Apostle in Scotland

From Penrith, the team set off on the long journey north to the Invergordon / Kildary / Logie Easter area, just beyond Inverness.  The next week included five rehearsals and three performances of the musical Apostle, at Logie Easter, Lossiemouth and Aberlour.  Helen made a short documentary showing a few different highlights of the ministry trip.  Enjoy!

Penrith Book Launch

While Annie was working hard in Swindon, Roger travelled with Helen, Bill, Devon, Alan and Amy up to Penrith, for a very special weekend at the Methodist Church.

The Saturday was a special 'From Pharaoh to Freedom' day, and the team worked alongside the wonderful choir that had learned the musical specially.  The choir really were excellent, trained by an amazing team led by Claire, who also sang solo.

Pharaoh was a challenge for the CMM soloists - they had all learned Apostle for the three performances coming up in Scotland for the next few days, but this one was considerably harder!  The team worked hard all morning on their own learning the music, and then joined in with the choir rehearsal in the afternoon.

One of the delights of the Penrith performance - as well as the wonderful choir and John the excellent narrator - was the group of dancers who had really thoughtfully choreographed a number of the songs.  For the song 'When I see the blood' they had one dancer with a black flag to represent the Angel of Death, and then other dancers with red flags were the blood that stopped the black flag getting past.  Then the song 'Take, eat' was incredibly moving when the dancers formed a beautiful tableaux.

The performance went well - the CMM team mostly remembered their lines, the audience were appreciative, and the choir superb.

In the morning the CMM team lead the service at the church.  Helen led most of it, with help from the team, and then Roger preached on the theme of ascension.  It was brilliant to share with the congregation there and there was good opportunity for some prayer ministry afterwards.

Then after a shared lunch, there was a short break before rehearsals began again, this time for a very special Musical Man evening.  Graham, our host in Penrith for the weekend, is the author of Musical Man, the biography of Roger Jones, and it was a wonderful opportunity to take the Circuit evening service, featuring the launch of the book.  For the majority of the service, Helen interviewed Roger, bringing out some of the moving themes Graham had covered in his writing, and the CMM team sang some songs, wonderfully supported by the Penrith choir.  One of the highlights of the evening was Graham's introduction - he handed Roger a signed copy of the book saying, "Roger Jones, here is your life!"

Huge thanks go again to Graham for organising the weekend, the choir trainers, and the amazing hosts who looked after the team so well.

Annie's road trip

A week after the music week in Grange-over-Sands, Roger, Helen and a team travelled to Penrith and Scotland for ten days.  While they were away Annie had a mini road-trip of her own, first leading 'Saints Alive in a day' at Bath Road Methodist, Swindon, on June 6th, and then 'David in a day' at Kempston East Methodist Circuit on June 13th.

Annie had quite a big team for her visit to Swindon, with the aim of performing the musical without a backing track.  She took with her Paul H (piano), Phil (vocals), Christine (flute and vocals), Peter (flute), Caroline (vocals), Lesley (violin) and Paul (French horn and vocals).  Having never worked together as a team before, everything came together excellently, along with a lovely local choir.

Annie wrote a letter of thanks to June, the organiser, and this was her response:

Dear Annie
I think I should be thanking you and the team who came with you. I'm very impressed that you remembered everyone's names. We thoroughly enjoyed our day and think Roger's music is wonderful.
May God bless you all.
Love June

She also had a message from Steve, June's son:

Hi Annie
Great to see you and be part of what happened - and the massive THANKS has to be for your generosity with your time and talent.  What you do on those days is marvellous; it wouldn't be enough to be a good musician or conductor or arranger, although you are all of those. It wouldn't even be enough to add to that superb skills handling a group of people. What about your energy, enthusiasm, positivity or sense of fun?! Or even the ability to communicate well with your planned epilogue. All of those are important. But you bring faith - real faith - witness, genuine spirituality, and grace. No-one could leave on Saturday evening without having learned a little more of God's Love. I know you'll say that comes through the words and music, through many people there, and through the prayer which covered the event - all of this is true - but to encourage you without making you proud ---- you are a channel of His peace. :-)


Then at Kempston Annie had a lovely day.  She didn't need to take a big team because they had some lovely local soloists there already.  So Jenny drove her and was a wonderful help, and then they were joined by Jenny and Eddie who live very close by.

