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: