News 2010
July 30: Catholic Education Week ends at St Mary's, Beaudesert, home of "I LIght A Candle": Two years ago, when I was visiting St Mary's, I had a few quiet moments and inspired by a prayer written by Jill Gowdie, came up with the song "I Light A Candle". St Mary's love the song and sing it beautifully. I had the great privilege of leading the singing at their Catholic Education Week Mass in their grand old weatherboard church. Below you can see the fabulous choir who are led by the very talented Ros Gillespie.
Ella here was the star of the night concert with her groovy moves and her spellbinding fishface. And we had a few more fish who wanted to be part of the gallery too! Great singing from all the choir, especially from Millie, Kaitlin, Emily and Mikayla. And thanks to Eamon for being a great roadie!
July 29: Celebrating with St Kieran's, Brighton- Chinn and Mangan sing a duet!!!: This was my third visit to St Kieran's in three years, having shared their feast day and Christmas celebrations with them in the past. The day started so beautifully with the gift of a card from Beth with a bit of help from Sidonie. Beth was great at doing a toothless gopher face! Some of the students are performing at a Bayside Catholic Schools event on Sunday and they're going to sing my Mary MacKillop song, "A Cross of Stars". Brenna and Hannah took the lead vocals and were simply stunning. And then I had the great fortune to meet Sophie Mangan, daughter of the famous Michael Mangan and I asked her if we could sing my favourite Michael Mangan song, "Light of my Life". She has a breathtakingly beautiful voice and it was an honour to sing such a great song with her. Sophie does some performance art work with the children of St Kieran's.
I caught up with my old friend Luke and his cousin Ashlee at the end of the day and then my old pal Lois came by to say hello. I don't remember many people's names when I come back to schools but I remember Lois (and Coralie, Ingrid, Deborah and now Tatiana). He and Luke helped with load-out. Unfortunately my favourite berry in the world, Hannah Berry, no longer goes to St Kieran's but I asked her brother to say hello for me. Thanks St Kieran's and especially the beautiful Mrs Mac for letting me a small part of your school life!
July 28: Catholic Education Week in Toowoomba at Mater Dei: What a beautiful school and a memorable night! I had a dream day at Mater Die in 2007 and this visit lived up to my expectations as I made the early morning drive up the range. Gene, the guitar player on the right, was one of the first students I had the pleasure to meet. He has a voice that can sing the manly, deep stuff, and then can easily reach the higher soprano notes with his boy voice. Milly, with the fabulous pick-me smile sent me this note and I loved her picture of me. The colourful lady is the unforgettable Jane Loveday, one of the most generous and life-giving people I've met in my travels. She is an amazing cook who fed me all day. For the first time in a while I had a support act, called "Woodside" who played a pretty impressive original song.
Here are Bronte, Laurel, Nina and Julia and their special guest showing me their family fish faces. Perhaps the biggest thrill of the day was getting flowers! Thank you so much to Eden for giving them to me. I've actually kept them alive for two whole days! Many great singers but Stella was probably the find of the day.
July 27: Where the Rainbow Song Began, Christ the King, Deception Bay: Very early in 2003, just after I'd begun my full-time music ministry I visited Christ the King School in Deception Bay. The day I visited my name was up on the school board (I think it was the first time ever!) which cause me to look up at the school's motto, "Side by Side We Grow", and its logo, a rainbow. I tucked the idea away in my head and with some help from the APRE at the time, Alicia McFerran, as well as some children at St Joseph's, Warragul, in Victoria, and my old pal Kellie in Te Aroha, New Zealand, I came up with "Rainbow". You can see that the rainbow is still a vibrant part of their culture. It was great to share the song, which is now song across Australia, New Zealand, the USA and Canada, with the school that initially inspired it.
July 26: Our Lady of the Assumption, Enoggera: OLA is a great welcoming school. As well as the sign, there were many students who went out of the way to say hello, but especially Laura and Mary! A truly outstanding choir and the best Year 3 and 4 singers of the year so far I think. Special thanks to Liam and Alex for their singing, to Meg and Brooke for their energy, Jasmine for the hair moves, and Tristan for the bow! Happy Birthday Ella and thanks for the cake!
July 24: Bronek and Francine and the Big Potato! On Friday night I picked up Bronek and Francine Korczynski. Many years ago I sent a gift of some of my CDs to a place in Canada that I used to live in, Kingston, Ontario. When I was in Los Angeles in March, I was amazed when Bronek walked up to say hello because I recognised his name as being the person who I had sent those CDs to. Since then we've arranged for me to visit schools in Kingston next March. Bronek and Francine's son Michael lives in Sydney and so they've been here in Australia visiting him and having a holiday. We took the opportunity to bring them to the Highlands for part of the weekend. Not only did we all go on the Amazing Illawarra Fly Tree Walk but they also saw the Big Potato in Robertson!!
