As the final chord of the hymn dies away the congregation sits and, to everyone's surprise, the lights go out.
The voice of Buddy Holly singing 'That'll be the day' comes through the PA. The front projector screen lights up and starts scrolling through photo after photo of famous faces, each dead, with the date they died displayed underneath. Albert Einstein, April 18 1955; Elvis Presley, August 16 1977; Princess Diana, August 31 1997; Jill Dando, April 16 1999.
The penultimate slide is a photograph of Buddy Holly himself with the date February 3 1959 followed by words from Ecclesiastes 3: 'There is a time for everything, and a season for every activity under heaven: a time to be born and a time to die, a time to plant and a time to uproot' (vv.1-2).
