By Tamara King, Staff Reporter 
A scene from the play 'Amazing Grace', the 30th anniversary production of Father Ho Lung and Friends.
THE FATHER Ho Lung and Friends Music Ministry yesterday launched their 30th anniversary production of the play, Amazing Grace.
The event took place at the Grace Kennedy Multi-function Room, located at the company's Harbour Street headquarters. There, media personnel were treated to video clips of the upcoming production. They also listened to the spirited singing associated with Father Ho Lung and Friends.
Amazing Grace will run for approximately three weeks. All the performances will take place at the Little Theatre on Tom Redcam Drive, Kingston.
According to Fr. Richard Ho Lung, the founder of Missionaries of the Poor, Amazing Grace is the portrayal of the life of a Jamaican woman, Grace Christie, which centres around her response to the death of her son, who was killed on his way to school on July 25, 2001.
Father Ho Lung, who is the producer and composer of the play, said, "The musical drama Amazing Grace takes the single event of Grace Christie's heroic forgiveness of her son's slayer as the centre and axis of the play. Most of the other events and characters in the drama I created, taking the liberty of poetic license to depict the struggles of our people and contrary principles in their lives in our tumultuous modern times."
Mr. Alwin Bully, the guest speaker at the event, spoke while 'wearing two hats'; one as the artistic director of Amazing Grace and the other as the senior programme specialist for culture at United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation (UNESCO). He told the audience, "Over the years, Father Ho Lung's music and dramatic work have been completely in keeping with UNESCO's culture of peace programme, which has been carried out at several levels in our schools, in the arts and cultural programmes, in youth groups and even in prisons."
He further stated that Amazing Grace addresses the subject of peace in a way that is deeply serious yet the production is highly entertaining. He stressed that this is the hallmark of great theatre.
"The ability to teach and entertain at the same time, was established as the essence and purpose of theatre a few thousand years ago by the Greek philosopher, Aristotle. In his dramatic work, Father Ho Lung, does so effortlessly. In each of his productions, the story and style are very different but the message is always the same. Peace and love, unity and understanding, tolerance and forgiveness, justice, love and care for the poor," Mr. Bully told the audience.
Mr. Bully drew a parallel between the performing arts and UNESCO's peace policy. He told the gathering that the performing arts use the human body to reach the spirit, the mind, and the thought processes of other human beings. On the other hand, he pointed out what UNESCO states - 'If wars begin in the minds of men, it is in the minds of men that the defences of peace must be constructed'.
Mr. Bully ended by congratulating Father Ho Lung and Friends on their 30th anniversary. Also, he had high praises for the sponsors and contributors for helping to spread a message of peace and forgiveness to the nation, and one of hope and relief to the poor.
