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Guillaume de Machaut Colourproof
Dear Gabriel friends,

Yesterday evening 15 April 2019 around 7 p.m. the world was startled by a terrible fire in the Notre Dame - cathedral in Paris. The old trusses collapsed and the celebration tower came down.

One of the greatest symbols of 'La fille ainnée de l'église' - as France is sometimes called - suffered irreparable damage. Everyone from President Macron to the financial giants, but also the average Parisian and numerous foreigners have already expressed their support for the reconstruction. This  symbol should be kept for future generations.

Meanwhile, the faithful of ‘Ile de France’ will have to celebrate the Holy Week's services elsewhere, especially Easter. We sympathise with them and express our moral support.

This is not the place to give the history of this 12th-century early Gothic cathedral, but it has survived many disasters in its history. Just think of the French Revolution and Hitler's demand to burn down Paris and the cathedral.

Notre Dame also knew a lot of highlights. The first polyphonic mass was composed by Guillaume de Machaut and dedicated to the cathedral: "La Messe de Nostre Dame".

In the meantime the bell clicks on to a few events are also important for Gabriel members.

First of all, the Royal Philatelic Society of London, the oldest philatelic society in the world, celebrates its 150th anniversary with a grand exhibition "Stockholmia 2019" in Stockholm from 28 May to 2 June. This RPSL, which brings together more than 2,000 of the world's leading philatelists, succeeds in filling a very high-level exhibition with some 2,000 frames of reference only with the collections of its members. We had expected these to be almost exclusively traditional (538 planes) and posthistorical (770 planes) collections. But against our expectations also 20 thematic collections (121 planes) and 18 open class collections (82 planes) participate. Your president participates with his collection 'Music: talking with God' and shows a piece of religious philately.  He was also invited to give a PowerPoint presentation. At the symposium on philatelic literature he will also give a lecture on 'Gabriel publications'.

A week later (8-11.6.2019) in Bad-Mondorf there will be the annual thematic exhibition EXPHIMO, which this year is dedicated to music and where the Massari Prize is being fought for. Here, too, "Music: talking with God" will be shown.

A few days later, it is already heading for Admont, where the four-yearly congress of the World Alliance Gabriel takes place.

In the meantime we are preparing for Easter. As Christians we commemorate the Resurrection of Jesus. Let us not only think of the Notre Dame Cathedral that will rise from its ashes, but also of the small ruptures that occur in our lives and those of our fellow human beings. Let us taken them into account in the prospect of Easter Sunday.

A Blessed Easter

Your President

Mark