, is that they never refer to them at all!!! Well done, Bishop John.
Various musical turns had a George Formby lookalike; The Irish Rover played on the tin whistle and reprises of Sixties popstars such as Lonnie Donegan and The Everly Brothers, and selections from the musical "Joseph". Fr. Dennis Norman,from Doncaster, in fine voice, introduced a reflective moment with two songs from Les Miserables but then hilarity resumed as the three tenors did a farcical send-up of Messrs Pavarotti, Carreras and Domingo. There was a tribute to Fr. Basil Rice who died earlier this year at the age of 83 when Fr Terry Phipps sang Danny Boy in what must be one of the best voices in the entire company. Then the Western took over with a fine display of line dancing from the Clergy Cowboys, looking very much the part in their check shirts, leather boots and stetsons. The art critic nun Sr. Wendy Beckett would doubtless have been amused by her namesake, Sr. Trendy, trying to explain the sensual beauty of Monet's Waterlilies painting to a less than serious audience. Her giggle was infectious! Another TV spin off had a Fr. Ted type priest and his friends as a table football team trying to make sense of the fact that they always played the same team! The highlight of the evening was the appearance of The King himself - Elvis Presley ( aka Fr. Terry Doherty from Chesterfield) In his white satin sequinned suit and quiff he looked every inch the young Elvis. His parishioners will never see him in the same light again! The evening was rounded off by slides of smiling faces from people all over the world helped by Cafod as part of our witness to ONE WORLD- ONE FAMILY.
The evening was really enjoyable and we climbed back onto our coach chuckling as we recalled some of the sketches we had just seen. It was great to see so many people from all over the diocese and from our neighbouring dioceses,too. That in itself gave a feeling of being one family. The priests and organisers deserve tremendous credit for giving their time and talents to entertain us. The Director Tish Nicoll received an unexpected gift - the presentation of a medal from the Pope for her dedication and hard work. Bishop John rather wistfully said he wished he knew what her secret was in getting the clergy to do what she wanted, as he would like to know himself! To date the amount raised for Cafod is well over seven thousand pounds - so the show is now closer to the target of raising two hundred thousand pounds in the time it has been running - sixteen years!
