Your events

We just had this email in from a lady in Malton:

Roger,

We have just shared Greater than Gold with a very full chapel and everyone really enjoyed taking part and listening to the music and drama. 

We had a choir of 45 and a drama team. We used piano and drums.  Our drummer is a chap who wandered far away from the Lord but has come back.  He said that he had really been helped and encouraged by taking part. 

A number of the singers have never sang a RJ musical before and really loved the music.  The only complaint is that they cannot stop singing the songs even in the supermarket.  We were really blessed with our 'Mary' she sang so well and loved every moment.  When she thanked the Lord for her Bible there were many wet eyes in the chapel. 

So thank you for your music and for the joy we have all shared as we sang it.

God bless you and the team at CMM.

Margot Taylor, Malton.

CMM at Willersley Castle

Phil training the choir at Willersley

In mid-August a team from CMM travelled to Willersley Castle, near Cromford in Derbyshire.  Willersley Castle is one of the Christian Guild hotels, and our visit there has become one of the highlights of the year.  CMM's team for the week were Roger, Mary, Annie, Phil and Kathleen.  Annie took the orchestra, and Phil led the choir and played piano for the final performance.

The musical this year was Two Sisters and a Funeral, and this was our third music week to take this theme.  Annie had a nice big orchestra to  work with, including two violins, a flute, clarinet, soprano sax, cornet, guitar, drums and piano accordion.

During the week Roger led three Bible studies looking at the different characters in the story - Mary, Martha and Lazarus.  The Mary talk focuses on worship, and being able to sit at Jesus' feet.  The Martha talk goes into some depth looking at Martha's character - both what she did right and what she did wrong.  Finally the talk featuring Lazarus takes Jesus' line 'Take off the graveclothes, let him go!' and thinks about what graveclothes we might still be wearing even though we have given our lives to Jesus.

On the first morning Annie preached - and she really enjoyed it.  It's always great when Annie gets to speak at a meeting, as she is a really good communicator.  Another highlight of the week was a dvd evening when the group watched a documentary about the making of the King James version of the Bible.  A number of the group bought popcorn specially!

The final performance went really well.  Earlier in the week the request for soloists at the auditions resulted in no men at all, which was a big issue when a Jesus, a Lazarus and at least two baddies were needed!  Clyde forgot, so he was soon commandeered into being Jesus.  Jonathan had managed to come to quite a few bits and pieces during the week because his wife Linda was staying, and as he had sung Lazarus on a few occasions for the CMM choir, he filled in the gap!  Then Richard and his family came to watch the final performance, so Richard became chief baddie!

It was a great week - thanks to the staff at Willersley Castle for their hospitality.  Looking forward to next year, where we'll be learning the musical David, but interspersing a lot of activities to do with music and worship.

Helen at Carter's Lane Baptist

On the Tuesday after Lee Abbey, Helen went to Carter's Lane Baptist Church in Halesowen to speak.  They have a lovely fellowship meeting, with approximately 30 regularly attending.  Helen gave her testimony and interspersed it with various songs, and despite a powerpoint issue, the evening went really well.

God had really been at work because in the few days before the evening, one of the most prominent members of the group had died suddenly, and the evening was exactly what they all needed.

Two Sisters at Lee Abbey

The grand pudox match

At the end of July, Roger, Mary, Annie, Helen and Sally travelled down to Lee Abbey for our annual music week.  This year the musical was Two Sisters, and with the Abbey full we were looking forward to a great week.

Mary's Birthday

It was fantastic having Sally on the team again, and this year she brought her husband Karl.  She did a great job organising the drama and also leading a dance workshop while 8 months pregnant!  It was great to have Karl around too - he'd never been to anything like this before, and he managed really well.

The wonderful choir

Unlike previous years at Lee Abbey where Paul has come and trained the choir, this time Paul came and played piano for the orchestra, and Helen put the choir through their paces.  The orchestra were amazing - there were 6 violins, a viola, 4 cellos, 2 flutes, a trombone, a trumpet, a bass guitar, two acoustic guitars, a clarinet, an oboe, drums and the piano.  One of the biggest orchestras we've had, and they made a wonderful sound.

The enormous orchestra

One of the features of our weeks at Lee Abbey is the contribution made by the members of the community.  We had a wonderful team supporting our week, including Ben and Pippa, who have often been involved in our music weeks in the past.  The House team led some wonderful evening 'Christ in Quiet' sessions, and also led worship at various times.  On the Tuesday evening many of the team were involved in a wonderful international evening singing solos and playing instruments.  The Lee Abbey summer show on the Thursday evening was also really excellent - this year for the first time it was written by Caleb, the son of the warden.

The final performance was wonderful - it was kicked off in style by an oboe quintet.  Then we had some wonderful solos from a number of the guests, and some very dramatic narrations.  There was standing room only for the audience, and a brilliant atmosphere.

North East Tour

Richard, Alan and Pete

In July, CMM travelled way up to the North East of England for a weekend of events:

First, we visited Cotherstone, a small village near Barnard Castle, and home to Mike and Barbara, who are wonderful long-term supporters of Roger and Mary, and long-distance members of EBRG.  We went to the Methodist chapel in the village and led an afternoon and evening music in worship session with the people there.  Mike and Barbara had done their homework and a number of people came from far and wide.  It was a wonderful time, and we were really delighted with the way God was moving.  Ahead of the weekend we had spent some time waiting on God for words of knowledge and prophecies, and many of the word/pictures we had received were claimed and used.

Danny, Dave, and the tenors and basses

The church at Blyth filling up

On the Saturday we drove up to Blyth to the Methodist Church there.  It was great to see so many friends from previous visits.  Danny and Dave had done a wonderful organisation and choir training job, and the choir were really very good.  We had only taken a partial team up to Barnard Castle with us, and the rest joined us mid-morning.  We had with us Helen and Emily as Martha and Mary, Richard and Devon as Jesus and Lazarus, and Pete and Alan as the baddies.  We all really enjoyed lining up Richard, Alan and Pete next to each other - spot the difference!  There was a really good audience for the performance, and it was great to spend so much time sharing with the choir during the day.

The Sunderland choir

The choir in action

On the Sunday we travelled down to Ewesley Road Methodist in Sunderland to take the morning service and then rehearse and perform Two Sisters.  The morning service was great fun - Helen got all of the congregation jumping up and down for the children's song, and also singing through a block of praise.  Roger's sermon about the 'More than God' was much appreciated, and it was great to chat and pray with the congregation afterwards.  In the afternoon the choir arrived in their spectacularly colourful clothes, and we had a great rehearsal.  Val had done a great job with the choir, assisted by George.  Unfortunately Emily was ill in the rehearsal, which led to an interesing version of Mary played by Richard.  But thankfully she was much better in the evening.

We had a wonderful weekend, and even managed to get our lines just about right!  Thanks to all those involved.