Annie was delighted with the standard of the choir, who were all good music readers.  The Sunday School had made armour and weapons for Goliath, and even signs spelling the name 'David'.

She put this photo of the choir up on facebook:

Thanks to all those who invited CMM to come and spend a day with them.  And well done to Annie!

Mary Magdalene at Abbot Hall

The bank holiday week at the end of May marked the start of our regular music week at Abbot Hall, Kent's Bank, near to Grange-over-Sands in Cumbria.  Abbot Hall is one of the Christian Guild Hotels, and we are always looked after amazingly well by Amanda and her staff there.  Christian Guild also provide hosts for the week, and our wonderful host, as she has been for a few years now, was Marion.

The week began slightly differently with the team arriving the night before and going to Barrow in Furness.  This was for a special launch of the biography of Roger by Graham Allan.  Graham came down from Penrith specially for the evening, and Sharon had trained up a choir.  

The evening included music by Roger, as well as testimony.  Annie interviewed Roger to help him to tell his story as the evening went on.  Sharon and her choir were joined by a few CMM soloists including Barrie, Jonathan and Carol, and it all came together for a blessed and powerful evening. 

Another change to the regular Grange music week came with the team leading the morning service at St Mary's, Allithwaite.  The service there was very special indeed, with a makeshift CMM music group.  Roger preached at the service, and the congregation responded really well and joined in the worship wholeheartedly.

The musical for the week was Mary Magdalene, and after a sing-through on the Sunday evening, the rehearsals began in earnest on the Monday morning with Sharon training the choir and Annie the orchestra.  Annie had a lovely big orchestra for the week, and they made a fabulous sound.  The choir were brilliant, and there were lots of excellent soloists from among the group.

As usual Roger gave some Bible teaching each morning, this time focusing on Mary Magdalene - her "Relationship Restored", her "Way into Worship" and her "Motive for Mission".  Roger enjoys his alliteration!

Highlights from the week include a 'Musical Man' evening, where Roger and Annie led a shortened version of the evening they had held in Barrow the previous weekend.  Anthony also demonstrated his magic tricks again at the social evening.

The final performance was really excellent, although very hard work for Roger who was ready for a good rest afterwards!  The soloists were brilliant and the orchestra supported the choir excellently.

Barnabas time!

While all of those events and the finishing of the biography happened during April and May, there was a bigger project bubbling away under the surface - Roger's brand new musical, Barnabas.

Alison and Roger

Roger and Alison had been working hard for much of 2014 on the musical, getting the music and lyrics just right.  Then in December we auditioned for soloists, and we just couldn't choose!
Barnabas - Bill Carpenter
Saul - Devon Brown
John Mark - Richard Harvey
Rhoda - Ann Steer and Yvette Roberts
Miriam - Amy Carter and Catherine Muggleton

Some of the Barnabas soloists

There were others who auditioned that we hope to use as soloists as the musical develops and we take it to different places around the country.  Watch this space!

The soloists began meeting together with Roger to learn their words, and Helen along with Annie put together a group of backing vocalists ready to go into the studio.  And during this time Tim, Chris, Annie and Helen were working on the backing tracks.

Most of the team at the rehearsal day

Then came the first big day - April 18th.  Helen, Annie and the backing vocalists - Chris, Paul, Chris, Dave, Phil, Sarah, Carolynn and Katie - gathered at Lickey Church for the morning to learn the choir music.  At the same time the soloists gathered at CMM.  Then in the afternoon everyone gathered together to rehearse and then a special 'practice performance' was put on in front of a small audience at the church.  The aim behind the day was for everyone to get a good feel for the musical - particularly what expression they might put in when they sing in the studio.  It also helped Roger and Alison to hear the whole thing performed so that they could have the luxury of making tweaks and changes.

The backing vocals group

The following week the backing vocals group went into the studio, and for the first time rather than singing, Helen conducted.  The aim was to enable the group to put in more dynamics and expression than had previously been possible.  The recording went very smoothly, although the first evening particularly was very long.  Chris also was very helpful and stayed behind to put some soprano sax on the recording too.

Five of the soloists

A few days later the soloists had their opportunity.  Poor Ann had a very bad throat, but we're still pleased with what she managed to sing.  Each of the soloists did wonderfully well - the challenge came particularly with the spoken sections, and trying to make them sound authentic and not stilted.  It was a really fun few days and the recording was really beginning to take shape.

