About Phil Read-Shaw

As the result of a remarkable experience in Medjugorje on the 31st October 1999 (the eve of All Souls) I felt moved to join the Catholic Church.

The experience of Medjugorje was so important to me that I felt as many people as possible should go there; I began to try and devise ways to enable young people to go there, too.

I also wanted to try to raise funds to support the local orphanage. But the cost of flying there from the UK was about £400 (some US$600) which I felt was way beyond the means of most teenagers.

Using my normal 'businessman's head' I evolved a plan, which had, in part, been suggested by yet another re-run of the old Cliff Richard musical movie from the 1960's called Summer Holiday. (The film, you may recall, featured a group of youngsters driving around Europe on an old London 'double-decker' bus.)

I figured that we could create an orchestra and choir and call it:

'Our Lady Queen of Peace Orchestra and Chorus'

reasoning that we could hire a couple of coaches commercially the cost of which could be met in full by mounting a series of concerts in the UK prior to departure.

I worked out a route which would take three days, allowing for concerts in Paris, Strasbourg, Munich and Salzburg with over-night stops so that the youngsters would have time to explore and relax.

In all, I calculated, we would need to raise about £150 per youngster to cover the pilgrimage.

But there remained one major problem:

'I' had evolved a way to get eighty youngsters to Medjugorje; but 'I' was in no position to underwrite the cost of the project. It was way beyond my limited financial resources, so 'we' would have to make it happen.

I set about trying to persuade anyone at all who would listen to take on the project. Unfortunately - or, perhaps, fortunately as it transpired - finding minimal support for the idea, I left it on the 'back-burner' to be prayed over.

Over the next twelve months or so, I started to think about the sort of programme that such an Orchestra and Chorus might offer. It became increasingly clear to me, though, that, unless it was something quite unique, only friends and family of the youngsters would support the concerts.

The programme, I finally realised, had comprise work of a quality that might, however inadequately, go some way towards expressing my devotion to Our Lady Queen of Peace. But, the more I thought and prayed about it, I realised, too, that it must be absolutely 'accessible' - able to appeal to the very widest possible audience.

Furthermore, rather than just trying to attract people to Medjugorje, it should also serve to inspire them to experience and learn the lessons of Medjugorje.

I was forced, then, to acknowledge a second major problem:

Whilst I could attempt to tell the story of Medjugorje by highlighting the messages of Our Lady Queen of Peace, I didn't have a musical bone in my body; indeed, when I tried to pick out a few simple melodies on my daughter's keyboard, that simple truth became all-too abundantly clear. This was never going to work.

At my wits' end, I picked up the phone to call my brother, Mike.

As a result of our disparate upbringings Mike and I had hardly contacted each other from one year to the next (especially since my family and I now live in the north of England, while Mike and his live at its south-easternmost tip.)

We all have gifts; mine, in this instance, was to have this particular brother. A gifted musician, Mike was the only person I had ever met who might, conceivably, possess the talent and ability to compose and orchestrate a full Oratorio!

The music of 'The GOSPA Oratorio' was written note by note by Mike in just eight months.

The conductor's score runs to just under 200 pages.

It is truly an inspired work of love - a gift to Our Lady, Queen of Peace.