Music and Christian faith are great bedfellows. That certainly appears to be the experience of Rev Dr Tim Boniface (left in photo above), who is part-time Chaplain at Girton College Cambridge, and in his remaining time, is a professional freelance saxophonist. He also composes music. His composition, ‘Psalter: Themes for Peace’, premiered at St Albans Cathedral in January this year.
Dr Boniface is often asked which profession ‘comes first’. His response: “I am 100% priest and 100% musician….Praying and playing are both rooted in the same place within me, and I don’t think of my life as one part priest, one part jazz musician – the whole is for God”.
At the moment he is working with pianist James Pearson (Director of Ronnie Scott’s, a renowned London jazz venue), currently in residence at the College, to run a programme of jazz workshops and concerts.
“Being a jazz musician is part of my vocation as a Christian person: I am called by God when I am playing just as much as I am when ministering as a Church of England priest”, he says.
Read the full story here.
Photo above: Tim Boniface teams up with former Girton College Chaplain, the poet Malcolm Guite (right in photo above), for an evening of jazz and poetry in May (Girton College, Eacebook site.)
And an interesting tail piece. Did you know that Fr Hilary was Chaplain of Girton College back in the 1980s? He was given his first saxophone as a leaving present by the then Mistress, Professor Mary Warnock!