St. Anthony’s Church is blessed with 4 English Choirs and 1 Urdu Choir.  The Senior Choir is the brainchild of Sr. Mary Langan, RJM, (formerly known as Sr. Geraldine) and has been in existence since 1983.  At that point in time the choir comprised of 40 members; a few of them are still part of the Choir.   Since then, leaders, conductors and choristers have changed due to migration or other personal reasons.  The choir also lost two of the senior most members namely John Fernandes and Leslie D’Souza, who have joined their Creator (May their souls rest in peace).

The choir continues to function as per the teachings and guidance of their mentor, Sr. Mary Langan, and actively participates in the various church ceremonies/services, such as Christmas Eve vigil, Thanksgiving and New Year’s Eve, Tridium, First Holy Communions/Confirmation as well as singing for bilingual services in close coordination with the Urdu Choir for feast day services – St. Anthony of Padua and Our Lady of Vailankanni. The seasons of Advent, Christmas, Lent and Tridium services always calls for extra and at times long practice sessions.

The choir is committed to singing for the 9.00 am Sunday service.  The members meet at 7.00 pm every Saturday for practice.  The Senior Choir is blessed with 3 talented musicians, Patricia Mendes, Sheena Moniz and Pierina Pereira.  Nolasco Moniz currently conducts the singing with the guidance and help of Aloysius Soares and Bella Coelho. The choir has a core group that manages responsibilities as well as for selecting hymns for the various services.

Pre-covid days, the Senior Choir consisted of 22 members.  Covid-19 created a huge void, ceasing activities in Churches around the world for almost 6 months (March-August 2020).   The Senior Choir also suffered and experienced a dip in members.  After the long gap, services resumed in September 2020, but the strength of the choir reduced to 11 members only (50%).  Currently, the senior choir consists of 17 members – out of which 15 of them are psalmists.

The Senior Choir is always on the look-out for new members and takes this opportunity of inviting parishioners to come forward and join the Choir Ministry of St. Anthony’s Church.