Something to SHOUT! about

Yesterday was a day for discoveries.

Three new things to discover and they are all interlinked (well, kind of...)

Firstly, I discovered a new beach I didn’t know existed - Praia da Adraga.

Tucked underneath the lighthouse of Cabo da Roca, and the westernmost beach of continental Europe, it’s a jewel of a pirate cove with deep blue waters, shelving sands, caves and sharp rocky outcrops. With a few hours to kill on a June afternoon while Anna attended a board meeting in Rio do Mouro in nearby Sintra, I found my way down there and was immediately captivated. Well worth the effort to get there.

Secondly, I discovered that Primark exists in Portugal . in a brand new shopping centre in the northern suburban sprawl of the city.

This we had in fact discovered a few weeks ago, much to Anna’s delight – Irish styles and Irish prices. So today (and here’s the albeit tenuous link) in order to appear presentable at a concert that we were to attend that evening in the Centro Cultural de Belem, and having just crawled out of the surf at Praia da Adraga and without sufficient time to make it home to change and back again, a visit to Primark (shirt €7, trousers €5, comb €1) was considered appropriate.

Thirdly, I discovered a new kind of sound. a Portuguese version of Gospel music.

The concert we were to attend was be a group named SHOUT! And we were there on the invitation of our good friend Maria, whose colleague at work was one of the 9 girls and 4 guys who made up the choir. Sung from the heart, amazing harmonies, very well presented and with a central focus on the name of Jesus, this was a real blessing to experience It is unusual to find in today’s Portugal any form of Christian music achieving such prominence. Usually, in the popular mindset it is relegated to the ranks either of either dull hymns droning in dusty cathedrals, or off-the-wall Pentecostal ravings from Brazil. But this was professional, measured, rich and above all enjoyable. Openly enjoyable to the performers who were having a great time, and infectiously enjoyable to us also, the audience.

My only observation, is that they have adopted a musical genre that is still distinctly foreign, belonging as it does traditionally to black American culture. I’m sure that it could and should be developed with time into an authentic Portuguese sound that could become a dynamically creative musical expression of personal faith and hope in Christ for this generation. Portugal certainly needs it.


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q59FIQ19Gp0&feature=related