The event will take place in the Churchyard and start with a buffet lunch. This will be followed by fun activities which will be water related, so come prepared to get wet!

TURN ON THE TAP is a campaign for safe accessible water for people in the developing world. Through a range of solutions from hand dug wells, water filters and boreholes to health and hygiene education, we are providing safe, clean water and helping to break the grip of poverty on local communities.

Families are getting safe water to drink. Communities are improving health and sanitation. Children who would otherwise spend all day fetching water are now going to school. Lives are being saved. This challenging project is run by Samaritan's Purse, a non-profit, Christian organisation, which provides church support, emergency relief and development assistance to suffering people around the world. In all their activities they aim to provide hope to communities in desperate need, and through this to show God's love and compassion in many real and practical ways.

Click to view the TOTT video

Our TURN ON THE TAP campaign has already raised hundreds of thousands of pounds to help communities access safe water. But STILL, 1.1 billion people live without access to safe water.

This truly world-class group of sixteen young singers treated the audience to an evening of astounding singing in the beautiful setting of St Bride's.

The first half of the programme included sixteenth century masterpieces by Victoria, Byrd (the appropriately entitled "Laudibus in Sanctis"); a motet by "The Master" JS Bach; and Schütz's "Die mit Tränen" sung with great beauty and feeling by five of the choir selected (astoundingly) from the whole choir only 2 hours before the performance. This half also gave the audience an insight into the Latvian composer Peteris Plakidis, with the final movement of his Choral Symphony with some wonderful lyrical singing by the choir transporting us into an ethereal world of calm and tranquillity - Laudibus will be recording all of this symphony together with other music from the Baltic states, which will be compelling listening when it comes out.

This was the first example of what distinguishes Laudibus from other choirs - their ability to change style and period effortlessly and convincingly. More examples followed in the second half. What better way to re-engage the audience than Michael Finnissey's "O Virga, floriditatem tuam"- spell-binding singing from solo voices spread around the church filling the whole space with sound. Giles Swayne's "Magnificat" powerfully sung and beautifully phrased, followed by Eric Whitacre's magical Lux Aurumque a smooth, rich blend of sounds which showed the incredible balance and ensemble singing of the choir to perfection. The centrepiece of the second half was Bob Chilcott's "Beauty for Ashes" composed for the Service of Rededication for St Bride's and first performed by our own choir in November 2007, and now given its third outing, with the young, agile soprano voices of Laudibus in particular seeming to soar up as if drawing our eyes to the superb interior of the rebuilt church. What a treat for us all!

Laudibus in rehearsal

To end the choir transformed itself into a Gospel choir and "band", the latter going off-stage to come back with their "double-basses" which were then carefully tuned! "Movin'" is a wonderfully innovative piece again devised by Mike Brewer himself, and it gave the choir the opportunity to show-case all its abilities in ensemble and solo singing of great wit and talent. 50 Years On they nearly brought the house down again with the spontaneous applause for an evening of mesmerising charm, musicality and enthusiasm.

Throughout the evening Mike Brewer linked the pieces with informative and amusing introductions and comments , and the evening ended with the NYC signature encore, "Shenandoah".

A wonderful evening of exceptional music sung at the highest level. As our Musical Director, Robert Jones, said in thanking Mike and the Choir, when he is auditioning for our own St Bride's Choir, he looks for the best solo voices with the ability to sing as par of a team - and on a warm night in May he found sixteen of them!

At the end of the celebration of thanksgiving for 50 years since the rededication of St Bride's, we were looking to the future - and at least musically we can be confident that the future of our heritage is in the best of hands and heart: thank you to Mike Brewer and to Laudibus - you have won over many new fans with your marvellous voices, wonderful musicality and boundless enthusiasm.

A commentary by Edward Bevin on a service of thanksgiving to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the rededication of St Bride's in the presence of The Queen and Prince Philip on 28 November 2007

With split-second timing, as befitting the world leader in punctuality, the sound of the trumpets reverberating around the walls and a packed congregation patiently waiting, our Sovereign Lady, her husband at her side, steps once more into the historical limelight of the spiritual home of journalists - St Bride's in Fleet Street.

Queen Elizabeth II, Head of the Anglican church and a truly devout Christian, seemed quite at home as she walked down the aisle with Prince Philip to that marvellously charismatic hymn All People that on Earth do Dwell. As the Royal Couple passed by within inches and I bowed my head, it reminded me (as if I didn't need reminding!) that during this month of November, I had written on these pages about two world icons who had spoken in this great church.

