Tuesday 28 August 2012

Willersley Week Complete!

Roger, Mary and Annie have now returned from the David music week at Willersley Castle, and they report that they have had a wonderful time.  Roger has put a large number of photos on his photobucket site, 

The team did a wonderful job - not only Paul training the choir and Marion hosting, but also Carole and Sarah spent a lot of time playing instruments and singing, and ministering to people.  Carole had brought with her her two very young children Hannah and Eleanor as well as her niece Katie.  Katie stole the show when she sang the whole musical with the choir and also a couple of solos in the performance.  Katie says that Paul is nowhere near as strict as her own choir conductor at home, but some of the photos of Paul in action make us wonder!

Amazingly for such a small group there were two piano accordion players - Viv and Wlod.  Viv played in the orchestra and Wlod played for the worship times.  The orchestra also had a violin, a guitar, a horn (young Hugo doing a great job!), a trombone, as well as Paul on piano, Annie on viola, Carole on 'various', Kevin on cornet and Alan on the drums.  They complemented the choir really well for the performance, and the soloists were really good too. Another highlight was the David and Goliath song - Ray and Gill Lockhart took the parts of Goliath and David respectively.  It was a funny moment seeing him fall at her feet!

One of the guests, Helen, had brought with her some flags - the choir used them in the performance and others used them in worship - they added a lovely extra dimension to things.

Overall it was a wonderful week, and the staff at Willersley looked after the guests really well.






Thursday 23 August 2012

While at Willersley...

This week Roger, Mary, Annie, Paul, Carole and Sarah are at Willersley Castle, a Christian Guild Hotel at Cromford near Matlock Bath in Derbyshire.  This is a music week with a difference.  As usual there will be worship, Bible teaching and learning a musical - David - but for this week the teaching will be focused on music in worship.  There are a good number of guests in the hotel.  Paul has over 30 in his choir, and Annie is training up a little orchestra ready for the final performance on Friday night.

Helen isn't on team for Willersley - she just got back from a weekend at the Bath and West Showground near Shepton Mallet.  This showground has been the home of first New Wine, and then Soul Survivor for the summer.  Once Soul Survivor week C finished and the 12000 teenagers went home, they were replaced by 6000 20s and 30s for the Momentum week.  It was a wonderful time of worship, teaching and lots of time letting the Holy Spirit come.  Time and time again it was clear that the more you wait, the more God does.  On the final evening the plan went completely out of the window as God moved among the delegates.

Back in the office the work goes on - Tim has been working at the sales, although we are in our usual August quiet patch.  Nicky has been away on holiday to Belgium but has returned to lots of emails!  Helen is working on advertising the Michael Card concert, and trying to get word out so that the last 3 places for the Israel trip are filled.

And this morning, Helen's sister Deb had her second baby - IT'S A BOY!!!!!

Thursday 16 August 2012

A few days in the office

Following our week away at Lee Abbey, the CMM team have returned to the office for a few days.  Roger, Helen and Annie are all working on the worship workbook at the moment, which is going to be a long but rewarding project.  On top of that, we all have different projects to work on.

Poppy guarding the office doors
Annie is updating and editing our xtras files to make sure everything is present and correct, and completely ready for people to print out, as computers and printers develop and change.  She is also doing little bits and pieces of musical arrangement, and received this comment from someone:


"I'm used to arranging music for various groups of recorders/strings etc at school using my version of Sibelius, & we have done 3 Roger Jones musicals at church previously.  We find they are so accessible for less experienced folk to sing & put over such good messages!  (Last time, one of the choir members had a clear conversion experience even as they sang in the final performance - praise God!)"

Helen is working hard advertising the various events that are due to take place in the autumn:
16th September - Renewal Evening with Andrew Attwood
26th September - an evening with Michael Card
25th November - Renewal Day with Martin Cavender
1st December - While Shepherds Watched in a day
If you would like to know anything more about these events, do email Helen - events@cmm.org.uk

Roger beavering away
Roger is also busy.  This afternoon he is going to a church in Worcestershire with Simon Gudger to take part in a singing day.  This is part of the church holiday at home week for older people, where there are lots of events put on for people.  For an hour this afternoon, Simon and Roger are going to lead a session where Simon shares a lot of his testimony and sings a number of songs from his time at CMM.  Roger's hard work doesn't just stop there - he is preparing for the music week at Willersley Castle next week, and he is also preaching for the first time at his new church at Lickey on Sunday.


Thursday 9 August 2012

A week at Lee Abbey

Last week Roger, Mary, Annie, Helen and Sally (with Karl and Molly) travelled down to Lee Abbey near Lynton in North Devon.  The Lee Abbey music week has become a regular fixture on the CMM calendar, and it was great to be there once again.  This year the house was full, and the musical to be performed was Snakes and Ladders.  Helen trained a 50-strong choir, as well as a small children's choir, and Annie looked after a nice big orchestra which contained 2 violins, 2 cellos, 2 flutes, 2 guitars, a bass guitar, drums, an oboe, a trumpet, a french horn, a soprano sax, a djembe, and a clarinet for two of the songs, as well as Annie herself on piano.

The week began with flapjack, and then after dinner a lovely evening session led by the Lee Abbey team.  The evening included singing, puppets, videos and games and got the guests mixing really well.  On Sunday morning the Lee Abbey team led the morning service, which was really different.  After some time together in the Octagonal Lounge, the guests were spread all over the building to engage in different activities such as intercession, confession, adoration - some of which involved art, others reflection and discussion.  The culmination of the service was a time all together where we sang another song, and then had a special blessing for Roger and Mary as this was the date of their 40th wedding anniversary.  Communion was then shared in the dining room around tables just before dinner.

On the Sunday evening CMM led a sing-through of Snakes and Ladders, and then the music week began in earnest with our pattern of worship followed by Bible teaching, ministry, coffee and then the choir and orchestra rehearsals.  Roger spoke on various themes surrounding covenant for the week.  The evenings were generally led by the Lee Abbey team, with an international evening, the annual summer show, and a communion service.  There were also workshops every afternoon, during which Sally led some amazing dance and drama, Annie led a 'running a worship group' seminar, and we also held a Seasons and Reasons session.

By the end of the week we were ready to put the musical together, with choir, orchestra, soloists, dance, drama and narrators.  It was hard work but went exceptionally well in front of a packed house.

So huge thanks go to the host team for all of their support, as well as the pastoral helpers Sarah and Val.