Christian Music Ministries

In the bleak midwinter...

2012-02-10T10:45:00.002Z

Snow has finally hit the UK, and we've been feeling it here at CMM. Last weekend the CMM choir's performance of Simeon at Holy Trinity West Bromwich had to be cancelled, which was an incredible shame.

Helen spoke at a fellowship meeting at Catshill Baptist on Wednesday, and thankfully she had access to the car, as cycling wouldn't have been much fun in this weather. Numbers were down due to the snow, but there were still a good 20 present, and they seemed to really appreciate the session. The cheese scones were certainly worth going out in the cold!

Don't worry - this is last year's snow.
This year isn't nearly so bad!

Tomorrow Helen takes a team to north Oxford for Apostle in a day, which should be good fun. The roads seem to be ok, so as long as there isn't too much snow the day should still go ahead. Do pray for safe travel for the team.

Roger in Israel

2012-02-09T11:11:00.002Z

Do pray for Roger and his friend Mick who are in Israel for a few days. They have an amazing programme and are travelling with Shoresh.

These are Roger's first couple of updates:

Tuesday 1324:
At Heathrow about to take off at 1420.

Tuesday 1913:
Just landed in Cyprus! Problem at Tel Aviv! Don't know what happens next!

Golan Heights

Wednesday 2200:
I'm now staying overnight on the shores of Galilee, having travelled from Tel Aviv, Joppa, Mount Gilboa and Beth Shean. We go to the Golan Heights and Caesarea Philippi tomorrow (Thursday).

Thursday 1033:
Just visited synagogue remains in Golan. Rabbis when teaching would have encouraged "tweeting". That's how folk learn by questions and interaction! My Weston vicar is entirely biblical!

For the next few days this is their programme:
Thursday 09: Golan Heights - Katzrin - toward Mt. Hermon - Caesarea Philippi - nature reserve of Dan

Friday 10: Cities of Chorazin and Capernaum - Mount of beatitudes - fish lunch - contemplative time by the shores of the lake - Kibbutz Ginossar - sail on lake

Saturday 11: Biblical city of Beth Shean - Kibbutz Alfa - overlook of Jericho - Jerusalem

Sunday 12: Worship at Christ Church Jerusalem - Tower of David - museum - evening worship at King of Kings

Monday 13: Christ Church heritage centre - Yad VaShem - Jerusalem model - optional walk on the walls of the Old City

Tuesday 14: Temple mount - Western Wall - tunnels under the Western Wall plaza - Jewish Quarter - excavations at the southern wall - Jewish Passover Seder meal

Wednesday 15: Judean wilderness - oasis of En Gedi - Dead Sea - meeting with Director of Palestinian Bible Society

Thursday 16: visit a tomb from the time of Jesus - Mount of Olives to Gethsemane - Antonia Fortress - Church of the Holy Sepulchre - Garden tomb

Friday 17: Fly home

2012-02-08T11:50:00.001Z

Last month Roger sent out his regular monthly missal with an added bonus - a free track from the latest recording, Seasons and Reasons. The track he shared was 'Faith and truth and life bestowing', because it really sums up what CMM and EBRG are thinking about at the moment - there's a line in it which says 'So in scripture, song and story, Saviour may your voice be heard'. This is most of CMM's ministry in a nutshell.

The response to the song was beyond what we expected:

"Many thanks for the New Song. We intend to use it at our Palm Sunday Musical Evening. Every Blessing! Jill"

"We had Church Cell at our home on Thurs and these words / song were perfect - thank you. I gave a copy of the words to our other 3 couples as they are so relevant to meeting together & exploring the bible and God's words to us. The theme for our meeting was "listening" so hearing Helen sing this so beautifully during our worship time was wonderful.Thanks again.Love, Helen & Mark"

"A great song - we intend to use it!" (Facebook comments)

Back in the swing of things...

2012-02-02T10:08:00.002Z

On Sunday night the CMM choir got back into action after their Christmas break with a performance of Simeon at Lickey Parish Church. The choir were welcomed warmly by the vicar, Margaret Brighton, formerly a member of the choir. The audience was a good size, and the choir made a lovely sound. This time Simeon was played by Pete, Anna by Maria, Mary by Debbie and Joseph by John Harvey. Debbie managed to hit some amazing high notes - a top Bb at one point!

The choir also featured some instrumentalists during 'Let us go to be' - Linda and Elaine on recorders and Alan on Trombone. Then Annie picked up her viola and played during the instrumental in 'I waited patiently for the Lord'.

A huge well done to all concerned - even to Alan and Sue who managed to forget their line in 'Caesar's Fractious' at exactly the same moment and substituted the identical wrong line - very impressive - clearly they think with one mind!

Looking ahead to Easter

2012-02-01T11:43:00.001Z

We're always delighted when we hear about choirs and churches who are using Roger's music for mission and outreach. I received a call this morning from Maureen in County Durham. She leads a choir called 'The Witness Choir', and whenever Roger writes a new musical, we can depend on them to take it on. She says they had a wonderful time performing Rock.

This year they are working on Two Sisters and a Funeral, and they aim to perform it in Crook on Friday 6th April, which is Good Friday at 6pm. But that's not the only thing for that day. In the morning at 11am the choir are going to be singing 'Jesus comes riding in to town' and 'Were you there when they crucified my Lord' at a Churches Together in Crook outreach event outside in the middle of the town. Maureen is particularly excited about Jesus comes, as it is at that point that representatives from all the different churches are arriving waving banners.

Do pray for Maureen, and all other choirs out there using CMM resources for mission.

A weekend to remember

2012-01-30T12:08:00.001Z

Last weekend Annie and Helen travelled with Flick and Rosey to The Oakes, a wonderful Christian Youth Centre in Sheffield. The team at the Oakes run youth and children's camps all year, and every now and again we go along to lead a performing arts weekend. There were about 35 campers in total, aged between 8 and 15 and together we performed Simeon. Quite a few of them had brought their instruments, some wanted to sing, and others wanted to dance. The Oakes has a wonderful big team working there all year round, mostly on gap years, and they also took part in the performance.

It was great to have Rosey on team for the first time, although as she is regularly on team at the Oakes she was often stolen from us and made to wash up and clean toilets! She did a brilliant job holding the choir together, singing solos and making sure the girls sang the descant at the right time.

Flick was in charge of the dancers. Before the weekend she had planned for some girl dancers, but when it came to it she had almost entirely boys and had to quickly rethink. She choreographed a wonderful 'soldier' dance for Caesar's Fractious. She then tried to send the boys away to the choir in order to work with the girls on 'O little town of Bethlehem', but they wouldn't go, so we had some interesting lyrical boy dancing! Flick says that the morning stars together were a bit more like supernovas.

The choir and orchestra went well - Helen had some brilliant singers in the choir, including quite a number of the house team, and Annie had a lovely group of instrumentalists. She had three drummers who had to take it in turns, an Eb horn, a trumpet, a flute, a clarinet, an oboe, two violas and a cello.

Another delight of the Oakes is their proud decision that the gospel is always clearly told. They do this by having some Bible teaching times, dorm time, and lots of memory verses. Mes led the Bible studies, and did an excellent job keeping the kids engaged and focused. We also learnt a brilliant song called 'Super Saviour'.

Click here to go to the CMM Facebook page and see the Oakes performance of song 2 from Simeon - Why should I be so favoured.

A weekend retreat

2012-01-16T10:36:00.000Z

This weekend EBRG travelled to Shallowford House near Stafford for our annual retreat weekend.

EBRG stands for East Birmingham Renewal Group, and was originally a house group in East Birmingham years and years ago. Gradually over time the group evolved to become a support group for Roger and Mary, then Annie and eventually Helen. EBRG still functions as a house group, but also works alongside CMM, encouraging, praying, seeking God, and keeping us all in check!

So this year EBRG travelled to Shallowford House to spend some time together. We had some wonderful input from Alison Morgan, who works for ReSource - http://www.resource-arm.net/index.html . The teaching was based on her book 'The Word on the Wind', which is a kind of follow-up to her book 'The Wild Gospel'.

On Sunday we spent the morning reflecting on what Alison had brought, and finished with some worship and prayer.

God has really blessed us all this weekend, and we look forward to the coming weeks where we reflect upon the weekends some more and think about where God is leading.

A huge thanks go to Simon and Alison who run Shallowford - they are a real blessing.

Roger's latest email

2012-01-11T11:38:00.000Z

Roger's update for January 2012:

Hi Folks

Happy New Year! I'm just one month into my Sabbatical (ends mid April). It has taken time to slow down, with admin to be done, desk to clear, VAT report to do, etc. But, the model railway rebuild has begun, and we are having lots of family & Weston times. I'm re-reading, Alison Morgan’s books in preparation for her to lead our annual EBRG retreat (14-15 Jan). Leaving Christ Church after 30 years was difficult and emotional, but we are very appreciative of all the folk there have been and still are to us. SIMEON (CMM Choir) was a good start to sabbatical and end of our time at Christ Church. We are now starting to settle in to Holy Trinity Lickey, where we already know quiet a lot of people, and Rev Margaret Brighton has been very welcoming and supportive.

