Monday 28 November 2011

Two Sisters in Hemel Hempstead

Last weekend Roger and Devon travelled down to Hemel Hempstead for a performance of Two Sisters.  Sarah Moreton is the local organiser there, and she also took the role of Martha, with other local soloists taking the Mary, Jesus and baddie roles.

The performance was at the South Hill Centre near the centre of Hemel - the same venue for our evening with Devon back in January.

Roger says that the choir were superb - excellently trained, and that the performance was really moving.  The particular highlight for him was Abide with me - He says that it felt like the whole musical was building up to that point and that it felt like it was having a huge impact.

The following morning Roger, Devon and Sarah went to St. Thomas' Watford to lead the morning service.  This is where Sarah holds her Watford choir rehearsals.  They had a wonderful morning - Roger spoke about Mary, Martha and Lazarus, and the sermon finished with Devon singing his song 'O Lord how excellent you are' and wandering round the congregation singing over them.

Sarah sent this email after the event:
Dearest friends,

“The sweetest and best harmony is, when every part or instrument is not heard by itself, but a conflation of them all” (Francis Bacon )

Well, I think there was conflation in abundance at Saturday evening’s performance of ’Two Sisters And A Funeral’! What a coming together – of voices, minds, hearts and the Lord’s spirit - as we sang God’s praises and shared His message of unending love with our audience and with each other. Thank you ALL, once again, for helping to make the performance such a resounding success.

I’m sure you will have your own special memories of Saturday evening. On a very personal note, It was a rare treat (and one I shall savour and treasure for a long time) to sing alongside you all, old friends and new, rather than being out the front pulling faces at you...

The highlight for me was the rendition of the last two verses of ‘Abide With Me’. Although often chosen for funerals (and therefore highly appropriate for this musical I guess!), I wonder how many people will have sung it and been so powerfully struck by the reassurance of God’s presence (in challenging and painful times AND in that moment the musical!) as I was – ‘I triumph still if Thou abide with me.’ A spine-tingling moment indeed.

Bless you all,

Love,
Sarah xxx


Two Sisters and an Orchestra

On Saturday 12th November while Helen was at Catshill Baptist Church in the morning, Annie got to work at her own church, St Germain's in Edgbaston.  This time the event was 'Two Sisters and an Orchestra' - a day where instead of the focus being the choir, it was on the orchestra.

We had a lovely orchestra gather, including 3 whole violas!

The orchestra worked hard with Annie all morning, and then in the afternoon the choir arrived for a runthrough, and the performance was at 4.30pm.  The soloists for the performance were Ann, Helen, Devon, Paul (his debut as Jesus), Jonathan and Tim (his debut as a baddie!).  We also had quite a big team of instrumentalists bostering up the orchestra, which was fantastic.  It was great to see Debbie with her son on cornet, and also wonderful to have Trish and Rachel come up from the Isle of Wight, and Tim and Lydia from East Grinstead.  When Helen arrived from Catshill she found she wasn't needed on flute or trumpet, so instead made her debut on bongos!

Sylvia did a fantastic job on piano, and we had a wonderful 3-strong rhythm guitar section!  Alan dusted off his trombone once again, and we also had the amazing G-B family - a viola, a double bass, a guitar, a trumpet, a flute and a tenor in the choir!  It was also nice to have Catherine and her friend in the choir - come all the way from Altrincham, and Brenda on flute all the way from Leyland.

And Roger of course was resident photographer and sound technician...















Friday 25 November 2011

Latest email mailing

This is Roger's latest email update.  If you'd like to receive these updates by email yourself, do contact office@cmm.org.uk and ask to be on the mailing list.


Hi Folks

I'm so excited !!!!

The CDs of SEASONS AND REASONS are now in stock, and we are really thrilled with it. There are 32 tracks, featuring my melodies and Timothy Dudley-Smith's terrific hymn-words, and for the recording we have got together many of CMM's great soloists, past and present. We have Simon Gudger, Devon Brown, Ann Steer, Katie Leaver, Sheila Davies, Bob Deakin, and many, many more, and of course our own Helen Pollard sings and plays on lots of tracks. Annie Routley's vocal group sound absolutely great, and there are arrangements by Chris King, Tim Jones and Helen.

The SEASONS AND REASONS book, containing Christmas, Epiphany, Easter material, etc, is £10.99, and the double CD (32 tracks) is £12.99. Backing Tracks are also available. Order from:
http://www.cmm.org.uk/products/catalogue/index.php?newproducts=1 .

We are also proud to announce the publication of THE SPIRIT WHO SPEAKS (by Peter Lawrence). The last chapter was written after Peter received his terminal diagnosis, and is very moving, instructional and challenging. The whole book is amazing, with wonderful testimonies of how the Lord speaks to us today. It's available from us at £8.99 on:
http://www.cmm.org.uk/products/catalogue/index.php?newproducts=1

A very popular item is FISHERMAN'S FRIEND, Alison Fuggle's complete book of poems. Many are using it privately and in house-group and church worship. We thoroughly recommend it:
http://www.cmm.org.uk/products/catalogue/index.php?newproducts=1

Of course, the complete range of Musicals and Collections, and many other items, are obtainable from the CMM Web Site:
http://www.cmm.org.uk and we really appreciate any publicity about this. Perhaps there are people you know who may be interested. Please let them know.

This Saturday (26 Nov) we have two CMM events:
TWO SISTERS AND A FUNERAL - St Michael's, Market Place, Macclesfield. SK10 1HW at 1930
THE INN CROWD - Church Lane Evangelical Church, Stafford ST16 2AW - contact: 01785 254331
- and on Saturday 03 Dec:
THE INN CROWD - Hinckley Methodist, Leics - 1930 - contact 01455 613352

Roger Jones

Christian Music Ministries
http://www.cmm.org.uk

Ladies' Breakfast

A couple of weeks ago Helen went to speak at a Ladies' Breakfast at Catshill Baptist Church.  It was quite a daunting task, as previous speakers have included Fiona Castle and Jennifer Rees-Larcombe.

Having struggled for a while, Helen eventually decided to speak about singing, and also include a little bit of the 'Ways to Praise' teaching.

The breakfast was an amazingly well-oiled machine.  The ladies at Catshill Baptist hold this about twice every year, and serve up some wonderful food.  The church was packed out - about 100 were present.

The talk went really well (except for overrunning a bit), and at the end Helen decided to risk it and to sing prophetically over the group.  People responded amazingly well, and a few of the words of knowledge EBRG had had on the previous Thursday evening were claimed.

A very exciting morning!

EBRG

Had a lovely EBRG meeting last night.  For those of you that don't know, every Thursday night 10 of us meet to pray together for each other and for the work of Roger and CMM.  Last night 10 became 12 when we were joined by Mike and Barbara - long distance members of the group.  It was wonderful to be able to share with them and support them.

God's really been speaking a lot to us recently.  Last night was one of those evenings when all the plans, pictures and words seem to dovetail together beautifully, right from Annie's worship time at the start through to a snippet of a Bible passage Barbara had planned to share with us.

God is so good.

Thursday 24 November 2011

A new book and CD!

At last we can announce that not only is the Seasons and Reasons music book available, but also the CD and backing tracks! Tim has been beavering away here in the office sending out CDs to those that ordered in advance - it's been great to give a full sack to the postman for quite a few days running.

Seasons and Reasons is a joint project between CMM and Bishop Timothy Dudley-Smith, uniting the Bishop's wonderful hymn words with Roger's lovely tunes.

Response to the project has been great so far:

Dear Roger
The postman has just delivered to us a copy of 'Seasons and Reasons'. Thank you so much - we love it! Apart from Timothy's beautiful words coupled with your wonderful tunes, it is so full of lovely musical memories for us! I've had a quick play through and look forward to delving deeper.


And Timothy himself said:

Dear Roger,
I am listening to the first of the two CDs which you so kindly sent - I shall much enjoy disc 2 in due course; and I shall proudly make sure my family have their own copies!  My feet are tapping as I listen!
Yours
Timothy

St Mary's Wythall

The Sunday following our visit to Scargill, we were delighted to be able to go to St. Mary's Wythall in South Birmingham to lead the morning service.  We had been invited by Maria and Dean Taylor - Maria's mum Gill is in EBRG, and Maria herself danced in Wildfire and also the Christian Dance Ministries productions.

Roger, Annie, Helen, James and Amy were on team - Annie led the praise time, Helen led the service and Roger preached.

It was fantastic to visit this congregation - they have moved out of their own building as they were restricted by planning permission, and now meet in the local school.  They were incredibly friendly - we had a lovely time with them and were able to pray with some of them too.

Wednesday 23 November 2011

CMM at Scargill House

During the half term week in October, a team from CMM (Roger, Mary, Annie, Helen, Paul, Ann, Jaime) travelled up to Scargill House in the Yorkshire Dales for our Inn Crowd music week.  It is the first time in four years that we have been able to go to Scargill - it has been closed for a couple of years and now the community has reformed and moved back in.  It was wonderful to be back in such a lovely place. 

Here are Helen's updates from the week to give you a picture:

Hi Everyone! 
I've managed to find a bit of time this morning to send you all an update from our week at Scargill. We've got a nice lot of guests here who seem to be really enjoying themselves and mixing and mingling well. There are also quite a few children and teenagers around, and it's great to spend time with them. 
On Saturday we had a good introductory evening, and have been introduced to a few members of the new community here - the leader of the community, Phil, is great, and he's been really encouraging to have around. There are also a few team members who are helping by leading some kids work, which is great. 
Sunday's morning service was good fun - our team are providing most of the music, but we've been joined by a young drummer, Mark, who is adding some wonderful percussion to what Jaime is playing on the drums. 
On Monday we had our first morning session, which Roger led. The group really responded well and were very open when Roger led into a time of waiting on the Spirit at the end. The teenagers have so far been to all of the bible studies, which is amazing, and they are really participating well. 
The orchestra and choir rehearsals have been interesting so far - the orchestra have a huge range of ages and abilities, but Annie is doing a great job with them. The choir is getting better as the days go by, but the soprano section is surprisingly quite small - so I need to encourage them to sing a bit louder! 
Yesterday was a bit of a mammoth day for me - I was doing the morning talk, and have spent a lot of time wrestling with it - I ended up staying up until 2.30am in order to finish it - I had loads of material, but none of it felt quite right. Paul prayed with me in the evening, and while he prayed something he said resonated with me and gave me the finishing point for the talk, so I felt much happier. People responded really well, and we've managed to pray with a few people that have responded to words of knowledge etc. 
Today is a day off, which'll be good, and the weather is wonderful. It seems like everyone needs a rest - almost everyone I have spoken to this morning has had a bad night in some way or other, be that getting a sore throat, struggling with pain, or vivid dreams. So do pray protection for everyone as we go into the second half of the week. Roger is planning to speak about the gifts of the Spirit tomorrow, which should be exciting. 
Anyway, I hope you're all well.
Helen
x

And here is update 2:


Hi Everyone! 
Another quick update. 
We had a lovely day off yesterday and good rehearsals in the evening. People seem to have slept better overnight, which is good.  
This morning, Roger spoke about the wise men, then linked it in with spiritual gifts - I'm not sure how he worked it round to that now I type it out, but it made sense at the time! At the end of the session we spent a long time waiting on God, asking the Spirit to come and give gifts to people. Loads of people joined in, and there were quite a few words of knowledge from among the guests, many of which were claimed.  
The final rehearsals were good - just got to work with the soloists now, to make sure they're ok.
This evening we have a sing new songs/praise and worship evening in which we're using a lot of stuff from the new book - it should be a lot of fun. 
Finally, do pray for Roger as tomorrow he needs to spend all of the morning conducting and leading the rehearsal, and then conducting the performance at night - his shoulder has been ok so far this week, but conducting can sometimes be a problem. 
Lots of love, and thanks for your prayers.
Helen
x

The final day went really well.  The choir, orchestra and soloists were all brilliant, and worked amazingly well together.  Unfortunately Lucy wasn't well enough to play her trumpet in the performance, but she did manage to sing a solo.  A particular mention goes to Barrie who sang and narrated the part of Sam brilliantly - especially considering he had had a bad throat all week.  Scargill had worked really hard in advertising the performance in the local area, and lots of people came to watch, which was so encouraging for the guests.  The performance was finished off beautifully by 5 year old Mia, who said a prayer for us all.

Helen working with the choir

Annie with the orchestra

A double bass view of the orchestra

Making marzipan fruit

Mia making marzipan fruit

The shepherds

Sam and Debbie - Barrie and Ann

The orchestra

The percussion section

The three wise men

A debut solo for Mark

Paul and Beth singing 'Lulay Lula'
We're in the diary to be back at Scargill in October 2013 - a long time to wait, but it'll be worth it.

Friday 18 November 2011

Two Sisters at Rhos-on-Sea

In October Roger, Annie and Sarah travelled to Rhos-on-Sea in North Wales for a special Two Sisters event there.  We have often visited Rhos for holiday weeks at St. Winifred's Hotel, and it has been great over the years to build up a relationship with Keith Harrison at the nearby URC church.

Keith decided to step out in faith in organising the day, and it was a wonderful success.  He gathered together a huge choir and some wonderful soloists, who together created a wonderful sound and atmosphere.

There was also a really exciting moment where Roger felt led to pray for a lady who had a bit of a limp, and she left not limping any more - praise God!  Sometimes when we gather together to sing a musical it can feel just like a bit of a community gathering, but actually moments like this remind us that God is present and active, and the Holy Spirit has a big role to play in our lives.

Renewal Day

Andy, Roger, Dan and Sarah
The Seasons and Reasons recording day wasn't the only event on a very busy weekend.  On the Sunday Rev Andy Alden and a team came up from St. Paul's Church in Weston-super-Mare to lead the next in our series of renewal evenings.  As they had travelled so far, we decided to make a day of it, so they were involved in the morning service, led an afternoon workshop, and then also took part in the evening celebration.

Andy and Roger
It was a wonderful day - Andy had some really interesting things to say about being a mission focused church, and how to really engage with your local community.  If anything in the community is good, it is a sign of God's Kingdom.  So we need to think about working in the areas that are filled with darkness and pain.

In the evening the theme was 'Rhythm in the heart of God' - about spending time in God's presence.  Revival comes when people want to be in God's presence.  Prayer should really be about us being with God in a focused way.

Thursday 17 November 2011

Seasons and Reasons Recording day

On Saturday 8th October over 100 people gathered at Christ Church, Burney Lane for an exciting day of singing and recording.  As previously mentioned in the blog, Roger and Timothy Dudley-Smith (along with Annie) have been working hard on a collection of hymns - Seasons and Reasons.  This day was the congregational recording day (the solos had already gone down), and it was great fun.  Roger, Annie and Helen took turns in conducting, while Chris King set up a mini recording studio in the side chapel.

We were absolutely delighted with the sound the choir produced.  Chris has since worked really hard to get the mixing finished, and quite a lot of the material recorded that day has been able to go on the CD, which is wonderful.

Photos by Robert Jones http://robertcjones.co.uk/

Chris setting up the mics

Helen leading the warm up (not dancing!)

Some of the altos

Roger in action

Some sopranos

More sopranos!

Chris beavering away

Annie in action

Mary and some altos

More lovely altos

The tenors and basses

Thursday 3 November 2011

Stargazers in Welshpool

While Roger and Mary were in Norwich, Annie took Jenny with her to Welshpool for Stargazers in a day.  Like Norwich, Welshpool provided all of their own soloists, and the day went brilliantly.

Many of the singers had taken part in Jerusalem Joy in Arddleen back in the spring, and some had even come to our Willersley Castle week, so it was great to see them there.

Stargazers is great fun to do in a day, and their aren't too many solo spots - so it is very achievable by a church without too many resources.  We can recommend it!

From Pharaoh to Freedom in Norwich

In late September Roger and Mary travelled to Norwich for the weekend.  They had a bit of a traumatic time getting there - they had to leave much later than planned and then the traffic was terrible.  But they made just in time for the soloists rehearsal on the Friday evening at Meadow Way Chapel.

Meadow Way has been a kind of home-from-home for Roger and Mary for a number of years, and they have some fantastic friends there.  The musical 'Two Sisters and a Funeral' was dedicated to them - but they didn't take the hint and insisted on doing 'From Pharaoh to Freedom' instead.

Not only did local people provide all of the soloists, but there were also loads of musicians and singers that Roger and Mary then worked with on the Saturday.

Roger was utterly delighted with the performance - despite being in a lot of pain with his shoulder on the Friday evening, Roger was back to his best the next day, and they had a wonderful time.

Roger and Mary also took part in the morning service at the chapel on the Sunday, and then they stayed on a few more days to relax afterwards - including the indispensable visit to the 'Patisserie' for breakfast!