First came John Simpson, the BBC's World Affairs Editor, followed by the BBC's Gaza Correspondent Alan Johnston, to speak after his incarceration of 114 days. And now we are privileged to witness, at close quarters, the modern day world icon to beat all icons.

Our Queen is, of course, a diminutive figure, but with a smile as huge as you will ever see. One would have thought that facing the Nation's press, with whom, let's be frank, her relationships have often been, well, unsatisfactory, she might have left that smile at Buckingham Palace. But oh no, here she was and here it was!

Fifty years ago, almost to the day, this same gracious lady and her husband had walked down that same aisle to the same hymn for the rededication of St Bride's following World War II devastation. The Royal Couple took their places on the south side of the High Altar, picked up their service sheets, and joined in like everyone else. And so, this service of thanksgiving, had begun and a new chapter had unfurled.

View the Order of Service

Canon David Meara, the Rector of St Bride's, in his Bidding, gave thanks for the vision and dedication of those who worked tirelessly to create 'beauty from ashes' in 1957. After the Anthem We wait for Thy loving kindness, O Lord, words selected by Cyril Armitage, Rector during the service 50 years ago, and music composed by William McKie for the marriage of the then Princess Elizabeth and Prince Philip, the reading from Isaiah picked up the same theme - beauty for ashes.

Then came a brand new hymn, being sung for the first time. Canon Michael Saward's words captured sad and glorious moments of the past and the future. The former Chancellor of St Paul's Cathedral will probably never write more stirring and tear-jerking words than these.

After Canon Meara's brief but splendid address using the service's theme, his predecessor at St Bride's, Canon John Oates, dedicated a journalists' memorial book containing names of all those who have died in their relentless pursuit to 'bring us the news.' The Queen and Prince Philip stood and admired the book which is housed in a cabinet made from solid Hertfordshire oak and skilfully crafted by Dr Duncan Gorton and Andrew Farnham, of St Albans.

Then followed a stunning new anthem written by a former member of the Kings Singers. Bob Chilcott's Beauty for Ashes will no doubt be sung in churches and cathedrals up and down the land for years to come. Representatives from the media, the City, the parish and the congregation led the prayers including one for

Our Sovereign Lady the Queen, and his Royal Highness Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh, for 60 years of marriage, and for her long and happy reign.

With the singing of the final hymn, He Who would Valiant be, like the first also used at the previous service, and the National Anthem, it was all over. After six months of careful planning and numerous meetings, masterminded by David Meara, the church administrator James Irving and guild marshal Terence Smith, the historic event was all over in less than 45 minutes.

But there was still time for a dozen or so members of Janet Smith's Sunday school to meet their Queen and for six-year-old Emma Williams to present a bouquet. The children were adorned with colourful sashes bearing the cross of St Bride and were excited, if not bemused by the occasion. One child was heard to question: Is she really a Queen? Where's her crown?

The truth is, the crown may not have been around, but my goodness THAT smile certainly was.

Andrew Farnham & Dr Duncan Gorton at work on the cabinet

In a busy workshop down a leafy lane in the cathedral city of St Albans, two highly-skilled cabinet makers are hard at work on one of the most important and potentially historical commissions they have tackled in their many years of furniture making.

Dr Duncan Gorton

Andrew Farnham, with the Gorton family black cat Wellington

The cabinet begins to take shape

October, the usual month when churches are filled with fruit and vegetables to celebrate harvest festival, St Bride's will be filled with hundreds of newspapers from the UK and abroad to mark its very own unique harvest.

October, the usual month when churches are filled with fruit and vegetables to celebrate harvest festival, St Bride's will be filled with hundreds of newspapers from the UK and abroad to mark its very own unique harvest.

Church officials are confident - with the cooperation of newspaper chiefs - of setting a world record for the maximum number of different physical world newspapers collected and displayed in one place. The target is 2007 different titles, as part of the church's celebrations throughout this year to mark the 50th anniversary of the rebuilding and rededication of St Bride's, in December 1957, after it had almost been bombed to the ground in 1940.

To qualify for inclusion in the record-breaking attempt, only registered newspapers published between Sunday September 2 and Saturday September 8, this year, can be accepted.

St Bride's Church Administrator James Irving says that as soon as publications are received, the front page will be removed and displayed in every available part of the church on Sunday October 14. Inside pages will be bundled into packs of 100 for counting and following an official audit, every single publication will be sent for recycling.

The idea, which St Bride's hopes will attract a great deal of world-wide media interest, has already gained widespread support, including backing from the Newspaper Society, the Commonwealth Press Union, the Society of Editors and the London Press Club.