Life at CMM goes on without me, and over the next few months there are exciting events:

CMM Choir presentations of SIMEON:Sun 29 Jan - Holy Trinity Lickey 1800Sun 05 Feb - Holy Trinity West Bromwich 1830Sat 11 Feb - George Rd Baptist Erdinghton 1930Sun 12 Feb - St Germain's Edbaston 1830

SING FOR JOY- day of vocal coaching and choral singing (with Katie Leaver & Steve Davis)Sat 25 Feb - St Andrew;s Barnet Green 1000-1600

Evenings with DEVON BROWN: (inc.CMM Choir)Sat 03 Mar - Marston Green Baptist Free Church *Sun 04 Mar - Millpool Hill Church Kings Heath *

Evening with ALISON FUGGLE: (inc CMM Choir)Sun 11 Mar - Harborne Baptist Church *(* = times to be confirmed)

YOUTH AND YOUNG ADULT DAY - vocalists, instrumentalists, dancers, actors, etcSat 17 Mar - Selly Oak Methodist 1030 (with 1700 performance)

For further CMM NEWS:http://www.cmm.org.uk/downloads/courses-events.pdfFacebook: https://www.facebook.com/Musicalman?ref=name#!/Musicalmanand https://www.facebook.com/pages/Christian-Music-Ministries/71919407369Twitter: https://twitter.com/CMM Blog: http://christianmusicministries.blogspot.com/CMM in Action (pictures): http://s209.photobucket.com/albums/bb229/rogerwjones/

Roger

Stargazers in Nairobi

2012-01-11T10:54:00.001Z

We have been sent a copy of a prayer letter from Fran Etemesi, a lady working in Kenya who was at college with Roger in Birmingham. Alongside the amazing missionary work she has been doing, she has also attended Lavington United Church in Nairobi, and joined the choir for their Christmas performances of Stargazers. Here is what she had to say:

"When it was announced in September that the choir, youth and other groups would be doing a cantata for Christmas I offered to join them—just for that. However ... after putting that one tentative foot in, I was so drawn by the joy, fellowship, music and fun we have that by November I was fully a choir member! Interestingly the cantata we sang at Christmas was Stargazers by Roger Jones —someone I was at college with in Birmingham about 45 years ago! We performed it three times, once at the Sarit Centre (shopping mall) on a Saturday morning bringing the Christmas message of God’s love to shoppers in the city. Last week we also sang Christmas music to patients in two of the city’s hospitals. I am being richly blessed by the fellowship and my new friends in the choir."

Your performances and emails...

2011-12-20T11:37:00.000Z

We've been hearing some wonderful reports about your own performances of Roger's musicals around the country. Here are a few comments:

Dear Roger Jones
I have just finished taking part in a two night run of your great show While shepherds watched. I thought I might take the opportunity to say I think it is fantastic and the song "Come see the beauty of the king" one of the most beautiful I have had the joy to sing.
So, thank you very much!
Merry Christmas.
Kind regards
Simon

Greetings from Whitchurch
Just to tell you that in November my wife Ruth who is a music teacher put together a scratch choir from our church and we sang Greater than Gold as our contribution to Bible Fresh year. We also used some slides that some of of our members had taken when they had done the actual walk. It was a great evening and really enjoyed by all. It want so well they are now saying we should do Saints Alive for Pentecost!!
Blessings for you all this Christmas
Michael Parrott
Minister St Johns Methodist Church in Whitchurch

Dear Roger - I know you don't know me, but my husband Malcolm and I were at one of your Presentations at SCARGILL, near Kettlewell a short time ago - and as I stated then, "we were just 'blown away' by the Performance, and overwhelmed by your gift (similar to Gareth Malone of T.V. fame - don't know if he is a Christian or not - he ought to be!)--of getting the very best out of people who think they don't have any gift at all.
Isn't it a shame when there's talent going to waste? - Anyway, it would be super to see you MORE "up North" and I trust that you and your wife Mary have a truly Blessed, Restful few months and that Christmas will be very special for you.
Sorry to trouble you, but we wish you all God's Richest Blessings and look forward to meeting you again sometime - if not here - then 'in the air' when Jesus comes again - praise His Wonderful Name.....God Bless - Janet Hughes

Roger and Mary - May your sabbatical journey provide you with a powerful sense of God's presence in your life - in ways you never imagined - much as happened to Dale and me on our sabbatical journey this summer! Blessings to you both - we shall hold you in our prayers.
fondly,
Beth Meyer
p.s. On December 18th in worship at Christ Church UCC here in Milwaukee, our Church School children are presenting what we suspect is the US Premier of your "Away in a Manger" - it's been a thrill to share some of your music with our congregation on other Sundays as well

Dear Roger
The Soulstice Singers would like to thank you so much for 'Wildfire'. We formed a community choir last summer which included twenty chilidren from the Primary School and representatives from each of the churches in Amesbury.
We gave three performances at the Abbey church in Amesbury and have been requested to give another performance at the Baptist Church in February. Proceeds went to our contact with the church in South Sudan.
The Holy Spirit was so gracious in touching people in different ways and the children can still be heard going round school singing 'I was glad when they said to me, "let us go into the house of the Lord".
We are now looking forward to rehearsing a new production for next summer.
Attached are a few photos as requested - the choir with MD Revd Wenda Rioch,
Jewishe leaders and children singing Come Holy Spirit.
Best wishes and blessings this Christmastide.
Wenda.

CMM Christmas Newsletters

2011-12-20T10:49:00.000Z

Roger has just sent out his latest update:

Hi Folks

Below are links to our various Christmas Newsletters. Please do have a look,
as we have so much to share with you all:

Poppy's Pages - the Jones Family newsletter
inc. family news, our new grandaughter, pictures, etc
plus CMM new titles by Roger Jones, Alison Fuggle, Peter Lawrence,
and CMM Events 2012, inc. a Youth Day and Singing Day:
http://www.cmm.org.uk/downloads/newsletters/12-11-pp.pdf

Annie Routley's news
inc. work with CMM, CMM Choir, new Smart Car, etc:
http://www.cmm.org.uk/downloads/newsletters/12-11-ar.pdf

Helen Pollard's news
inc. family, recordings, productions, holiday in Skye, Chanterelles, etc
http://www.cmm.org.uk/downloads/newsletters/12-11-hp.pdf

Roger Jones
Christian Music Ministries

The weekend before Christmas

2011-12-20T10:48:00.000Z

The weekend before Christmas is always a busy one, and for Helen and Annie this year was no exception. On Saturday evening they went to St. John's House - an Anglican Convent in the Alum Rock/Ward End area of Birmingham to hold an advent evening for the sisters and their guests. The Community of St. John the Divine have always been a wonderful support to CMM, both prayerfully and practically - giving Miriam accommodation when she did her gap year, and allowing Helen to stay for 3 years. They also allowed us to use one of their spare rooms for stock when Roger and Mary sold 327 Bromford Road.

The advent evening was wonderful - Annie and Helen took the theme light, and used a variety of readings, carols and songs to enable people to reflect on the theme and prepare for the coming of the Light of the World. After the presentation everyone retired to the refectory for tea, coffee and amazing mince pies. It was a lovely prayerful evening.

Then on Sunday Annie had her carol service at church, which had been a lot of hard work for her arranging the music and organising the instrumentalists and singers. A couple of songs from the CMM repertoire crept in to the service, including 'How silent waits the listening earth' from Seasons and Reasons.

Helen was also busy on the Sunday with two services at Saltley Methodist. In the morning service Helen and James led worship despite both suffering from colds. In the evening at the carol service, Helen led one song on guitar (thankfully helped by Amy as Helen's voice quickly disappeared!), but also it was Helen's kids club the Tribe's time to shine - they started off the service with Silent Night, and then finished the whole thing off with Chris Rice's beautiful 'Welcome to our world'. The Tribe have their Christmas treat today which they have worked hard to earn - a trip to Funaticz - a kids play warehouse in Stechford.

Busy few days for Annie #2

2011-12-16T15:37:00.000Z

In the busy few days for Annie post I started a day late! On the Saturday before the CMM choir's production of Simeon, Annie travelled down to Weston-super-Mare for Simeon in a day. A lot of the work had already been done locally, so Annie didn't have too huge a task with the choir, but she says it was a lovely day and she had a great team. Alongside local soloists Annie was joined by Caroline and Phil who played Mary and Simeon.

Roger and Mary were having a few days in Weston, so they came to see the production, which was a great encouragement to everyone.

A busy few days for Annie

2011-12-15T09:43:00.002Z

Annie's run up to Christmas is very busy indeed. On Sunday night the CMM Choir held their latest performance of Simeon, this time at St. Thomas' Aldridge. Pat, who was supposed to have been singing the part of Mary, was ill, and the other soloist that had learnt the part was away, so Sue Walker stepped into the breach. She did a wonderful job, and Annie says she had to be careful not to look at Alan, because he was weeping every time she sang!

Annie went on to say this:

It was a really lovely production, with Edgar singing Simeon – resplendent in genuine prayer shawl – and holding the baby Jesus – the Middle-Eastern one this week, which looked wonderful. He has the most beautiful expression and shining eyes, and all the soloists used him as a visual aid in such a lovely and worshipful way that I was really moved. Soloists: Edgar, Sue Walker, David Hall, Francis Shakespeare, David Newell, Alan Walker and Elaine Brittle. We ended, as last week, with ‘From heaven you came, helpless Babe – this is our God, the Servant King.’

Then this week Annie's work continued (joined by Helen) as she travelled to Grenfell Baptist for their ladies' fellowship Christmas service. Annie accompanied the carols on piano, with Helen on flute, and then both of them sang 'How silent waits the listening earth' from Seasons and Reasons and then 'Mary and her man called Joe' from Simeon. It is always lovely to attend this fellowship - Grenfell Baptist was the church Roger and Mary met at, and other EBRG members such as Gill have connections there.

Then later today, Annie and Helen are going to Sutton Coldfield Baptist Church to lead their ladies' fellowship Christmas meeting, and then on Saturday they are taking the same programme (though extended) to the sisters at St. John's House in Ward End.

The end of a busy weekend

2011-12-08T14:01:00.000Z

And the busy CMM weekend culminated in a wonderful performance of Simeon from the CMM choir at Christ Church, conducted by Annie. For this performance, Debbie played Mary, David played Joseph, Pete took the part of Simeon, and Elaine the part of Anna. There were also instrumental highlights - Alan on trombone, Jan and Elaine on recorders, and Annie on the viola. Very impressive to both conduct and play!

Roger (and I imagine the rest of the congregation) was blown away by the performance and was raving about it in the office. Roger gave the talk at the end of the performance too - his last official job before his sabbatical begins. Unfortunately we don't have any photos of the actually performance, but we do have a couple of shots from backstage before it all began.

The busy weekend continues

2011-12-08T13:59:00.001Z

The day after the Inn Crowd in Hinckley, CMM's busy weekend continued. Helen and James (and Amy) went to Saltley Methodist to lead worship - Helen's kids club was meant to be involved in one of the songs in the service but unfortunately the projector broke so the carefully planned service had to be completely revamped. Never a dull moment at Saltley!

Just down the road, Roger, Mary and the whole family (including Poppy) travelled to Christ Church for what was their last official Sunday as part of that church. The service was led by Jane, but Roger played for the praise with Pat and Mary on vocals and Tim making a cameo on drums. Apparently during the service Roger managed to break the piano - leaving in style!

It was a very moving occasion for Roger and Mary as they have been part of the congregation there for many years and have experienced some highs and lows with them.

After the service was an amazing lunch prepared by Pat, including a special cake that Roger and Mary had to cut together. And of course Roger gave a speech...

The Inn Crowd in Hinckley

2011-12-08T13:59:00.000Z

On the 3rd December, Roger, Helen, Devon, Ann, Simon & Laura, Emily and Amy travelled to Hinckley for 'The Inn Crowd'. Simon's sister Rachael had been doing all of the preparation work and choir training for the day, and their mum Sue had also done an amazing amount of work - including cooking a special casserole that didn't include any of the bits Devon normally picks out! An amazing feat!

Roger worked hard with the choir, rehearsing and doing some bible teaching, Helen and Amy played various instruments - this time it was a horn, a trumpet, a flute, a bassoon, a clarinet and briefly the piano! Ann and Devon played the parts of Debbie and Sam, and Emily and Simon were Mary and Joe. It was quite nerve-wracking for Emily to sing, as she is a lay worker in the Hinckley circuit, and it was the first time many of them had heard her sing. She had no need to be worried though as she has an amazing voice.

Rachael had also trained some amazing shepherds - Fern, Lisa and Jacob - all three of them had really good voices and stole the show. The tenors and basses were all too chicken to sing solo, so we had an extra large group of wise men - which was great fun.

The general atmosphere was wonderful - there was a nice sized audience and a lot of fun was had by all! Laura did an amazing job on the bookstall as always, and we were also blessed by John running the sound system and doing a great job. Sadly we don't have any photos of the day but I've included a couple from our Hinckley Rock performance anyway - the choir were a lot more Christmassy this time round though!

And on the same day...

2011-12-08T13:58:00.000Z

On the same day as Two Sisters in Macclesfield, Annie travelled to an evangelical church in Stafford to lead the Inn Crowd in a day. She had a wonderful team with her - Richard H and Katie as Sam and Debbie, and Simon C and Catherine as Joe and Mary.

Annie says the day was wonderful - the church were incredibly welcoming. The pastor had been the main one organising the event, so it really helps when the church leadership are right behind you. The church was packed for the performance, which was brilliant, and with those wonderful soloists Annie says that it was just like 'surfing a wave'.

Two Sisters in Macclesfield

2011-12-08T10:44:00.000Z

At the end of November, CMM was in two places once again (actually, 3 if you could the UCS Manchester's performance of Two Sisters on the same day!). Roger and Helen travelled to Macclesfield with Devon, Amy, Richard and Alan. It was Richard's first gig with CMM in years, and it was brilliant to have him with us! He got back in touch by last year joining the CMM fantasy football league, which he promptly won, which made Roger ring him and ask him to come and sing again!

The day in Macclesfield was organised by Wendy Moss, who Roger and Mary have known for year - she has regularly organised Macclesfield events, as well as come to quite a few of our music weeks and events. It was great to see her, and the choir trainer Dot - together they make a wonderful team.

The choir had had three rehearsals before the day, and on listening to them it sounded like they had had 10 or more - they were wonderful. There were quite a few familiar faces from our music weeks too - all of them good singers, so we knew the sound would be good.

Alan on our team used to live in Macclesfield, so he had great fun being a baddie and chatting to all of the choir members. It was also great to have Amy singing, as she's recently had to have an operation near her vocal chords - and thanks to God she has recovered amazingly.

Wendy had brought in a wonderful sound technician, Elliot, who did an incredible job. Elliot isn't a Christian, but while setting up the sound and watching the musical though at least twice he's heard a lot of gospel, so we do pray for him!

The performance wasn't brilliantly attended because unfortunately it clashed with quite a few events across the town, but we know and trust that God will have brought the right people. We know that the choir were really blessed too - one of the words of knowledge we had had beforehand was instantly claimed, so we praise God for that!

Sabbatical Day 1

2011-12-05T11:55:00.000Z

So Roger's sabbatical has begun, and his first job - putting up Christmas lights!

Roger is on sabbatical from today until April 19th, and we in the office are looking forward to having some peace and quiet! But on a serious note, do pray for Roger and Mary at this time - that they are really blessed and able to meet with God in new and exciting ways. The sabbatical will include various retreats (in Weston and other places) and trips to Israel and Cyprus. And who knows - maybe Roger will get creative!

Two Sisters in Hemel Hempstead

2011-11-28T14:13:00.000Z

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

2011-11-28T11:07:00.000Z

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...

Latest email mailing

2011-11-25T14:04:00.000Z

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

2011-11-25T10:20:00.000Z

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

2011-11-25T10:10:00.000Z

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.

A new book and CD!

2011-11-24T11:17:00.000Z

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

2011-11-24T10:32:00.000Z

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.

CMM at Scargill House

2011-11-23T11:36:00.000Z

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.

Two Sisters at Rhos-on-Sea

2011-11-18T14:32:00.000Z

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

2011-11-18T13:50:00.001Z

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.

Seasons and Reasons Recording day

2011-11-17T16:38:00.001Z

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

Stargazers in Welshpool

2011-11-03T16:14:00.000Z

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

2011-11-03T16:11:00.000Z

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!

Recording time!

2011-10-20T10:47:00.000+01:00

While Roger and team were in Cornwall, Annie got to work recording the backing vocals for the new album, Seasons and Reasons, which is due out in November. The group consisted of Ann Steer, Katie Leaver and Miriam Dix on soprano, Annie Routley and Sarah Moreton on alto, Dave Tandy and Dave Roberton on tenor, and then Paul Edwards and Dave Roberton on bass (yes, Dave R did have to work hard!). The group put down some fantastic vocals, including various bits of solo work, which was fantastic.

Then a few days later Roger returned with lots of soloists to put down the rest of the vocals. On the first day soloists included Devon Brown, Helen Pollard, Ann Steer, Amy Carter, Fran Smith, Simon & Lou Gudger, Sheila Davies and Catherine Muggleton. Then on the second day of recording there were some from the previous day, but also Kathleen Owen, Richard Ayres, Megan Catherwood, Rosie Elliot and Katie Leaver. Bob Deakin also came and recorded on an earlier date. And we also had a cameo singing role

Helen, Amy, Ann, Fran and Sheila

Devon and Katie

Megan

Richard and Roger

Kathleen and Rosie

Dave, Paul and Dave

Katie, Miriam, Ann, Sarah and Annie

The recording has been great fun, although there was a huge amount to be done. Lots of the backing tracks are the same, but all 32 songs still require a lot of work as all of the vocals are completely different to before. We look forward to hearing the results!

New mailing

2011-10-17T14:47:00.002+01:00

Not long after our trip to Cornwall, we managed to send out the latest mailing. Here's Roger's email version:

Hi Folks

This is our very important half-yearly mailing. Please do download these items as they contain much more information than I can include here.

There are two parts:

(1) Autumns 2011 NEWSLETTER: (in hi or lo-res)

lo-res:

http://www.cmm.org.uk/downloads/newsletters/09-11-cmmnews-lowres.pdf

hi-res (more pictures):

http://www.cmm.org.uk/downloads/newsletters/09-11-cmmnews-hires.pdf

(2) STILL RUNNING THE RACE - explaing our vision and plans for the future, 2012-

http://www.cmm.org.uk/downloads/cmmappeal.pdf

STOP PRESS!!!
SALLY gave birth to MOLLY CAROLYN on 09 Sep. She and KARL are very delighted (but very tired!), and we are all thrilled to have a new Grandaughter!

A few pictures will be available on: http://s209.photobucket.com/albums/bb229/rogerwjones/FAMILY/?start=all

Two new CMM products are being published at the beginning of October:

FISHERMAN'S FRIEND - Alison Fuggle's poems and lyrics - these will thrill you, and make you laugh and cry!
SEASONS AND REASONS Music Book- a major project with Bishop Timothy Dudley-Smith - 32 hymns, with his words and my tunes.

These will soon be available for order on the CMM Web Site: http://www.cmm.org.uk/products/catalogue/index.php?newproducts=1

We so value your support, whether it be financially, prayerfully or being actively involved in our events. Some of you do all three, and we are so grateful! Do have a good look at the STILL RUNNING THE RACE leaflet:

http://www.cmm.org.uk/downloads/cmmappeal.pdf

Bless you all!

Roger Jones

An Exciting announcement

2011-10-17T14:13:00.002+01:00

Molly, with proud parents Karl and Sally (and piglet)

During our visit to Treloyhan, Sally gave birth to a new granddaughter for Roger and Mary. Molly Carolyn Taylor was born on Friday 9th September at 2pm.

Staying on in Cornwall

2011-10-17T13:35:00.002+01:00

Bob in action

Since we were down in Cornwall, we took the opportunity to spend some time with the churches down there over the weekend. Several months ago we had been invited by the St. Martin singers at the parish church in Camborne to visit them and perform Two Sisters and a Funeral. The CMM team was supplemented by Bob Deakin, who came to sing the part of Jesus, with Bill as Lazarus, Amy as Martha and Catherine as Mary. There were also lovely cameos from Barrie and Garry as the baddies!

We met the singers on the Thursday night for a rehearsal, and then spent all of Saturday with them. They sang really well, and it was also great to be assisted by Adam on the PA, and his son Joe entertaining us by building a large train out of a kind of duplo at the back.

The performance was great - the church was really full, and the audience seemed to really appreciate all that went on. Huge thanks to Jan for inviting us, and looking after us so well!

The West Briton's review of the event

Following on from our successful visit to Camborne, we spent the Sunday in Methodist circles in Truro, beginning with the morning service at Threemilestone, and then an evening circuit service at Truro Methodist Church.

It was great to be at Threemilestone again with John and Gill Harris (who had taken part in the choir for the music week and at Camborne). We led the morning service based on Martha, and then in the evening Roger spoke about Lazarus. The morning went well - Amy and Bob sang 'If I could do something' as part of it. We were then treated to our second Cornish Pasty meal of the weekend, and then Catherine, Bob and Bill headed home, leaving Roger, Helen and Amy to carry the flag in the evening.

