In late August, during the monsoons of the year 2007, as in every church our church was also having Our Lady of Vailankanni novena. Three boys got together to sing for the novena. Since they did not have much knowledge of how a choir sings as a group, they were pathetic. That evening after the mass a young girl volunteered to help them out, and she approached a young boy from St.Xavier’s Collegiat
e School and a fellow parishioner to take over and lead the group just for the period of the novena. And so it happened, as the days of the novena passed, the number of singers increased everyday, the young parishioners came forward and by the final day the choir strength was ten and indeed the singing was good. The group had no intentions of singing for the church after the novena, but God had other plans for them. The very next day the choir was asked to sing for a special mass organized by the Fatima Apostolate of the church. They sang beautifully and the parish priest approached the head asking them to sing for the church regularly and take over the 9:15 Sunday morning mass, to which the whole group agreed. And so it all began, the journey which has lasted for over nine years till date and which will carry on as long as God wants it to be. Though many new members have come, old have left and a few faithful old members joined back, we have kept moving on. There have been masses when the choir master had to sing alone or with just one more member, but still we have gone through thick and thin. People, down the years, have tried to put the faithful down. But the one with God’s blessing stands. GENESIS, like every other group, has faced problems, controversies, rumours and misunderstandings caused by others, but they all have failed always as GENESIS is a family which has been bounded together by our Lord Himself and as long as His blessings our upon us no one can stand against us. Over the years we have been singing for weddings, baptisms, funerals etc and the money which we have collected has been capitalized by buying equipment for the group like microphones, lead wires etc. We also use this money for our get-togethers and parties. We go for our Annual Picnic on the 23rd of January every year. Our group as it stands today, comprises 21 members:-
Our leading ladies: Margaret Gomes, Vineta White, Sharon Gomes, Benoite Singh, Teresa D'Rozario, Esther Reberio, Jessica Das, Caroline, Maria and our
Leading male vocalists: Alan Anthony, Pronoy Gomes, Sourabh Mondal, Arthatron Biswas, Julian Gomes, Roland Gomes, Lawrence Rozario, Shourav Biswas, Kaushik. Our instrumentalist is Franco Gomes at the keyboard. And last but not the least the Choir Master, Adrian Phillips leading from the front. Just recently on the Feast of Our Lady on the 8th of September 2016 we celebrated our 9th Anniversary. When all of us come together as one we are know as GENESIS. Together we stand Singing Praises to the Lord. We pray that we should be able to sing till our very last breath. God bless.
