Tuesday 30 October 2007

An old classic...

CMM has been in action again this weekend. Firstly, Roger was involved with the Brent Knoll performance of Snakes and Ladders. If ever you travel down the M5, and see an isolated hill on your left just past Bristol, well that's Brent Knoll. The churches together there performed Snakes and Ladders with a small choir, but with a huge amount of enthusiasm. Roger reports that their performance was wonderful, and very well received.

Also, on Saturday, Phil Parkin, now retired but formerly part of the CMM office staff, led A Grain of Mustard Seed in a day at Elmdon Methodist Church. The 30 strong choir did a fantastic job, and an audience of 40-50 enjoyed the final performance. Phil has not conducted anything since his retirement from the CMM choir, and he says he was a little rusty, but soon remembered how to conduct. He loved having the baton back in his hands - watch out world!
Photo: Phil Parkin at his retirement, December 2005

Friday 26 October 2007

The smallest event...

Sometimes it's the smallest of events that have the biggest impact.

On Tuesday I spoke at a small meeting at Ellen Street Baptist Church in Birmingham. There were about 20 there, and I tried out my sermon for Sunday, interspersing it with a few songs.

At the beginning, a young Muslim lady came in, and sat down and listened. She didn't join in with the songs at all of course, but she seemed content to sit and wait.

At the end she was asked if she'd found the meeting different to her expectations. Surprisingly, she said, "No. I came in expecting to find peace, and I found peace."

Praise God.

Thursday 25 October 2007

Treloyhan Manor

Treloyhan Manor Christian Guild Hotel was the beautiful setting for the first ever Inn Crowd music week. Over 40 guests enjoyed the beautiful surroundings, sea view, and wonderful food last week in St. Ives.



The CMM team for the occasion was Roger, Annie, Helen, Ann Steer and Bill Carpenter, and we were joined by the Christian Guild hosts for the week, Ivor and Anne Cresswell.


After a wonderful full cooked breakfast, the usual pattern of events involved some bible teaching led by Roger based upon themes from the musical, followed by a choir rehearsal led by Helen and Annie. The afternoons were free, and then the evening meal left us all a bit full for the evening's entertainments - a games evening, a praise party, and an informal agape.


The scratch choir worked really hard, and it paid off with a superb performance on the Friday evening to an audience of over 30 (all the hall could hold!). The evening was led well by Bill and Ann as Sam and Debbie, the Innkeeper and his wife. The other soloists - Mike, Mike, Ray, Ann, Gill and Pauline also were wonderful, and were beautifully accompanied by a string section of Ali (violin) and Annie (viola).


It is always a real priviledge to be part of the leadership team for a CMM music week, spending time sharing with and ministering to the different guests. We have 8 music weeks lined up for 2008:

Whitby 10-15 Feb, Rhos on Sea 7-11 Apr, Grange-over-Sands 24-31 May, Harnhill 14-18 July, Bognor Regis 21-25 July, Lee Abbey 2-9 August, Scargill 16-23 August, St. Ives 6-13 September.

If you are interested in coming to any of these, please email Helen for further details: helen@cmm.org.uk

Photos: Treloyhan Manor, St. Ives; some of the delegates at the final rehearsal; the CMM team; Annie and Ali - the string section.

Thursday 11 October 2007

Multi-tasking...

At the same time Roger, Mary and Helen were at Sizewell Hall, CMM was also in Clitheroe with Annie leading 'A Grain of Mustard Seed' from scratch in a day. She had with her Paul, Martin and Carole, and the day was a great success, complete with 'ragamuffins' and a 20-strong choir. There was a large, appreciative audience, among whom was a family who haven't been to church for some years but felt God calling them back into fellowship.

It's wonderful the way CMM is able now to be in three different places at once, with Annie, Helen and Roger all available to be booked separately. Sometimes a bit of teaming up is necessary though, according to the scale of the event!


Photos - Roger, Annie and Helen in action!

Tuesday 9 October 2007

An unexpected trip to the seaside...



We've just returned from a weekend away with Meadow Way Chapel, Norwich. These are old friends of CMM, and the basis for our Norwich performances whenever we tour with a musical. I had assumed we would be staying the weekend in Norwich, but was proved wrong when we sat on the A14 for a lot more time than I expected. Instead, we were staying at Sizewell Christian Conference Centre, on the East coast just north of Ipswich. As someone who has been landlocked for most of her life in the midlands, a hall right on the sea front was a wonderful bonus!




The weekend was based around Paul and Silas in Philippi from Acts 16 - the major themes of Jail Break. It was a priviledge to be there, sharing in the music and supporting Roger and Mary. People seemed to be blessed by what God was doing among them, and the Holy Spirit was certainly present in power on some occasions.

Friday 5 October 2007

India Report


Here's some excerpts from Roger's report on his trip to India:

"Accompanied by DEVON BROWN and ANN STEER, two of our regular Soloists, we set out on a long arduous journey lasting about 20 hours. Missing a nights sleep, and 4 ½ hours in time, we arrived at Kerala and immediately were joined by MIKE & BARBARA ROWARTH, who came out from UK a week earlier. Very soon we were rehearsing THE INN CROWD.

"It was a joy to meet up again with the “Family Harmony” Choir. They are a wonderful group of very friendly and welcoming folk, who made us feel very much at home. The “World Premiere” of THE INN CROWD was presented at CMS College Hall and approximately 500 people came to watch."

And then in Vellore...

"The Chapel meetings were a challenge for me, having to wait each sentence for the translation. But the translator was a wonderful Christian man, and we all knew he was capturing the true impact of what I was trying to say. After the second meeting a small Hindu lady came and knelt before me, asking for prayer. This as just the start! As the days went on more and more came in this way, even Patients were brought down from the Wards by Nurses. Never before have I felt quite so reliant on God turning up in power!

"The final Production was tremendous, with over 1000 people crowded into the auditorium. The Choir were magnificent, and the Dancers, about 20 of them, thrilled us with their “Indian style” movements. The local soloists, who complemented the UK Team of Devon and Ann did extremely well, and the “Indian World Premiere” of JAIL BREAK crowned an amazing two weeks of ministry."


Read the full report at http://groups.msn.com/RogerJones/india07fullreport.msnw

Wednesday 3 October 2007

Earn CMM some money!!!

Sorry that this is more of an advert than a blog post, but we've found an exciting way for people to give money for us for free. We're searching high and low for a catch, but we can't find one...

1. Go to the cmm homepage: www.cmm.org.uk

2. Scroll to the bottom of the page

3. Click on the easyfundraising banner

4. Register as a user

Whenever you do any online shopping, first go to the easyfundraising site, log on, and then follow the links to get to your desired shop, whether it's Amazon, Ebay, HMV, etc etc. Apparently they'll donate a small percentage of the money you spend to CMM.

5. Click on easysearch on the left hand side of the easyfundraising page

6. Follow the instructions

7. Make it your homepage or your default search engine, or both!

Whenever you search online for anything, easysearch will make a small donation to CMM from those who have sponsored links. The search engine is Yahoo, which is just as good as any other search engines.

Happy shopping and surfing!

Monday 1 October 2007

A triple header...


What a fantastic day. My calculations suggest there were over 170 people taking part in the Inn Crowd in a day, including nearly 90 sopranos, 8 flutes and 3 trombones! The atmosphere felt really good, and the performance was incredibly joyful. I think Roger's newest musical was given a great launch, hopefully forward for lots more local productions around the country. The orchestra were wonderfully trained by Annie, and Paul did a fantastic job with the choir. Even the soloists behaved reasonably well, and Katie overcame feeling ill to produce two wonderful top C's. More photos to follow...

Then at lunch time, Roger and I slipped out to the Anglican convent in Alum Rock to lead the music at a special service commemorating Michael Whinney's 50 years as a priest and 25 years as a Bishop. He has been a great supporter of CMM over the years, and it was a real priviledge to be asked to play.

Following the performance of the Inn Crowd, I was whisked away to Kenilworth to lead a music workshop with 20 or so youth. They were a brilliant bunch, and very musical - a violin, a cello, a flute, a clarinet and some drums, not to mention numerous other instruments not played in favour of singing. After a bit of a ropy start, the workshop went well, and everything came together wonderfully in the end, thanks to God and a percussionist called Mike. The final performance in the Sunday morning service was something to be proud of.


Photo: Some of The Inn Crowd Soloists at the recording day: Simon, Helen, Katie and Devon