At the evening service we were joined by a drummer, and there was also a circuit choir who sang Man of Sorrows really beautifully. As a response song Helen and Amy sang 'Just as I am', and it was great to see so many of the congregation could remember it from the tour of Rock two years ago. After his talk, Roger offered prayer for anyone who wanted it, and we were delighted to have quite a few take up the offer.

A week in Cornwall

2011-10-14T11:45:00.002+01:00

The team out paddling

At the start of September, Roger, Mary, Helen, Amy, Bill and Catherine all travelled down to Treloyhan Manor, one of the five hotels in the Christian Guild chain. This is CMM's fourth visit to Treloyhan, and this year we used the musical 'The Torn Curtain' as a focus, learning the music, but also thinking about the Tabernacle and what it says to us about worship and approaching the throne of grace.

Bob on guitar

After a bit of a hectic first evening due to traffic issues, things settled down for the week. We had a lovely group of participants in the week, some of whom had travelled an immensely long way to be there. Most of the guests decided to sing in the choir, but we had Bob on guitar, and a group of dancers who had worked incredibly hard in advance of the week.

This is the first update Helen sent during the week:

Just a quick update email from Treloyhan. The week so far is going pretty well. We actually have quite a number of people on the course with us this week, which is encouraging, and there is also a walking group here alongside us. They pretty much get on with their own thing, but hopefully they'll come to see the 'performance' on Friday night.

Barrie enjoying the water

Before Amy and I arrived late on Saturday there was a bit of an interesting time. Roger, Mary and Catherine got stuck in traffic, and Bill's car broke down, so the first evening's session was a bit fraught. And it was only added to when one of the guests was ill with an epileptic fit. It did bring about a bit of a sense of community though, and people have really taken him into their hearts Sunday morning's service went really well - I preached, and Roger led the rest of the praise, which seemed to go down really well. From conversations round the dinner table there are a lot of traditionalists around this week, but there are still quite a few who are up for the worship songs.

Yesterday we had our first main session, and Roger managed to get people really involved with his talk by using a 'bible drill' type thing. I suspect a few more may bring their bibles this morning!

Anyway, I'm about to lead worship this morning, and Roger is speaking. He has decided at the last minute to change a lot of his talk, so do pray for that. The session starts at 10am. This afternoon we have a music in worship workshop, and this evening we are watching a dvd about the King James Bible.

Then later in the week Helen sent another update:

Alistair opening the show with his solo

The last couple of days have gone really well - thanks so much for your prayers. Tuesday morning's session went well - God really moved in one lady in particular, and I was able to pray for her.

Yesterday we had good weather for the day off, which was nice, and the choir rehearsal in the evening which can so often be a lot of hard work went really well.

This morning was very special - Amy led worship and then Roger spoke about 'Receiving in the most holy place' - the third of the tabernacle talks. The group were up for receiving at the end, and quite a few of them were showing clear signs of the Spirit moving on them - so praise God for that!

Kath singing her solo in rehearsal

Tonight we travel to Camborne for a Two Sisters rehearsal with the choir there. Please pray it goes well, and that the hosts here have a good time leading the games evening. I'm delighted with the hosts - they were a last minute inclusion in the week, but they are really lovely, and right on the ball theologically. It is great to see them both having prayer ministry appointments with people in the afternoons.

One final update came from Helen at the end of the week:

Yesterday we had a day of rehearsing and performing while Cornwall was shrouded in a really thick sea mist. In the morning full rehearsal, the choir were amazing - perhaps they peaked too soon! We also fitted in the dancers and the soloists, and had Bob Munn playing guitar, which was great. I think everyone was delighted with what they had achieved.

The dancers and choir in rehearsal

The evening performance didn't go quite so well, but no-one minded. Barrie was happy with his solo, and the event was really moving. Our Bill narrated, and host Bill led the communion. The audience was quite small, but they really got into it. We ended with a couple of impromptu worship songs, and there was a wonderful atmosphere - as one of the audience put it, God's Holy Spirit was clearly among us.

Today we say our goodbyes to most of the people from the music week, and travel to Camborne where we have a day of rehearsals, and then a performance of Two Sisters tonight. Tomorrow we take two services in Truro - one at Threemilestone Methodist, and then a circuit service at Truro Methodist.

Your events

2011-09-30T14:51:00.004+01:00

We just had this email in from a lady in Malton:

Roger,
We have just shared Greater than Gold with a very full chapel and everyone really enjoyed taking part and listening to the music and drama.

We had a choir of 45 and a drama team. We used piano and drums. Our drummer is a chap who wandered far away from the Lord but has come back. He said that he had really been helped and encouraged by taking part.

A number of the singers have never sang a RJ musical before and really loved the music. The only complaint is that they cannot stop singing the songs even in the supermarket. We were really blessed with our 'Mary' she sang so well and loved every moment. When she thanked the Lord for her Bible there were many wet eyes in the chapel.

So thank you for your music and for the joy we have all shared as we sang it.
God bless you and the team at CMM.
Margot Taylor, Malton.

CMM at Willersley Castle

2011-09-30T13:30:00.003+01:00

Phil training the choir at Willersley

In mid-August a team from CMM travelled to Willersley Castle, near Cromford in Derbyshire. Willersley Castle is one of the Christian Guild hotels, and our visit there has become one of the highlights of the year. CMM's team for the week were Roger, Mary, Annie, Phil and Kathleen. Annie took the orchestra, and Phil led the choir and played piano for the final performance.

The musical this year was Two Sisters and a Funeral, and this was our third music week to take this theme. Annie had a nice big orchestra to work with, including two violins, a flute, clarinet, soprano sax, cornet, guitar, drums and piano accordion.

During the week Roger led three Bible studies looking at the different characters in the story - Mary, Martha and Lazarus. The Mary talk focuses on worship, and being able to sit at Jesus' feet. The Martha talk goes into some depth looking at Martha's character - both what she did right and what she did wrong. Finally the talk featuring Lazarus takes Jesus' line 'Take off the graveclothes, let him go!' and thinks about what graveclothes we might still be wearing even though we have given our lives to Jesus.

On the first morning Annie preached - and she really enjoyed it. It's always great when Annie gets to speak at a meeting, as she is a really good communicator. Another highlight of the week was a dvd evening when the group watched a documentary about the making of the King James version of the Bible. A number of the group bought popcorn specially!

The final performance went really well. Earlier in the week the request for soloists at the auditions resulted in no men at all, which was a big issue when a Jesus, a Lazarus and at least two baddies were needed! Clyde forgot, so he was soon commandeered into being Jesus. Jonathan had managed to come to quite a few bits and pieces during the week because his wife Linda was staying, and as he had sung Lazarus on a few occasions for the CMM choir, he filled in the gap! Then Richard and his family came to watch the final performance, so Richard became chief baddie!

It was a great week - thanks to the staff at Willersley Castle for their hospitality. Looking forward to next year, where we'll be learning the musical David, but interspersing a lot of activities to do with music and worship.

Helen at Carter's Lane Baptist

2011-09-22T12:35:00.000+01:00

On the Tuesday after Lee Abbey, Helen went to Carter's Lane Baptist Church in Halesowen to speak. They have a lovely fellowship meeting, with approximately 30 regularly attending. Helen gave her testimony and interspersed it with various songs, and despite a powerpoint issue, the evening went really well.

God had really been at work because in the few days before the evening, one of the most prominent members of the group had died suddenly, and the evening was exactly what they all needed.

Two Sisters at Lee Abbey

2011-09-22T12:31:00.000+01:00

The grand pudox match

At the end of July, Roger, Mary, Annie, Helen and Sally travelled down to Lee Abbey for our annual music week. This year the musical was Two Sisters, and with the Abbey full we were looking forward to a great week.

Mary's Birthday

It was fantastic having Sally on the team again, and this year she brought her husband Karl. She did a great job organising the drama and also leading a dance workshop while 8 months pregnant! It was great to have Karl around too - he'd never been to anything like this before, and he managed really well.

The wonderful choir

Unlike previous years at Lee Abbey where Paul has come and trained the choir, this time Paul came and played piano for the orchestra, and Helen put the choir through their paces. The orchestra were amazing - there were 6 violins, a viola, 4 cellos, 2 flutes, a trombone, a trumpet, a bass guitar, two acoustic guitars, a clarinet, an oboe, drums and the piano. One of the biggest orchestras we've had, and they made a wonderful sound.

The enormous orchestra

One of the features of our weeks at Lee Abbey is the contribution made by the members of the community. We had a wonderful team supporting our week, including Ben and Pippa, who have often been involved in our music weeks in the past. The House team led some wonderful evening 'Christ in Quiet' sessions, and also led worship at various times. On the Tuesday evening many of the team were involved in a wonderful international evening singing solos and playing instruments. The Lee Abbey summer show on the Thursday evening was also really excellent - this year for the first time it was written by Caleb, the son of the warden.

The final performance was wonderful - it was kicked off in style by an oboe quintet. Then we had some wonderful solos from a number of the guests, and some very dramatic narrations. There was standing room only for the audience, and a brilliant atmosphere.

North East Tour

2011-09-16T12:22:00.001+01:00

Richard, Alan and Pete

In July, CMM travelled way up to the North East of England for a weekend of events:

First, we visited Cotherstone, a small village near Barnard Castle, and home to Mike and Barbara, who are wonderful long-term supporters of Roger and Mary, and long-distance members of EBRG. We went to the Methodist chapel in the village and led an afternoon and evening music in worship session with the people there. Mike and Barbara had done their homework and a number of people came from far and wide. It was a wonderful time, and we were really delighted with the way God was moving. Ahead of the weekend we had spent some time waiting on God for words of knowledge and prophecies, and many of the word/pictures we had received were claimed and used.

Danny, Dave, and the tenors and basses

The church at Blyth filling up

On the Saturday we drove up to Blyth to the Methodist Church there. It was great to see so many friends from previous visits. Danny and Dave had done a wonderful organisation and choir training job, and the choir were really very good. We had only taken a partial team up to Barnard Castle with us, and the rest joined us mid-morning. We had with us Helen and Emily as Martha and Mary, Richard and Devon as Jesus and Lazarus, and Pete and Alan as the baddies. We all really enjoyed lining up Richard, Alan and Pete next to each other - spot the difference! There was a really good audience for the performance, and it was great to spend so much time sharing with the choir during the day.

The Sunderland choir

The choir in action

On the Sunday we travelled down to Ewesley Road Methodist in Sunderland to take the morning service and then rehearse and perform Two Sisters. The morning service was great fun - Helen got all of the congregation jumping up and down for the children's song, and also singing through a block of praise. Roger's sermon about the 'More than God' was much appreciated, and it was great to chat and pray with the congregation afterwards. In the afternoon the choir arrived in their spectacularly colourful clothes, and we had a great rehearsal. Val had done a great job with the choir, assisted by George. Unfortunately Emily was ill in the rehearsal, which led to an interesing version of Mary played by Richard. But thankfully she was much better in the evening.

We had a wonderful weekend, and even managed to get our lines just about right! Thanks to all those involved.

Methodist Conference

2011-08-23T10:31:00.000+01:00

While Roger and Annie were in Yardley and Digbeth, Helen was in Southport for Methodist Conference 2011 playing trumpet and singing in the band. It was an amazing honour to be asked, and while it wasn't an official CMM event, it was a fantastic opportunity for networking. At every Methodist-related CMM event since, there has been someone who was at Conference! Hopefully in future our links with the conference may grow - perhaps a stand at the exhibition might be a good start...

Visit this link if you want to see a bit of what Helen was up to.

Rock in Yardley and Digbeth

2011-08-23T10:22:00.000+01:00

At the start of July, Roger, along with Annie and Sarah, went to Yardley and Digbeth in Birmingham to take part in their performances of Rock. The main organisers of the event included Anne Maddox, who used to work in the CMM office.

The choir, soloists, actors and dancers had been preparing for weeks, and all Roger had to do was to conduct the performances - although of course that's a lot harder than it sounds! Annie and Sarah played their instruments, adding an extra dimension to the final performances over the weekend.

The soloists did an excellent job, and it was also great to see Jacob Maddox as one of the dancers.

It was a wonderful community event, and incredibly well attended. It shows how useful a tool the musicals can be when churches get together to share the gospel in a way that is accessible and fun.

Renewal Evening - Bishop Michael Whinney

2011-08-08T11:35:00.000+01:00

On Sunday 26th June, we held the latest of our series of Renewal Evenings at Christ Church, Ward End. This time the speaker was Bishop Michael Whinney, who has long been a friend and supporter of CMM.

This was the first time Roger has been missing for one of these services, so instead Helen led the worship with a wonderful team - Pat, Katie and Martin on vocals, Amy on flute and tenor sax, Miriam on clarinet, Dave on guitar and soprano sax, Annie on keys and Tim on drums.

Before Bishop Michael spoke, we were honoured to hear a testimony from Rev Walter Barrientos, who was a representative of the Anglican diocese of Bolivia. He had a wonderful story of a miraculous healing from cancer, and he shared with us a little about the church in South America.

It was lovely to hear Bishop Michael, and he led into a wonderful time of openness to God's Spirit. We all got into pairs and prayed for one another, which was slightly different to the usual ministry time, but it ensured that everyone was blessed and involved. Annie led the music during the ministry time.

Two Sisters in Nottingham

2011-07-26T12:07:00.000+01:00

The choir at Nuthall

Towards the end of June, not long after our return from Ireland, there were two productions of Two Sisters and a Funeral in Nottingham. Richard Harvey, one of our regular soloists, was one of the main organisers, along with Carolynn and Yvette, who have also sung for CMM on several occasions. Carolynn has trained choirs for CMM in the past - most recently for the Leicester or Derby performances on the main tours.

Carolynn and Yvette

The two performances were at Nuthall Methodist Church and Newthorpe Baptist Church. Nuthall is Richard's home church, and we have travelled there previously for a pre-Canada performance of Rock in early 2010, and a performance from the Dance group earlier this year. It's great that they were happy to have us back! Newthorpe also has a bit of a history with CMM. It is not just the home church of Carolynn and Yvette, but it was also the church of Keith Riley, who sang the part of Jairus on the Jairus' Daughter CD. Sadly he died before the premiere in 1992, but there has always been a link between CMM and Newthorpe Baptist in his memory.

Helen and Kevin

The choir represented many churches, and had been working hard over many weeks. They were a wonderful group, sounded great, and had memorized their words (on the whole!), which makes a huge difference in the performance. The soloists for these events were Devon (Lazarus), Carolynn (Mary), Yvette (Martha) and Richard (Jesus). The choir had provided their own singers for the extra parts, although CMM's Jonathan also made a guest appearance. Helen and Kevin provided some extra instrumental work.

Choir prayers at Newthorpe

Both performances were in front of packed audiences, and there was a lovely atmosphere - thanks so much to Richard, Carolynn and Yvette for all their hard work in making this such a wonderful occasion.

Richard wrote this:

The evening [Nuthall], and the following night's performance at Newthorpe, was a truly ecumenical experience, with 4 denominations coming together in the choir alone. I know that many people were moved by the message of '2SAF' and we were so grateful that you were able to fit Nuthall and Newthorpe into your busy schedule.
The four soloists

From my own perspective, it was interesting to view a CMM event from the perspective of the host church; it's taught me a lot about the preparation which goes into hosting an event, and how important the evening is to the local people.

CMM Choir

2011-07-21T10:21:00.000+01:00

On Sunday 19th June, the CMM Choir finished off their wonderful tour of the West Midlands with their final performance of Two Sisters and a Funeral at Annie's church - St. Germain's in Edgbaston.

They have had a wonderful time, with great performances and very good audiences. Annie was delighted with the performance at her church particularly. She writes this:

"Sunday night’s ‘Two Sisters’ with CMM Choir was wonderful: the church was packed with visitors, and one of our church youngsters gave her heart to the Lord – Pat led her in the prayer of commitment afterwards. It was the last piece in the jigsaw for her in coming to faith in Christ, and we are thrilled."

So a big well done goes to all of the choir, Annie and Sylvia for their hard working in training them, to Paul and Kim for sorting out the sound, and also to the soloists:
Jesus - Alan and David
Lazarus - Jonathan and Pete
Mary - Sue and Fran
Martha - Linda and Debbie
'Baddies' - Dave
(I hope the list is right!)

The Lamb

2011-07-18T15:32:00.000+01:00

While Roger, Helen and the team were away in Ireland, Annie was as busy as ever. She had several performances of Two Sisters with the CMM choir in Birmingham, and she also had a special musical in a day event.

On Saturday 18th June, Annie led 'The Lamb' in a day at Wylde Green URC near Sutton Coldfield. The Lamb was written by Beresford King-Smith back in 1978 and was revised in 2000. The lyrics were written by his wife Margot, who has sadly since passed away.

Beresford chose this event specially to celebrate his 80th birthday, and it was an honour for CMM to be able to contribute to the celebrations, as he has been such a wonderful supporter over the years.

The Lamb begins on the banks of the Jordan with John the Baptist, but then moves quickly on to the story of the passion, journeying with Jesus right through his resurrection and looks forward to the time when we will worship him in all his glory.

Annie had a lovely choir and an excellent group of instrumentalists for the day, and she says that the concert at the end of the day was absolutely wonderful and that everyone was very appreciative. The Lamb was very challenging to complete in a day, but Annie was delighted with the achievement.

So happy birthday Beresford!

The final Ireland update

2011-07-14T12:14:00.000+01:00

Hi all,

We made it home from Ireland on Monday, and it has been a fantastic trip.

Roger and Deidre

The performance on Saturday evening was wonderful. The ticket sales had been very slow earlier in the week, but when the evening came it was absolutely packed out. 3 car loads came up from Bailieborough to watch, and they had a wonderful time.

A lot of those that came to watch were on the fringes of the church, including family members of our various hosts, which was fantastic. One lad in particular befriended Devon, so hopefully that relationship will lead to some healing as he has had a very troubled past.

Deidre with most of the Rock team

On Sunday morning we took part in their family service. It is a highly restricted service - a maximum of 50 minutes, and everything is timed down to the second. Deidre had put together a fantastic band full of youngsters, including three trumpets, a trombone and two violins. It sounded fantastic. Roger the minister interviewed our Roger, and then we sang three songs from Rock - Rock, Just as I am and then He is the stone. They went down really well, especially with a couple of added live instrumentalists from their band.

After going to hosts for lunch, a few of us traveled with Gordon, my host, to the 'Titanic Quarter' of Belfast. This is the docklands where Titanic was built, and the city is just starting to cash in on that with new appartments, businesses, a college and a tourism centre. In response the churches of Belfast are working together to create an ecumenical chaplaincy to the area, situated on a boat. Chris, the Anglican involved, has been leading a prayer walk through the area every Sunday as the area is built and the plans for the chaplaincy grow. It is wonderful to see all the main denominations working together (particularly thinking about the violence over the past two days in the city) and we pray that this will be a beacon of hope in the area.

Holywood Parish Youth Service

Then on Sunday night we all went to the evening service which was led by their youth band. It was a great evening and we were all really blessed. The Parish Church in Holywood is full of so many gifts and a lot of wealth - but they are really using it well.

It was a completely different culture to County Cavan, and it was fantastic to have been involved in both during the trip. Sunday night finished off wonderfully - watching Holywood's favourite son Rory McIlroy win the golf :-) The golf club round the corner was partying into the early hours.

Thanks for all your prayers.

Helen

Rock in Ireland 3

2011-07-14T12:04:00.000+01:00

The third update:

We made it safely to Holywood on Thursday and had a lovely evening meal with Deidre, the local choir trainer. This is a very different area from County Cavan - there is a lot of wealth around, and the church is the big lively Anglican Church in the centre of town. If this was Nottingham we'd be at St. Nics, or Holy Trinity in Leicester, or St. Martin's in Birmingham. There is loads of music going on and lots of young people at the church. Deidre is the musical director at the church and quite a character. She knows how to throw a party! She used to work as a sound engineer for the BBC and is incredibly musical.

The choir she has got together are about 25 strong, and very young. Most of the singers are under 20, which is wonderful, and they make a lovely sound together. The rehearsal last night went really well, especially as the church worship director, a young guy called 'Roo' was there, and he knows exactly what he's doing when it comes to setting up PA. It was a joy to turn up and find everything right ready for us!

Yesterday we went over to the Giant's causeway, which was great apart from the heavens opened on us as we were about to walk back to the car!

