MORE than 20 lay people from across Cornwall were handed a ‘Cross of St Piran’ award at Perranzabuloe on St Piran’s Day, March 5.

This year’s recipients include an aid worker, a school principal, an environmental campaigner and a church organist.

The awards, introduced by Bishop Tim shortly after his arrival in Cornwall, honour those across the Duchy who have dedicated their lives to carrying out God’s work.

They were presented with their crosses at two ceremonies held at St Piran Church.

Among the recipients were Jennifer Bartlett, of Egloskerry, and Tony and Joyce Davis, from Kilkhampton.

Jennifer Bartlett has played the organ for Egloskerry Church for 54 years. Her Cross of St Piran award not only recognises the fact that the church is a cornerstone of Jennifer’s life, but that Jennifer is also a quietly dependable cornerstone in the life of Egloskerry Church.

She was born in Egloskerry, went to the church as a child, to the Sunday School, sang in the choir and first began playing the organ there. She even celebrated her 50th wedding anniversary there. Jennifer also looks after the graveyard.

Tony and Joyce Davis, who have served their village church, St James, for all their married life, were nominated for the award by the Rev Richard Ward-Smith.

Tony began serving as a choirboy, progressing to bell-ringing and today is the Tower Captain. He’s been involved in all aspects of church life, including church warden and chairman of the PCC.

Joyce has served on the parish council and village committee. She can usually be found in the thick of countless church activities organising teas for events like Messy Church, harvest festival and the flower festival. Most recently Joyce worked with a team to provide more than 100 cooked roast lunches for the village to celebrate Candlemas.

Dr Geoffrey Gibbons of St Tudy Church, which is now joined together with the parishes of St Breward and Blisland, was also awarded the Cross of St Piran.

Captivated by the music his organist father played, Geoffrey was just seven when he was allowed to accompany his father wherever he went to play.

Becoming a choir-boy a year later ensured the roots for his love of church music were deeply embedded so that, aged only 19, he was ready to take up his first organist appointment. That was in 1946.

More than seven decades later, having been a church organist from Edgbaston to Egypt, he is still an organist, playing for the congregation of St Tudy.

Just as Geoffrey mastered the intricacies of playing the organ, co-ordinating and harmonising the pedalboards, keyboards and the timbre of the pipes, so too did he master a career in the law.

A solicitor in private practice in the West Midlands, Geoffrey went on to serve in many roles within the legal system including becoming Deputy District Registrar and Deputy Circuit Judge.

Geoffrey suffered a collision of cultures in 1984 when serving as mayor in Solihull. With his wife, Hazel, they accompanied HRH Princess Diana to a concert ‘by someone called Neil Diamond’. Shuddering as he recalls, he says: “We were duty bound to stand up every time Her Royal Highness did — and she was extremely excitable and stood up a lot!”

Geoffrey is passionate about the organ and its place within worship, so much so that after arriving in St Tudy in 2002, he helped to raise almost £40,000 to rebuild the organ.

“You can put a congregation to sleep with sluggish playing, or you can inspire them with imagination,” he said.

Knowing the audience is very important to Geoffrey too, as he explains: “I’ll know if there is someone in church who is perhaps remembering the anniversary of a death of a loved one, so I’ll play something that was particular to them.”

In the same way, he loves to play Elgar’s Nimrod at a funeral because it starts off in a solemn way but builds to a huge climax, “With as much organ as you can get, celebrating the life lived.”