July 22-23: St Paul's, Moss Vale and St Mary's, North Sydney: Every time I go back to St Paul's at Moss Vale, the singing just gets better and better. Eric and Kate were outstanding but the whole choir were just fabulous. We had a big turn out for a cold winter's night in the Highlands and I got to catch up with some old friends like Kathryn and Sarah as well as meet a few new ones like Chelsea- well we had met before but a long time ago.
Check out this fish face! One of the best of the year and Jacob's in the running for gopher of the year too. My working week finished at St Mary's North Sydney, which is just up the road from Mary MacKillop Place in North Sydney. We're hoping to launch our new picture book, "St Mary MacKillop- Beneath A Cross Of Stars" on September 2 with some help from the children at St Mary's. Some great singing from Paloma and her sisters as well as Maddie and Angelo.
July 21: Rainbow News from St Mary Magdalen's, Elizabeth Park: I received this beautiful photo from Eugenia Stopyra who is the REC at two schools in Adelaide's north. She sent me this photo of a liturgy at St mary Magdalen's, who I visited earlier in the year. Eugenia's explanation of the photo is below.
Explanation of the Rainbow:
Behind us on our wall is a rainbow of hands. All the students and staff members are represented by this colourful decoration. The hands represent the way we work, play and pray together. The hands represent the way we help each other at school, at home and how we reach out to help others in our community and the wider world. We used Rainbow and These Hands to support this message.
July 19-20: Adelaide: I flew into Adelaide for what would have to be one of the most spectacular venues for a Staff Development Day, right on Glenelg Beach with the staff of Star of the Sea School, Henley Beach. I worked with some terrific teachers as well as the Parish Priest, Fr John and Joan Walshe, the parish Sacramental Co-ordinator.
We shared lots of strategies for teaching Religious Education as well as some thoughts on what makes a Catholic School Catholic. The mini-tour finished with a trip to St Joseph's School in Tranmere, where I had visited many years ago. I really loved the choir adn the great joy the whole school sang with but especially the amazing children of the 1/2 class!
July 16-17: Holidays and more food faces from Eleanor! We spent the last couple of days looking around Warrnambool. We saw some whales just off Logan's Beach and we collected a couple more of Eleanor's food faces. The lighthouse shot is taken on the bay at Warrnambool where there is some spectacular wild scenery.
Eleanor and I got up early on Saturday and saw the sunrise hit the Anglican Cathedral before we jumped on the ferris wheel for a spectacular Saturday morning view of Melbourne and the Yarra River. We managed to bump into our friend John Burland in one of the coffee alleys and caught up with him over a cup of coffee.
July 15: St Patrick's, Port Fairy: Port Fairy is a beautiful town on the southern coast of Victoria, home of the Port Fairy Folk festival every March. Some of my greatest musical heroes have performed here over the years: Mick Thomas, Paul Kelly and Eric Bogle. St Patrick's is a beautiful school with lovely new facilities. We shared a fabulous evening concert together with one of the highlights being Bridie and Matisse singing the Irish Blessing. Thanks to Liam, Jade,Kiera, Brigid and especially Blair, Crystal and Ayesha.
July 14: St Thomas', Terang: Cows! This one lives up on a raised ceiling in the school hall at St Thomas's School Hall! And a rainbow shone over the grand Anglican church across the road. The children and their music teacher Maree shared their lovely school song, written by Maree with the help of the children to celebrate the 100th anniversary of the school.
And this is Paddy Bourke, one of the real characters of St Thomas, indeed in all of Terang! Paddy told me that the number one rule in his Grade 6 class is "Never listen to Paddy Bourke"! Laneice had a very special fish face and thanks to Meg and Lucretia for their great work in being music captains and organising the choir for me, And William was a pretty good fuzzy-wuzzy too!
July 13: St John's, Dennington: First stop on the Warrnambool tour was St John's at Dennington. The stars of the day were Jackson and Maggie among many others. The beautiful Preps took some time to write some news about our day together. Any questions??
July 11-12: On Tour in Victoria: We headed down to Victoria for a night in Melbourne before heading west to Warrnambool. Had a night right on the Yarra River and then Eleanor extended her artistic skills with another food face at a bakery in Colac.