The strings in action

Next into Chris' studio were the strings under Annie's excellent leadership.  It was wonderful that she could be joined by Libby and Heather on violin.  The live strings make a massive difference to our recordings and we are so grateful to Libby and Heather for giving us the time in their busy CBSO schedules.

Michael laying down some guitar

We are delighted that for the first time Michael Jones has been able to put some guitar onto a couple of the tracks Tim has created.  Michael has been improving hugely as a guitarist over the last few years, and it is so wonderful that a new generation of the Jones family can contribute to a recording.

Church recording day

Other than a tiny bit of flute and trumpet from Helen and the final mix with Roger, the last thing to go on the recording is a huge congregational sound.  On Saturday 20th June over 150 people gathered at Christ Church, Burney Lane for our special church recording day.  We were incredibly blessed to have so many people join us, from all over the country.  Roger and Annie conducted specially selected parts of the musical, Amy was in control of the music on the screen, and Helen and Keith were at the back of the church controlling the backing tracks.  At the same time Chris was all set up in the side chapel with his equipment, capturing what was an amazing sound.

Chris in the side-chapel

The earliest mixes with the congregation sound brilliant - this is possibly the best recording of the large group we have ever achieved.  Huge thanks to Keith for his sneaky feed of the backing track through the hearing loop system - everyone with a hearing aid was able to keep the church in tune and in time!  Huge thanks too to all those who helped out with refreshments and bookstall.  It was a manic day and we wouldn't have managed without you!

One last thing to do.  The music book, Barnabas has been dedicated to Pat, who has been a member of the CMM choir for years, a huge supporter of the ministry and prayer warrior, and a family friend who has stuck by the Jones family through thick and thin.
 

Roger and Pat

Some of the team at the rehearsal day

The backing vocals group in action

Bill and Devon in the studio

Catherine in the studio

Chris with his 'assistant'

The men at the church recording day

The ladies take a turn to record

May catch-up

Blaithwaite House

May was another busy month here at CMM. It started in a wonderful way when Roger, Annie, Simon and Sarah travelled to Blaithwaite House in the Lake District to lead the church weekend away for Trinity Methodist Church, Hexham. The church had suffered a lot of heartbreak in recent years, and the retreat aimed to allow God to bring in some healing. There was a lot of prayer ministry and a great deal of blessing from God's Holy Spirit. In a message to our prayer group, Annie wrote this: "Thank you for prayers. We've had what Roger describes as a really exceptional weekend with the folk from Trinity, Hexham. One person said 'You've no idea how much you have spoken into our situation.'"  We praise God for this kind of ministry opportunity.

The Stowmarket Choir

After a well-earned weekend off, Roger, and Mary travelled to Stowmarket, where they were joined by Sarah, Catherine and Maurice.  CMM have regularly been invited to Stowmarket by Mike Arbon, and many of the musicals have been performed by the wonderful choir and soloists at St Mary's over the years.  Sarah helped with the choir a great deal, and Maurice and Catherine played violin and cello respectively.  The musical for this year was 'From Pharaoh to Freedom', and the choir and soloists were supplemented wonderfully by some excellent dancers, including a rather scary 'Angel of Death'.  After rehearsing all day on the Saturday, Roger and the team led the Sunday morning services, ahead of the performance later that day.  It was a tiring but worthwhile weekend.  It is always so good to see the choir there and share with them.  The booking is already in the diary for 2017!

Catherine and Maurice playing

The following Tuesday Helen had a special event at Coventry Methodist Central Hall.  A group of 20 had been working through an intensive 'Spiritual Formation Course' for the last year, and Helen had been invited to lead an evening on music and prayer.  This was a wonderful opportunity for Helen to share a bit about ministering in song, and also about how music can be used to bring a prophetic word.  It was great to have Amy to help that evening, and she really blessed the group there when she played her clarinet over them in a time of improvisation.

Some of our supporters at the dinner

Later on that week was the annual EBRG dinner, where the CMM staff, the EBRG prayer support group, the EBRG trustees, and some of our key supporters from the Midlands area gathered together to share in food and fellowship.  Roger gave his 'State of the Union Address' where he shared some of his ideas for the future of CMM, and encouraged the group there to pray and see what God is saying.  Exciting times!

Then May came to its conclusion with our annual music week at Grange-over-Sands.  Watch this space for a blog post covering it in more detail!

The Stowmarket Soloists

Stowmarket dancers

Sarah conducting at Stowmarket