NOTE TO JOURNALISTS:

St Bride's welcomes all media inquiries. Contact James Irving on 020 7427 0133. e-mail: j.irving@stbrides.com or visit the 50 Years on website at http://www.stbrides.com/fyo/index.html

Here, Brian Braithwaite, a Guild of St Bride member for ten years, John Colley (invested in 1979) and regular worshipper Hugo Dunn-Meynell, relate moving accounts of what it was like to be there, in the heart of the British newspaper industry, with its 'cathedral' church in ruins.

Brian Braithwaite writes:-
I had joined Mercers' School in Holborn in 1938 at the age of 11. When war broke out, the whole school was evacuated to Horsham, where it stayed during the remainder of the war. But my brother and I jumped at the opportunity to come back to London in December 1939 when the school decided to reopen for boys who wished to return to the capital. (In good time for the ensuing Blitz: that irony was capped in our case by the bizarre fact that we had been billeted on a German family!)

My father ran the advertising for J W Benson, the jewellers and watchmakers in Ludgate Hill. When we heard the dreadful news of the catastrophic bombing of the City of London on the night of December 29th, 1940, the family went up from our Chiswick home to check the Ludgate Hill shop and offices. Needless to say that there were no shop or offices - nor much of Ludgate Hill for that matter. The aftermath of that dreadful night was truly harrowing to witness in the cold light of day.

I have such a clear picture in my mind of the smoke, debris and utter destruction of the area. I remember that we walked up to Smithfield market and found ourselves treading on legs of lamb, packets of butter and other foodstuffs. Amongst the extensive damage, we saw the tragedy of St Bride's and the miraculous salvation of St Paul's.

From the age of 13, I have never forgotten the desolation of that morning in the street where I was to spend so much of my life in my subsequent career.

The school, of course, stayed in Holborn during the bombing, with many lessons taking place in the air raid shelter in the basement. During one particularly heavy blitz period, we had compulsory school work at home by correspondence course!

We boys enjoyed the Monday evening swimming sessions at St Bride's Institute Baths, having wended our way through so many ruins and bomb sites.

John Colley writes:-
The nightly bombing to which London was being subjected for those last four months of 1940 made little apparent difference to the way Fleet Street went about its business. The business of producing tomorrow's newspapers was so all-consuming there was little time to think about what was going on above; and that was true not only of those working in the great buildings housing the Nationals, but also in the basements of the scores of London offices of the big Provincial papers. That isn't to say there weren't moments of sheer terror when the ominous whistle of a bomb you knew was going to land close by could be heard, but once the immediate danger was over you just got on with the job that had to be done. It was such a familiar situation that one became hardened to it.

Outside, Fleet Street appeared to be its usual nightly hive of activity and got on with its job as much as circumstances would allow. News vans still dashed off to the London termini, couriers brought Govt hand-outs from the Ministry of Information, messengers from picture and news agencies dodged the shrapnel and bombs as they darted from office to office, even the odd tramp made his nightly call to cadge a cuppa. With most of the newspapers gathered together in an area all around Fleet Street the agencies - PA, Reuters, Ex Tel and the rest - sent the majority of their news through cables strung across the Street to tape machines in subscribing offices, all liable to disruption by bomb and blast - which brought more messengers delivering a hand service.

Night life in the Street at that time centred around the all-night cafes - and there were many of them, all doing good business serving sustaining tea and snacks. Pubs, of course, had to keep to licensing hours, but Fleet Street's two Black and White all-night milk bars did a roaring trade serving hot soup and a great variety of milk shakes!

Occasionally a fire-fighting party of three dodged from building to building, one carrying a bucket of water, one a stirrup pump and the third a hose on their way to put out an incendiary fire. Air Raid Precaution wardens made their nightly calls and public service vehicles on their way to or from 'an incident' were up and down the Street throughout the night. All in all there was hardly a quiet moment, either on the ground or up above!

Philip Gibbs in his book "The Street of Adventure" - a must for every young aspiring journalist before the war - summed up how Fleet Street was when he wrote it and how it was still during the Blitz... "taut with nervous energy". And it was that energy that carried us through those dark days.

Hugo Dunn-Meynell writes:- On Eating and Survival
In addition to dropping high explosives, nearly every night of 1942-43 the Luftwaffe released cascades of incendiary bombs. I, just out of school, became one of the nocturnal Fire Bomb Fighters, colloquially called Fire-Watchers, our function being to inform the authorities if our own building had been hit, and to cope as best we could until the professionals arrived. Strictly speaking, we were conscripts, unlike the specially trained, more regimented Air Raid Wardens.