July 5-12: Home, Holidays and Mary MacKillop: Spent the week getting our St Mary MacKillop book ready for the printers. Lots of edits and reviews. Click on the picture below and you'll see some of the pages from the book. Eleanor had a few days at a "Clay Magic" workshop at Cloud Farm in Robertson and we celebrated our grandson Xavier's first birthday too. We also had a visit from our friends the Mercers from Adelaide.
July 2-4: On holidays in Perth: We love Perth so much that we decided to use some frequent traveller points and stay on for a couple of days holiday. On Friday we caught up with Sr Maree Riddler who runs the Mary MacKillop centre in South Perth. She gave us a very personal tour of the centre and we gave her a sneak preview of our new Mary MacKillop book- she loved it!
On the weekend we toured the sights of Perth, including the newly refurbished and spectacular St Mary's Cathedral. We visited the WA Museum and finally got to see the Pompeii exhibition. We spent a couple of hours at the WA Art Gallery and Eleanor made her very own contribution to the self-portrait section. And finally we made a reeturn visit to the Perth Mint.
July 1: St Pius X Manning: Home of Lachie and the little Lachies! They love their singing at St Pius at Manning. It's been a long time since I've seen a group of Year 6 boys sing like these ones! I can see David and Lachie and Dylan in the cast of Jersey Boys in the years to come. You can see from the last picture that the teachers love to perform. Mr T even sacrifices his time off class to be part of his class's Edudance moves! And when your teachers have such life, love and energy, it's sure to be infectious!
I met a girl called River so I had to give her a present of my book, "I Am The River"! Here's Lachie and Georgia who were stars of the day and night. Thanks to the Sarahs, to Isaac with the best "Pick Me Smile" and to Liam and everyone for a great day and night!
June 30: The Official launch of "A Journey Through The Bible In Song" at Good Shepherd, Kelmscott: Today was my third visit to Good Shepherd so I decided with Mrs Newman that it might be a good time to launch my new concert, where we start the concert "In The Beginning" at Genesis, then work our way through songs from the old testament (Arky, Arky) including the prophets (Micah and Isaiah) and the into the Gospels, telling the story of Jesus in song, and finishing with Shine Among Them. I was really pleased with how it went and the way the choir supported me was outstanding as it is whenever I visit Good Shepherd. Western Australia is one of the most musically blessed parts of Australia and New Zealand in terms of Catholic Education and how it supports quality music through teachers like Mrs Newman.
The day started with a bit of a songwriting session with Tarra, Paris and the poet's gang. They were helping me come up with ideas for a song for a charity called "Love Angels". I think we made some good progress! Good Shepherd has the best girls' socks in Australia- I love them so much that last time I was here they gave me a pair which I still have. Thanks to Jessica for the jingling hair, to Tony for those magnificent eyebrow moves, and to my old pal Jack Newman, for dodging the magpies to come and say g'day.
At the end of the concert the Year Threes held up their Andrew Chinn posters for me to see. They were really thoughtful- not only because of the pictures but the words they wrote around the outside about how they felt about our time together.
June 29: Happy Perthday Eleanor! It was a grand birthday surprise for Eleanor. We told her we were going out for dinner but we didn't tell her we were going to Perth! We got on the Qantas A330 bound for Perth. Eleanor used her DSI to draw pictures of planes and did a pretty good job too.
When we got to Perth we shared Eleanor's birthday with our good friends, the Newmans, the Bogonis and the Oorschot families at a pizza place called Sebastian's. I think Eleanor would rate it as her best birthday, I mean, Perthday, so far. Diana Newman made these spectacular cakes, pink for Eleanor and chocolate for John. You can see Emma and Annie who have sung on my albums in the past, and there's Eloise, my dancing partner, and my old pal, funny man, Joseph.
June 25: St Augustine's, Coffs Harbour: St Augustine said "When you sing you pray twice". And at Coffs Harbour we had a memorable day together. It was just amazing to look from one end of the church to the other and seeing everyone so involved. I especially loved looking down the back and seeing the Year 6s more involved than anyone- thanks Carter and the gang and Happy Birthday Tahlia.
