SPIRITS were lifted when a church choir led around 200 singers in a Songs Of Praise concert in Pinner.

The Pinner Association of Churches (PAC) had planned for Sunday's (Sept 4) event to be held at 3pm in Pinner Memorial Park in West End Lane but the ensuing downpour forced the organisers to hastily relocate it to the nearby Roman Catholic Church of St Luke in Love Lane, Pinner.

Joyce Eavis, who played keyboard in the band and was charge of the music, said: "Everybody was very pleased that even though we had to move indoors because of the rain, they enjoyed themselves, and they said how lovely the choir had sounded.

"We had set everything up in the park - the platform, the chairs and the pagodas - but then the rain just fell so heavily that we had to take everything to St Luke's.

"Despite that, the event still went well. We had about 200 people and a choir of 30 drawn from all the churches in Pinner, and a small band, and a small group of gospel sings from the Harrow New Testament Of God Church [in Eastern Avenue, Pinner].

"We sang 15 or so songs and hymns, both traditional and modern. It wasn't really a service in the normal sense, just an opportunity for people to come together and sing, or listen to singing."

The PAC has for the last several years held the Songs Of Praise concert as a follow on to the last of the Pinner Association's outdoor concerts in the same park and this year's event was presented by Reverend Mike Hall, minister at Pinner Methodist Church in Love Lane, Pinner, Canon

Robert Plourde, priest at the Roman Catholic Church of St Luke, and Pastor Winston Lewinson, from Pinner Christian Fellowship.

The Mayor of Harrow, Councillor Mrinal Choudhury, was also in attendance and a retiring collection raised £410 to be split equally between the West House Appeal and the Disaster Emergency Committee's East Africa Appeal.