Rock in Ireland 2

2011-07-14T11:58:00.000+01:00

The second update from Helen:

Andrew, Roger and Alan with Guiness

We had a lovely day off on Monday, and were shown round the area by a local historian and a local butcher! That evening we went to Florence (the choir trainer)'s house and had dinner with her. She lives in an amazing old schoolhouse with her dogs and her horses, as well as her harp - she gave me a quick lesson!

Florence with one of her horses

On Tuesday we began our mammoth tour around all of the primary schools in Bailieborough. It was incredibly hard work, and some of the children were more interested than others! The younger ones particularly loved joining in with the singing and the actions. One thing that we hadn't thought of was that they would laugh when Devon did his crying bit! Rock isn't particularly designed for children, but we managed it - and a couple of the children even forced their parents to bring them to the concert last night.

On Tuesday evening we divided into two teams and went and led a couple of housegroup meetings. Roger took Aly and Andrew to Florence's house, and I took Devon and Alan to a lady called Christine's house. Christine is originally from Lincolnshire, and hasn't lost any of her accent. She's absolutely amazing, and really has a passion for God. She invited all of her neighbours, and her room was packed out. It would have been even busier had it been raining and the farmers weren't out making silage. The evening was well received, and there was a real buzz in the room afterwards.

Yesterday we visited the last two schools to make 5 in all - although the last school was just a nursery where we just sang a couple of children's songs with them. We had a nice break after lunch and then travelled over to Kilmore Cathedral for the performance. Setting up the sound was a nightmare, but it worked out perfectly in the end, and the performance went really well. Huge thanks go to David from the choir, who has neglected his fields in order to help us with the technical side of things.

This visit to Bailieborough has felt very much like preparing the way. Maybe we will be invited back, and they will know us and trust us, and allow us to share more than just music with them.

Rock in Ireland 1

2011-07-14T11:50:00.000+01:00

We spent a wonderful week in Ireland back in June. Here is the first of several emails back home from Helen:

Hi All,

Having a good time in Ireland so far. We had an excellent journey over - only just made it to the ferry, and then the crossing was beautifully smooth, which was great because Aly gets sea-sick.

We arrived at Bailieborough at about 7.15pm on Friday night, and shared a lovely meal in the hotel with all of the hosts, some local clergy, and other choir organisers.

Sopranos and Altos with Roger

On Saturday we spent the day rehearsing with the choir. The Bailieborough Community Choir is an ecumenical group - Catholics, Presbyterians and Church of Ireland mostly - who meet together most weeks during the year under the direction of Florence Taylor. Florence used to be the Presbyterian minister here in Bailieborough but has since retired and now returns each week to lead the choir. They are quite a mixed group, mostly still working, and they sing really well together. Florence had warned us a couple of months ago that they were struggling with the music, but she has done a great job and they are absolutely fine. In the morning we rehearsed in the Presbyterian church, and then we moved over the road to St. Anne's, the Catholic church in the afternoon, as that is where we were due to perform. St. Anne's has an amazingly lively acoustic, which made getting the balance between the backing track and the choir very difficult, but we managed it.

On Saturday evening we travelled to Pauline's house just outside Bailieborough for dinner. They have been looking after us incredibly well, with a different choir member that isn't a host having us all round to dinner each day.

Andrew and Devon

Yesterday we drove about 45 minutes to Kilmore Cathedral, which is the Church of Ireland cathedral 4 miles outside of Cavan. It is quite a small cathedral, but lovely, and we were made very welcome by the dean and the other members of the congregation. Roger preached, and we sang a few songs during communion which went down really well. We then went to different houses for lunch, which was great, because it meant that we could meet the members of this congregation, and get to know them, ahead of the performance at the cathedral on Wednesday evening.

The Bailieborough choir at St. Ann's

Yesterday evening we met at St. Anne's for a rehearsal at 7pm and then the performance at 8.30pm. The timings are so late in order to give the farmers chance to finish their jobs for the day. We had a wonderful audience who really appreciated the performance. The choir sang really well and were thrilled with the response.

Today we are having lunch at the presbyterian church before being taken out by a local guide to see the sights. This evening we are having dinner with Florence, but other than that it is a free day. Tomorrow will be hard work though, as we are going into three schools, before leading two house groups in the evening. Roger will take with him Aly and Andrew, and I'll have Devon and Alan with me.

Hope you're all well.

Helen

xxx

A Rock Warm-Up

2011-07-04T11:21:00.003+01:00

On the Sunday immediately following Grange, Roger and a team took the rather shorter journey to King's Heath in Birmingham for a performance of Rock at Devon's home church. The CMM choir were also performing in West Bromwich on the same night, which meant that we had to come up with a special choir for the occasion.

The performance was deliberately scheduled in the diary so that the Rock team about to tour Ireland could meet together to rehearse. The team was Alan (Cornelius), Devon (Peter), Andrew (Jesus - he'd never performed it before), Aly (Zillah and various other bits), Helen (Susannah and various other bits). It was a great opportunity for the team to join together and gel in advance of the trip away. It was also fantastic to see Devon in action in his home church. At the start of the evening Roger commented to the congregation that it was 'great to see where Devon comes from'. At the end of the evening the pastor commented that it was 'great to see where Devon goes'!

The choir were absolutely wonderful. We had Katie, Laura, Charlotte, Ann, Amy, Dave, Martin, Simon and Phil - Phil doing a stirling job as the only bass! It was a bit of a daunting choir - three of the original cast for Rock and two of the studio backing vocalists...

The performance went really well, and was set going in some style by Devon leading 'Shine Jesus Shine' from the keyboard. One of the most powerful times in the performance was the moment where the space was given for God to speak - and not just cast members joined in but the choir too!

We were looked after brilliantly well, and know that the church will have been praying for our tour of Ireland.

Abbot Hall 2011

2011-07-01T10:36:00.004+01:00

Spring bank holiday week at the end of May is the traditional time for CMM to get on the road up north to Abbot Hall, Kent's Bank, near Grange-over-Sands. Abbot Hall is one of the Christian Guild hotels, and CMM has been holding a half term music week there now for quite a few years.

This year Roger, Mary, Annie, Sharon, Christine and Marion were the CMM team for the week. Sharon lives nearby and trains the Barrow-in-Furness choir, so she has been our regular choir trainer at Grange. Christine is a new addition to the CMM associates - she is a flute/clarinet teacher, and really great to have around. Carole dropped in a couple of times with young Hannah, and Poppy also travelled up to Cumbria, but she spent the week holidaying with Barbara and Reg in Grange, and sent Roger and Mary plenty of postcards to let them know what she was up to.

The musical of the year was Two Sisters and a Funeral. This was the first holiday week using the musical as a base, so Roger had to work extra hard preparing his Bible teaching for each of the morning's sessions. Roger was very pleased with how the Bible teaching went - he

focused on each one of Mary, Martha and Lazarus for the three sessions, drawing out some strong messages for the guests.

Other highlights of the week included Annie's talk in the Sunday morning service, and Sharon singing a solo - 'Song' from Karl Jenkins' Gloria.

Prayer ministry was another vital part of the week, and the team were delighted by the way God led them to pray with certain people.

The performance itself on the Friday night went amazingly well. The orchestra were fantastic, and the choir and soloists did a brilliant job. Roger was particularly delighted with Kevin, who had only sung a solo for the first time last year, and this year not only sang solo, but also sang out a prophecy at the end of song 10. In the past Jaime had been on team playing drums, but instead this year the only drummer was Anthony, and he was absolutely brilliant on the bongos.

Well done everyone!

Your performances...

2011-06-30T13:23:00.004+01:00

We've been hearing good things about your own local performances recently.

Up in the Manchester area, the United Christian Singers have performed Saints Alive for Pentecost. They performed at Atherton and Sale, and both events went exceptionally well. Walter, the choir trainer, described how the choir had come up with a special programme including hymns and readings covering the resurrection appearances before leading into the musical which begins with the ascension of Jesus. After a couple of months off, the choir will be rehearsing again ready to perform Two Sisters and a Funeral.

In Oxfordshire, the Witney Choir have been putting on Snakes and Ladders. Shirley reports:

We had our performances on 18 & 19 June and they went absolutely brilliantly! It was a very complicated production, involving 17 different actors/soloists, and the first time all the different aspects (choir, drama, children, dancer, PA, lighting, 18-piece band, costumes, props) all came together was in the first performance! However, it all worked out amazingly well, and many people - both in the audience and choir - found it very moving, especially the Jacob scene (we had a fantastic dancer representing the angels) and the crucifixion. We had around 120 people watching each evening. Many folk said it was our best ever production - and, as Paul is stepping down as MD this summer, it was a fitting tribute to his leadership. It really is a very powerful musical.

Two Sisters in Stowmarket

2011-06-27T13:25:00.000+01:00

Towards the end of May, Roger, Jonathan and Amy travelled over to Stowmarket. This has become quite a regular trip to the town - Mike Arbon, the conductor of the choir over there regularly puts on Roger's musicals, and sometimes asks Roger to come and spend some time with the choir before conducting the final performance. This time they had been working on Two Sisters and a Funeral, and had provided all of their own soloists, who were wonderful.

Roger, Jonathan and Amy also took part in the morning service at the church on the Sunday. One of the highlights of the performance came at the end of 'O the deep, deep love of Jesus', where all of the soloists in turn sang out what they thought God was saying - despite very few of them having done this before.

We had some lovely feedback from the event both on Facebook and by email:

One lady wrote this:

Sorry I had to rush off on Sunday evening. I thought it went well. I don't know about the people listening but I had a lump in my throat and struggled to speak and sing after the crowd were shouting Crucify. Thank you so much for coming to Stowmarket and sharing your thoughts with us, helping us to achieve so much and for being obedient and writing such amazing musicals. I can't think of a better way to celebrate my birthday, with friends and singing about God's love for each one of us. I hope the journey home is quick and safe. God bless you and Amy and Jonathan. Hope you come to Stowmarket again before too long.

And another lady sent this email:

Dear Roger,

I thought I'd just drop you a line to thank you again for last weekend's presentation of Two Sisters and a Funeral. We have had some very encouraging feedback.
One man in particular, a Reader Emeritus now in his 80's, came along to see the musical "rather sceptically" as he put it. He thought it might be too "over the top" for him. He told me on Monday that, on the contrary, he had found the whole event very moving - so much so that he stood at the end when people applauded.
Given that you made the break with the big events to concentrate on local church presentations, I thought this might be an encouragement for you too.
Every blessing
Jane Stretch (a.k.a. 'Mary'!)

Roger and Mary in Bognor Regis

2011-06-27T13:09:00.000+01:00

Last month Roger and Mary spent a few days on holiday visiting a good friend in Bognor Regis. Their friend Brenda is a member of Aldwick Baptist Church, and she roped Roger in to speak at their church anniversary services over the weekend. So in the middle of their holiday Roger was able to share with the church in both their morning and evening churches, speaking and leading the music.

Roger's very busy Sunday also happened to be his birthday - so on his birthday he preached, led the praise, prayed with people, and accompanied the congregation singing 'happy birthday' to him!

CMM Choir in action!

2011-06-03T09:23:00.000+01:00

The CMM Choir held their first performance of Two Sisters and a Funeral at Harborne Baptist on 15th May. Harborne Baptist is Sylvia Whalley's home church, and Sylvia trains the West Birmingham part of the CMM choir, so for this special occasion, Sylvia conducted the performance.

Annie reported:

Last night’s ‘Two Sisters’ production went really well. Paul and Kim [technicians] did a super job. Sylvia conducted well and mouthed all the words at us, which was really helpful. Alan spoke well – and Jonathan gave a word in song at the end of Song 10, which Alan picked up on. The soloists all did a very good job – Sue Walker, Linda Chappell (in apron, with duster), Alan Walker and Jonathan Chappell – and I was especially proud of David Newell who is playing the solo Priest and has worked really hard at learning his part. Harborne Baptist Church was packed. I sang alto, and played the organ for a rousing rendition of ‘To God be the Glory’ at the end. Alison Fuggle came, and Alan honoured her, so that she stood and was applauded. The minister gave us a warm welcome, and was round for the whole time during rehearsal and break, helping in practical ways. A very uplifting evening – thanks for your prayers.

Annie x

Feedback from Canada

2011-05-12T14:16:00.000+01:00

We've heard from a couple of the Vicars that we had contact with in Duncan on Vancouver Island:

Hi Roger! Good to hear from you.

I so enjoyed your company while you were here and it was great to have some company when I came home everyday. I hope the team is all doing well and that you will stay here again when you return. We have had a lot of rain this season which makes for gorgeous green lawns and fields. The wild flowers are everywhere so while it may be damp and cool the scenery is ripe with color and texture.

Things at the church [St. Peter's] continue... we do seem to be in a bit of a fluctuation. [Deborah goes on to say some more things here about the time of change they are going through - so do pray for her.]

On a happy note, someone in the parish has donated a $1000.00 for a portable keyboard so we can start having some services outside and in the graveyard and sing, sing, sing accompanied by a nice keyboard. I have applied and been accepted into a doctoral program that begins in June. I will doing a doctorate of Congregation Development.

Felix [the dog] is fat and happy.

Big hugs to all and yes, we will keep in touch.

Many blessings,

Deborah

Good Morning Roger,

I have just received a copy of the letter Wayne Coombs sent to you re: the transfer of funds. Now that all of the business related to your visit has been concluded, on behalf of the Parish Council of St. John's I want to express a special word of appreciation to you, as well as to Bill, Helen, Ann and Devon, for your uplifting and encouraging presence among us. The parish and public response to the services you conducted here, the clergy meeting, the local choir preparations and the presentations of Rock went beyond our expectations, and have left a very pleasant glow. We spent some time at our recent Parish Council meeting sharing personal observations and also comments that have been made to us by others, and without exception those comments were all very positive.

So from me personally and from all of us here at St. John's, thank you most sincerely. We look forward to our next meeting.

Wishing you all of God's richest blessings,

Dale

A time of renewal

2011-05-09T10:54:00.000+01:00

On Sunday evening we held another renewal meeting at Christ Church, Ward End. These renewal meetings have been an absolute delight, as God has consistently turned up to bless, heal and challenge.

This time Andy Jolley was the speaker, and he focused on becoming the person God made us to be - following on from the opening quotation in the sermon for William and Kate's marriage. He encouraged us to think about things that have stopped us from being who we were made to be and also to ask the Holy Spirit to come and fill us - not just in our areas of strength but in our areas of weakness. He reflected on John 6 and 7, and all the different opinions and outside influences which were threatening Jesus and his identity.

Once again we had a great music group, and Roger led worship - including a new hymn from the forthcoming collaboration between Roger and Bishop Timothy Dudley-Smith.

The next renewal service is on Sunday 26th June at Christ Church at 6.30pm. Do encourage people to come.

Two Sisters at Kidderminster

2011-05-09T10:42:00.001+01:00

On Saturday night we held the next in our series of Two Sisters and a Funeral performances. This time we were at Trinity Methodist Church in Kidderminster, which has recently been rebuilt following a fire and is very beautiful inside.

The New Life Together Choir in Kidderminster are a wonderful group who were formed 25 years ago to put on a performance of From Pharaoh to Freedom at Kidderminster Town Hall. Roger and Mary can remember going to watch and sitting up in the balcony. So this was a very special evening as the choir were celebrating their silver anniversary together - including a lovely cake!

As we were in Kidderminster we were privileged to have a cameo from Simon and Louise Gudger, who played the parts of Jesus and Martha respectively. Simon and Lou have been less able to spend time with CMM since having children and Simon becoming a Baptist pastor in Kidderminster. It was wonderful to have them, and they had worked really hard learning the different parts.

The rest of the CMM team were Devon playing the part of Lazarus, Helen as Mary, and then Jonathan and Richard as baddies and goodies, depending on the song.

The choir were absolutely fantastic - they sounded wonderful, and particular congratulations go to the men, who despite being very outnumbered produced a great sound that balanced beautifully. Choir trainer Carole had done a great job.

The performance went really well - and the church was absolutely packed. They had to open up the side doors and sit more people in an overflow area. Well done to Sue, Katy, Carole, and all in the New Life Together Choir for their hard work.

Jerusalem Joy on the Isle of Wight (2)

2011-05-05T13:43:00.000+01:00

The performance of Jerusalem Joy was held on the evening of Good Friday - a really special moment for all of the guests and the CMM team.

Jonathan Chappell took the part of Jesus, and the other solos were filled in by some of the guests. There was a big orchestra too, including guitars, flute, clarinet, violin, Roger on piano and Phil on bass. The congregation was really big, and everyone from the hotel came to watch if they weren't already performing.

The performance went really well - Annie conducted, with Roger playing piano as there was no need for backing track with such a wonderful group. The soloists all did a brilliant job too.

One of the delights of the week has been the hotel and its ethos - it is run more as a Christian community than a business, and the leaders and all of the staff came and joined in whenever they could. Many of the staff are young people on gap years, and they joined in the choir and orchestra.

Holiday club time!

2011-04-21T09:53:00.000+01:00

While Roger, Mary and Annie have been living it up in the sunshine on the Isle of Wight, Helen has been busy back in Birmingham. She has been doing some work with the children at Saltley Methodist Church for the past few months, and this week it has culminated in a holiday club.

It is a very poor area of Birmingham, so it is wonderful to see the kids coming and enjoying themselves. A major part of the holiday club has been learning some songs for a special Holy Saturday presentation. The children are being really good and enthusiastic about the music, which is impressive because quite a lot of it is a bit sombre. One of the members of the CMM choir, a lady called Jan, has been one of the helpers for the week. This afternoon she is leading a craft session which involves icing cakes - could be messy!

Do pray that as the children learn about Holy Week and Easter they would get to know Jesus more.

Jerusalem Joy on the Isle of Wight (1)

2011-04-21T09:39:00.002+01:00

During Holy Week, Roger, Mary, Annie, Jonathan (& Linda) and Trish have been at St. Rhadagund's Hotel on the Isle of Wight. They are leading a special Holy Week music week, using the musical Jerusalem Joy as a tool to study Jesus' passion, death and resurrection.

Despite worries about numbers a few months ago, there are a good number of guests, and the week is going really well. Highlights of the week so far have included Annie leading an epilogue about jewels, and one lady hearing from God what kind of jewel she is - wonderful! Jonathan preached in the morning on Palm Sunday, all the team have been contributing to leading worship, and Roger has been leading the morning Bible teaching. Annie has been working hard training up the choir and also including the array of instruments, which includes Phil on bass.

Last night Brian Harley, a local URC minister, came in and led an evening about the Passover meal with the guests, which went down really well.

Two Sisters in Weston-super-Mare

2011-04-21T09:27:00.000+01:00

While Helen was busy in Beeston, Annie was working hard in Weston. Peter Perrin in Weston had organised a special Two Sisters and a Funeral weekend for the churches in Weston-super-Mare, which involved a day of rehearsing and then a performance the following day.

Annie spent the day with the choir on the Saturday, teaching them the musical from scratch, and as there was plenty of time, taking the opportunity to share some of what the Bible has to say about the story. The biblical foundation to the ministry of CMM is essential, and it is wonderful on days like this when we have chance to bring to people more than just the story.

Annie was supported by a wonderful team on the day - Caroline, Kaye, Wendy, Bill and Phil. It is great that we have so many vocalists fairly nearby who were able to help out. Annie also did a wonderful job including some of the words and pictures EBRG had received while praying for the event. It is so amazing that we have a God who speaks personally to each of us, and that CMM can share some of that in its ministry.

On the Sunday, Roger and Mary joined the team for the afternoon rehearsal and then performance. Roger took over the conducting duties, and Annie switched to viola. The team was also augmented by Richard, who was down in Weston from Nottingham to see his beloved Dover play - and he will have been delighted to see them beat the locals 4-1.

The performance at Clarence Park Baptist went really well, and was well received. Thanks so much for Peter for organising the event - it is always great when CMM can visit Weston!

Greater than Gold in a day - Beeston

2011-04-18T09:45:00.000+01:00

On Saturday 9th April, Helen travelled to Wollaton Road Methodist Church, Beeston, Nottingham to lead a musical in a day. Last year Helen, Richard, Felicity and Miriam had led Jairus' Daughter in a day at the same church, but this year the musical of choice was 'Greater than Gold'. The reason for the choice was that 26 years ago Roger had come to the Albert Hall in Nottingham as part of the official church, and many members of this church had sung in the choir. Loads of memories came back, which was useful for Helen as this musical is very tricky to teach in a day, but thankfully most of the choir knew it.