June 24: St Mary's Bellingen: This was my fourth visit to St Mary's. On my last visit we wrote their school song "Live In Harmony". And the REC is Carmel Daggar, the beloved aunt of Claire Mannes from St Peter's Coleambally, who I dedicated "You Are My Rock" to. Had a great fun day with Paddy who can sing and move. I had the best conductors ever: check out their amazing introduction below:
It's A Girl! While I was working with Kindergarten and Year 1 and 2, the principal, Mrs Triglone came in and said "It's a girl!". It was her way of announcing that Julia Gillard had become Australia's first female and redheaded Prime Minister. My local paper rang me to get a redhead reaction and ran this story on Friday:
June 23: St Patrick's, Macksville: I have such fun memories of my day at Macksville in 2007. On that day we managed to get a photo of Katarina, who still reigns as the best fish face-fuzzy wuzzy bear ever! My day started with Moriah and Evronia. They had to miss most of the day because they were going to the Macksville Eisteddfod (it takes of years of practice to spell that correctly!). So I made them my special guests who sang their way through the infants workshop with me- just brilliant. And here's my namesake Andrew, who had many faces and is a real showman as is the fabulous MIchaela, except she's show-woman.
Fuzzy-wuzzy is still a strong suit at St Patrick's! And thanks to Bron who sent me some great photos of the day. I love the Rainbow shot from above!
June 22: Mary Help Of Christians, Sawtell: It's been about 8 years since I've been to MHOC. There were many highlights but the best of all was young Noah who became a bit of a star on the day. His mum rang me the next day to tell me that Noah was always a bit nervous about standing up in front of people but our day together had given him new found confidence- now that made my day!
June 21: Lismore Diocese: St Anthony's, Kingscliff: The week began with some old friends at St Anthony's School in Kingscliff just on the New South Wales side of the border on the Gold Coast. I caught up with Ciara, Aidan and Fiona who I had dinner with a couple of years ago. Ciara's becoming a very good little singer.
June 15-18: Three Dioceses in four days! I flew into Melbourne late on Monday night to work with the staffs from St Jude's, Langwarrin and St Augustine's, Baxter. After I overcame my technical difficulties we had a great day and proved again that no-one sings and moves like a Prep/kindergarten teacher!
Last time I visited St Mary's, Mooroopna, I described it as the red-head capital of Victoria. Not so many anymore but what is amazing about St Mary's is the quality of their liturgical movement. So good is it that they have a team leader, Maddie, who works with guidance from the REC, John Gibson. Maddie wrote a lovely speech of thanks:
"On behalf of St. Mary's school Mooroopna, we'd like to thank you, Andrew for coming all the way to Mooroopna. We have really enjoyed your visit and are really glad to have the opportunity to sing with you and learn new songs. Your songs are a BIG part of our school community. We use them all the time, in the morning at prayer, assemblies and school masses.
We also use your songs to make up liturgical dances. We have used your DVDs to make up “actions” and they have really helped us to make up new movements. Your songs are very meaningful and are really fun to learn!
We have known your songs since prep, and one of our favourite songs was, and still is, the Rainbow song. We know that we will continue to hear, and learn a lot more of your fantastic songs. So once more we’d like to thank you, Andrew Chinn, for coming all the way to Mooroopna, to help us learn more about you, and your songs.
MAY GOD BE IN YOUR HEART, AS MUCH AS YOU HAVE HELPED GOD TO BE IN OURS."
The week finished with visits to St Kilian's in Bendigo where I got to perform in the oldest weatherboard church in Australia! And on Friday I wrapped up the week at St Augustine's in Maryborough, where Jack was one of many stars.
June 7-11: Sacred Heart Week and a song for Our Lady Star Of The Sea, Terrigal: I celebrated Sacred Heart week at two schools starting with Sacred Heart at Villawood. We had a great fun day and special thanks to the boys in the choir and to the fabulous Mikayla.
From there to Terrigal where I got to work writing a school song and received some terrific assistance from the leaders and poets of the school. And a couple couldn't resist showing me their amazing faces! And the week finished with some of the best behaved children anywhere, the children of Sacred Heart in Mt Druitt. On the right you can see Bol and his mates doing the Bol Bow. Bol is a real star and has some amazing moves.
May 18-28: New Zealand part 2: May 28, Homeward Bound: After eleven days away from home I made the trip from Rotorua to Auckland International Airport, stopping off at the tim dog at Tirau and saw the big tin Moses as well!
May 27: St Joseph's Opotiki: I made my way across the Bay of Plenty in the early hours to beautiful Opotiki, where I was received by a beautiful welcome party. Cilla Raukawa is one of the teachers at St joseph's who is passionate about her music and faith and passes this on to those she teaches. They showed me some beautiful movements, especially one to Jane Mitchell's Gifts.
May 26: St Thomas More's, Mt Maunganui- and the lights stayed on! Four years ago when I visited St Thomas More the little girl on the left put a stop to the concert as a toddler when she turned off the power! She was a lot more involved this time around! there were lots of Rainbows about as the children were asked to dress colourfully. And Noah is in the middle, he of many voices and faces and moves!
May 25: St Joseph's Hamilton- getting ready for "Hug-a-Ginga Day"! Friday is Hug-a-Ginga Day in New Zealand and St Joseph's was a great place to be to get ready for it. As I arrived there was a parking spot right in front of the Australian flag and a beautiful rainbow in the sky- waht a welcome! As well as the redheads there was an extremely talented young guitarist called...Andrew!
May 24: St John's, Mairangi Bay: On my first visit to New Zealand I went to St John's and have been going back every couple of years since with this being my fifth visit. They have an outstanding singing culture. Several St John's children have sung on my albums and they were part of my last DVD, Come Dance With Me. And now they're part of my new project, "St Mary MacKillop- Beneath A Cross Of Stars". Here is one of the sample art pieces they have provided. We had a grand evening concert, with many gophers!
May 22-23: On Tour In New Zealand: I spent the weekend with my dear friends Martin and Ila Wehipeihana. We did some sightseeing in and around Cambridge, which is a lot like my home town of Bowral. The highlight of the weekend was seeing my first live kiwi at the Kiwi House at Otorohonga. They're surprisingly aggressive birds! Otorohonga also has a laneway dedicated to "Kiwiana" -all things distinctly New Zealand: Pavlova (yes, they really did invent it, not us Aussies), the All Blacks, the haka, and of course Sir Ed Hillary.
May 21: the last of the three St Patrick's: Taupo: We started the day singing in the rain- well it was sprinklng a little as we sang a morning prayer together. I collected a couple of more gophers and during the afternoon concert these two toddlers, one of whom was Riccardo, were the grooviest all, so groovy I had to give them a gift CD.
May 20: St Patrick's, Taumarunui: On the beautiful winding journey from Hamilton to Taumarunui I stopped to get this photo of the mist over Te Kuiti. St Patrick's is a school full of musical talent, including the teachers. The young fella on the end is not only a great mover but also a very good little singer too. And check out these beautiful glasses!
May 19: Catholic Schools Day: The Hamilton Diocese has been one of the most supportive of any Diocese over these last few years. It was a real delight to be asked to be part of their Catholic Schools Day celebrations. The day began with a Mass in the Cathedral with Bishop Denis. I wrote a song for the occasion and in a mighty trans-Tasman effort Taylor from St Peter's Catholic School in Cambridge learnt the song after I sent it to her over the email. I was surrounded by old friends: Susie McCreery, the famous Molly and Nicole from St Peter Chanel.
From the Cathedral the schools gathered their banners and marched across the bridge over the Waikato to the museum for an outdoor concert with Molly and children from Catholic schools all over the Diocese.
May 18: A Musical Pilgrimage- St Patrick's, Te Awamutu: This was the school where Neil and Tim Finn of Spilt Enz and Crowded House fame completed their primary education. After a a great day of singing together with Kitiana and the gang I headed up to look at a really terrific local museum display about the Finn Brothers. Thanks to Emily for the butterflies!
May 8-17: Home week at last! here's a few pictures from a really relaxing week at home: a day out at Lake Alexandra; a possum in main street Bowral, and my granddaughter Eden at the local library.
May 6-7: Hamilton Diocese Conference in Rotorua: The week finished with a breakfast at my favourite cafe in New Zealand: the Fat Dog in downtown Rotorua!
I spent Thursday and Friday working with the principals and Directors of Religious Studies of the Hamilton Diocese. We shared a few songs and strategies and had Bishop's hour with Bishop Denis. I played and sang with Anthony Mills from St Thomas More, a pretty talented young teacher.
May 5: St Michael's Rotorua, home of Makese and Georgia: Five years ago, there was a young five-year-old groover at St Michael's who amazed everyone with his moves, especially to "The Walking Out The Door Song". And now he's an eleven-year-old groover, still called Makese!. Thanks to Georgia for the leaf and her lovely face.
May 4: Star Wars Day at St Mary's! May The Fourth Be With You! I was told today that with at least two people I was more popular than Justin Beiber- thanks girls! And after singing Happy Birthday to her at Mystery Creek in Hamilton in 2005, I got to catch up with my dear old friend Molly, whose story I have told many, many times over.
May 3: From Bowral to Rotorua: Flying out of Sydney I captured the sun rising through early morning clouds. Then later on in the day as I drove from Auckland to Rotorua this amazing rainbow straddled the sky.
April 30: Mary MacKillop and Tenison Woods- a one day pilgrimage:
