David in a day, Sheering, Essex

The following weekend Helen travelled to Essex for a musical in a day at Sheering, a small village fairly near Stansted Airport.  She took the opportunity to stay with a good friend, Martha, who had recently moved to the area.  Helen was joined at Sheering by a small team, Phil Griffiths who came to sing the role of David, and Anna Weddell who led a dance workshop.

The day was organised by Lydia Taylor, the music leader at St Mary's, and she had drawn together a wonderful choir made up of singers from a number of local churches.  They had had a little bit of rehearsal beforehand, or must have done, because they were so good!  It was also wonderful to have a couple of their 'larger than life' characters take on smaller solo roles such as Goliath.

Anna did a great job with the dance workshop, training a group of young girls to do a lovely dance, and even roping one of the mums in too!  Anna also did a solo dance to the song 'Saul and Jonathan' as part of the performance.

The following morning Helen returned to the church to take part in the morning service, leading the choir in a couple of the psalms from the musical.  It was a special service for the church because a vicar from Kenya had come to share with them for a week.  The local vicar, Stewart, was wonderfully supportive.  It was a privilege to work in a small rural church that was really working hard and making progress in its mission to the local area.

A busy weekend

On the 20th and 21st April, CMM split in two directions.  Roger and Annie travelled north to Haydon Bridge Methodist Church, while Helen travelled west to Port Talbot.

Helen took with her a team of Caroline, Bob, and Paul to sing the roles in Jairus' Daughter, as well as Miriam and Peter to play their instruments.  The musical in a day took place at Sandfields Methodist Church in Port Talbot, and there was a lovely choir there for Helen's second visit to the church.  One of the great joys of the day was a group of about 12 teenagers, some of who
m read the extended narrations, and the rest sang, including a couple of the solo roles.  It was lovely to have so many young singers, as well as a good choir of adults behind them.  Bob absolutely loved hamming up the Jesus role in the song 'Bad News', and Caroline had a great time with the descant in the song 'If I can just touch him'.

The following morning Helen and Miriam remained at Port Talbot and took the morning service.  It was great to be able to share with the congregation there.


Roger and Annie were leading a music in worship weekend at Haydon Bridge.  They had with them Mary, Kathleen, Richard, Marilyn, and Sharon with her daughter Gemma for the Saturday.  It is always so good when CMM is able to share with people about music in worship, and this weekend was no exception.  It was also wonderful for the team to be in Haydon Bridge again, as there has been a long connection with CMM and the church there over the years.

Roger began with a 'Being a Worshipper' session, and finished with 'Ways to Praise', but in between Annie led a workshop on new songs, and Roger led another about praise in the local church.  There were a good number present for the Saturday workshops, and that included a number of musicians.

On the Sunday morning the CMM team led the morning worship.  It was a really blessed weekend.

Apostle Launch Day

Helen working with the men

After a very snowy Easter (causing Annie's Jerusalem Joy in a day at Stafford to be cancelled), we turned our attention to the launch day for the new edition of Apostle.

On Saturday 13th April a large number of people gathered at Lickey Parish Church ready for the special day.  Many of them brought old Apostle scores to swap for new ones, and lots of people bought the CDs they had been waiting for.  Among those present were the soloists from the CD - Devon, Simon, Sarah, Helen, Alan, Jonathan, Richard and Bill.  Another of our associates, Carole, was there all the way from Wigan, so we gave her a little cameo solo too!

Annie's ladies' sectional (with Sarah)

The heating at Lickey had broken and it was incredibly cold that day, but they had amazingly brought in some industrial sized heaters to keep us warm.  Huge thanks to all at Lickey for doing that for us.

During the day we had some choir rehearsal together, and then we split the ladies and the men - Annie had the ladies in the church, while Helen took the men across the road to the hall.  It was really good fun, and the scratch choir sounded amazing.

Lickey Parish Church

Later in the afternoon the audience began arriving, and we were treated to some wonderful cakes and drinks again thanks to the Lickey people.  There was a wonderful atmosphere in the church, and nearly all of the seats were taken.  The performance went really well, and people were blessed by the message.

It was a wonderful day, and hopefully people have gone away enthused and excited by the potential of the musical.

Barbara showing off the books on the bookstall

The soloists in action

Roger working with the choir

The sopranos and altos

The male soloists with the tenors and basses behind

The Apostle Launch Choir!

Your Events

We are starting to hear about the many performances people are putting on over Christmas.  Please let us know so we can add them to the blog!

This came from Andy French at St. Michael's, Penkridge, Staffordshire:
"We have just started rehearsals for Stargazers and things are initially going very well.  We plan to perform the Saturday evening before Christmas and then again on the Sunday morning as part of our main worship."

If you're nearby, why not go and watch?

We also have some CMM choir performances coming up.  They are doing an evening of Christmas music including traditional carols and music by Roger:

16th November - St Thomas' Church, Aldridge, WS9 9SL, 1900
24th November - St Germain's, Edgbaston, B19 9TD, 1830
1st December - Woodside Avenue Methodist, Coventry, CV3 6BE, 1830
8th December - Holy Trinity, West Bromwich, B70 6LF, 1830

Israel Houseparty - Extension

After half of the party returned to the UK, the remaining group had a wonderful time travelling around Israel.  They visited Masada, Qumran and the Dead Sea, before travelling north to spend a couple more nights by the shores of Galilee.  Here are some of their best photos:

Israel Houseparty part 7

The Temple Mount complex

On our final full day in Israel there was an early start (apart from for a few who had been ill in the night).  The group gathered together and walked down to the Western Wall (also known as the wailing wall) and queued to go up the walkway to the top of Temple mount.  Thankfully the wait was not long, and during this time Roger had a very lengthy conversation with some Israeli soldiers about football - one of them was a Manchester United fan.  This was the friendliest chat he'd ever managed to have with soldiers!

Al-Aqsa Mosque

The group spent some time on top of Temple mount looking at the amazingly ornate Dome of the Rock and the less ornate but 3rd most holy Muslim site, the Al-Aqsa Mosque.

Afterwards the group went down beneath Temple Mount into the underground excavations of the Western Wall.  They were escorted by an orthodox Israeli lady who was very theatrical.  She asked to hear the group sing, and naturally Roger took the opportunity not to be gentle, and they sang 'On Jesus the Rock I will build my life' and 'Rock of Ages'!  Sahar, our guide, asked her if she knew that Yeshua was the Messiah.  She didn't answer!

The Western Wall

Later Sahar led everyone to the Western Wall.  Everyone is allowed to go right up to the wall, although it is segregated into men and women.  The men have to cover their heads with a Kippa.  It was a very busy day at the wall with lots of Bar Mitzvah celebrations in full swing.

From the Western Wall the group were shown around the excavations to the south of Temple Mount.  These are incredibly fascinating, and contain a huge amount of Second Temple era artifacts.

The Seder Meal

In the evening we celebrated a Seder meal together.  A Messianic Jew and his wife led us in the special ritual, and we were fed some lovely food.  It was the first time they had led the meal for Shoresh, and they did a great job.  It was a fantastic way to round off our Israel Houseparty together.

Later that night in the early hours of the morning half of the party travelled home.  It was an interesting journey as we missed our connection at Paris, but everyone finally made it home safe and sound.

The whole group (almost all!)

A Bar Mitzvah

Roger chatting to the Israeli Soldiers

Dome of the Rock

Geoff sporting his Kippa

The Seder meal

Israel Houseparty part 6

The worship group at Christ Church

Our non-stop visit to Israel continued into the Sunday with a morning service at Christ Church Jerusalem.  It was lovely to share in the morning service - Helen and Annie joined in with their worship group, and then we sang 'Just as I am as' as the offertory hymn.  The congregation were very surprised to discover a choir singing in their midst!  The service had a lovely Celtic style to it, as it was St Patrick's day.

Outside Yad Veshem

After the morning service we had a quick lunch and then travelled to Yad Veshem, the holocaust museum.  It was a very important yet harrowing experience.  The museum is incredibly well designed and built: it follows the persecution as it grows and develops, and as it is escalating the floor slopes ever downwards.  As those in the concentration are freed and the war comes to an end, the slope returns the other way.

In rehearsal

When we returned from Yad Veshem we spent a little time in prayer and worship, and then held a rehearsal for our Christ Church performance of Rock.  It was a very different acoustic (incredibly huge echo) and the choir and soloists had to work very hard to get the words across.  Huge thanks to Ben for all his help with the sound.

Janine at the bookstall

After dinner we got changed ready for the performance and assembled in the church ready.  The church was absolutely packed for the performance, and Janine did a great job running the bookstall.  We had a shaky start to the performance when the backing track didn't work, but Annie jumped onto the piano and we managed to get through the opening song without it.  By the time we needed the second backing track it was all sorted and ready to go.  The performance was a great success, and there was an excited buzz in the church afterwards with lots of deep conversations.

Thank you so much to Christ Church and Shoresh for all of the work they did advertising the musical.  It was wonderful to share with them.

The compound at Christ Church

Helen, Charles and Annie adding live instrumental work

The amazing tenors and basses

Sopranos and altos

The sopranos in rehearsal

Ann (Miriam) and Julie (Zillah) ready to perform

Israel Houseparty part 5

The wall

The following day we had to leave behind Sahar because as an Israeli he is not permitted inside Palestine. We travelled on the coach to Bethlehem, and had to journey through the checkpoint to be able to enter the town.  The wall is quite shocking to see and we continue to pray for peace in the land.

Bethlehem Bible College

Once inside the wall we went to Bethlehem Bible College, the venue of our first performance of Rock.  We left Roger and Mary there to help with the organisation, and the rest of the part went to visit the shepherds field and the church of the Nativity.  It was a bit of a frustrating day away from Shoresh organisation, but it was lovely to experience the peace of the fields and to explore the caves.

In the chapel at the Shepherds' Field

We had a lovely time in the church at the Shepherds Field.  While inside the church we sang 'Bethlehem in the Land of Judah' from While Shepherds Watched (Annie led it and we all echoed).  There was a wonderful acoustic in there, and it sounded amazing!

Entering the Church of the Nativity

The church of the Nativity is an interesting place with a very small door - you have to bow down to go in.  Sadly, once inside we discovered a very long and incredibly slow-moving queue, and we simply did not have time to stay.

Rock sopranos and altos

After another falafel lunch we went back to Bethlehem Bible College for an afternoon worship seminar meant for the students of the college - but sadly it seemed to be mostly for our own benefit!  This seminar was followed by a thought-provoking lecture from Bishawa, the honorary principal of the college.  He shared about the plight of the Palestinian people.  It is interesting to contrast the thoughts he shared with what we have witnessed on both sides of the wall.

Some of the tenors and basses

After the seminar we had a wonderful dinner provided for us by the college - lasagne and salad, much to the delight of many of the houseparty guests!

The evening performance went really well.  Sadly there weren't a huge number in the audience.  Hopefully in future we will have a stronger connection with the people at this wonderful college.

The view from the shepherds' field

The outside of the chapel at the shepherds' field

Inside the Church of the Nativity