Helen had a big team for the day - Felicity led some dance, Paul played the father, Catherine the mother, Amy was Mary Jones, and Sarah and Miriam played their violin and clarinet respectively and sang various other solos.

Despite jet-lag from Helen, the day went really well. In the afternoon Helen and Miriam's mum and dad arrived after synod, and so Chris was coerced into taking the narration role. The choir really enjoyed this, as Chris is currently their minister although he is moving to South Wales in the summer. His attempts at pronouncing the Welsh village name caused a great deal of hilarity.

Felicity had four girls in her dance group, and they worked really hard. She taught them a dance to song 1, which is reprised at the end of the musical, and she also taught them a dance to song 4 - Tell me the stories of Jesus. Felicity herself did two solo dances, including a beautiful ballet piece. The dancing adds so much to the day.

The final performance went well, except for a slight problem with the sound system. Thankfully the singers were able to overcome it, and the choir sounded amazing.

The following morning Helen came back to the church with Amy, and led the morning service. It was a special morning service for the Boys and Girls Brigades. The church was really full, and people seemed to really enjoy themselves. Margaret on piano was joined by two wonderful guitarist. The congregation were great sports and joined in well with the song 'Words are not enough' and also congregational 'Guess Who?'.

Rock on Vancouver Island 4

2011-04-14T15:23:00.003+01:00

Devon and Mat

Ann with Sue and other choir members

Ann again!

Roger keeping everyone on track

The group that travelled to Cathedral Grove

3 of five of us stretched around a tree

ROCK!

The final Vancouver Island update.

Thanks so much for all your prayers. I know that good weather for our day off seems like such a silly thing, but it meant a lot to us - we travelled up Island away from Duncan, and had cloudless skies almost all day. To our amazement when we returned to Duncan we found that they had had terrible rain and hail. We had a wonderful day off, visiting Qualicum, Coombs and then Cathedral Grove. Four local folk came with us - Shirley, Sue, and then Wayne and Claire. Qualicum and Coombs are both shopping touristy areas, but Cathedral Grove was really special - some ancient woodland with Cedars and Douglas Fir trees hundreds of years old, and incredibly huge. Wayne used to be a forester, so he loved telling us all about it. We then had a lovely dinner in on the way back and met with Dale the vicar and his wife. It was good to meet with them in a more social setting.

Today we took part in the morning service at St. John's in Duncan. This time we were just leading the music and Dale preached. We used the new liturgy, and it went really well. The congregation seemed much more united today than last week - last week it felt very much like the traditional service people were at the back looking grumpy, and the modern service people were at the front enjoying the worship. It felt like everyone was with us this morning, and really going for it in worship.

After the service we had lunch at Sarah's with quite a number of key people from St. John's. It was also nice to eat a sensibly sized meal - just some soup and bread. Later in the afternoon before heading out to the performance we finally managed to sit down for a meal with Deborah, the boys' host. She had cooked the most enormous amount of ribs for us.

The performance this evening went really well indeed. There were close to 400 there, so it felt really full. The audience really loved it too, and stood and clapped along to most of the final song. Bill really milked his part, getting some big laughs. We also had some great conversations afterwards, and there was also some prayer ministry. At least one of the words from Thursday's EBRG was claimed - actually thinking about it, there's been a few over the last few days - including a fresh fall of snow on a high part of the main highway when this is the time of year when it should only be on the mountains.

The after-show party at Shirley's was fun too, but now it is really late and we have to pack - we're being collected at 7am tomorrow by Shirley and Sue. They will drive us down to Victoria and put us on a coach at 9am which will take us all the way to the airport via the ferry.

Looking forward to seeing you all soon.

Helen
x

-----------------------
As it happens, our flight home from Vancouver was cancelled due to a mechanical fault - and you don't really argue with that. After a long discussion or two at the airport we managed to get free accommodation and food before getting a flight nearly 24 hours later. We made it safely in the end though, and all our luggage too.

Rock on Vancouver Island 3

2011-04-14T15:09:00.002+01:00

Lunch in Victoria

Sea Planes in Victoria

The CMM team with Shirley

Ann, Trish and Joline

Mat and Bill

Hi Everyone,

Probably the penultimate Vancouver Island update!

We had a good day off visiting Victoria on Wednesday, although the weather wasn't great. It's been cold and wet pretty much the whole time we've been here sadly. In the evening we had dinner with Shirley again, and this time she cooked us chicken curry, which is Roger's all time favourite - she'd even made us some chapattis!

Yesterday was a very busy day - and the first day of sunshine and we had to be indoors... First thing in the morning we went to Deborah's church, St Peter's for the morning communion service. The liturgy we had practiced on Tuesday didn't entirely go to plan, but everyone there still found it incredibly uplifting. It seemed to have a big impact on people - they are still talking about it now, and planning on using it in future. It isn't necessarily the liturgy they want to take on, but the way music is woven into it.

After the service, we went over to St. John's to meet with the clergy.  Sadly this was only the anglican clergy, but it still was a good session - there were 6 of them, and Roger led the 'Ways to Praise' teaching, which focuses on psalms, hymns and songs. The aim was to encourage them to include all of these things on worship, and not overemphasising one. We had a wonderful comment afterwards from Dale, who is a bit of a traditionalist. He said that he feels comfortable and happy with hymns, and has really struggled with songs over the years, but after Roger had spoken he began to understand their place in worship and it was a 'revelation' for him.

Finally at the end of the day we had our final rehearsal for Rock. This time we rehearsed at the Christian Reform Church which is the performance venue. It took a while to get set up, but the rehearsal was excellent - particularly helped by Margie, their wonderful sound technician. She enabled everything to run incredibly smoothly.

Then today we had some spare time, but it was pouring with rain all day. Devon, Ann, Bill and I got very wet wandering round a forest looking for geocaches - Roger was very sensible staying in. This evening we had the first performance of Rock, and it went really well.  I forgot one line, and Mat forgot a few more, but apart from that it
was good, and very well received - I think there were about 150 there.  We got a standing ovation at the end, and many of the people say they are coming again on Sunday and with friends. The auditorium holds 450, so let's see!

We've got a day off tomorrow, so hopefully we'll get some good weather!

Helen

Rock on Vancouver Island 2

2011-04-14T14:50:00.001+01:00

The truck half way up a mountain

Here's the next update!

On Monday during the free day Bill, Devon, Ann and I went out for a bit of an explore, driving the truck up one of the local mountains until we hit snow and had to come down again. After lunch at Deborah's house (she's bought in loads of wheat-related products like pizza which she can't eat herself, so we have to help), we all went to Cowichan Bay, and had a look around while finding a few geocaches.

Geocaching in Cowichan Bay

The early evening rehearsal went pretty well - the choir are singing well, and they sound good. We're joined by two soloists - Trish and Mat. Trish is playing the part of Zillah, and is really good and confident. Mat is playing the part of Jesus. Roger got him having a go at the prophetic moment at the end of song 15, and he went for it, which was brilliant. There is also a young girl called Joline, who filled in the solos for their rehearsals, and she is really good indeed, so we have managed to get her singing all kinds of bit parts - it's a shame there isn't more for her to do.

On a walk near Alison's House

Yesterday Ann, Bill and I went out for a lovely walk near where Ann and I are staying. It is a fantastic bit of woodland - it isn't evergreen, so it is full of wildlife and wonderful moss-covered rocks. After lunch at Deborah's we had a bit of a rest, and then travelled to Deborah's church - St. Peter's. Roger has brought with him a special communion liturgy devised for us by Peter Moger, who used to be the Archbishop of Canterbury's adviser on liturgy. It intersperses the song 'Behold the Lamb' with a special liturgy, and the people at St. Peter's are very excited about having a liturgy with some music interspersed. They have a wonderful grand piano, which Roger loved playing.

Inside St. Peter's Church

After the time at St. Peter's we went to Sue's house for dinner. Sue is the main organiser of this trip, and also the musical director at St. John's. She's married to a man from Middlesbrough called Dave. Roger loves talking football with him!

Yesterday evening we held a music and worship workshop at St. John's. There were 20-30 there, some of whom are involved in leading worship at their own church. Roger led his planning and leading worship workshop, and also his structuring praise workshop. Both of which added up to nearly 2 hours of Roger talking, plus some songs. Our bottoms felt it on the pews, but otherwise everyone was really engaged. A lot of what Roger had to share was new to people, and they seemed to really appreciate it. The new version of 'O the deep deep love of Jesus' is really going down well.

Today is our day off, and we're planning to drive down to Victoria and have a look round.

Rock on Vancouver Island 1

2011-04-14T14:40:00.000+01:00

On the morning after the Michael Card evening, Roger, Helen, Ann, Devon and Bill left the UK for Canada. Here are Helen's emails back home to give you an idea of how it went:

------------------

St. John's Church

The team at St. John's

The team at St. John's with Sue

Sarah's House

On the Ferry

Alison's house by the bay

The flight over was very smooth, and our bags were all there at the other end, which was a good start! We found our way to the hotel in Vancouver without any problems, and all had a reasonable night's sleep - considering we'd been awake for nearly 24 hours. Jet lag has taken a while to shake off, but I think we're all sleeping normally now - not waking up too early.

Sarah and Sue (the main organisers) met us at the hotel and drove us to the ferry port just outside Vancouver, and we had a lovely ferry ride in the sunshine over to the Island. It was amazing to see the mountains on either side of the channel. We went straight to Shirley's house - Shirley is one of the main characters of St. John's church, and is singing in the choir. She's larger than life and great fun. She fed us a lovely dinner and then we went to our hosts houses. All of us are staying at Maple Bay, which is about a 10-15 minute drive from Duncan. Roger, Devon and Bill are staying with Deborah, who is the vicar of St. Peter's church. She lives in a lovely house right on top of a hill with a view down into the bay. Ann and I are staying at Alison's house. Alison is also a member of St. Peter's, although has a salvation army background. She is very trusting and incredibly generous, as she only spent the first two evenings and mornings with us, and then has flown off to Florida, leaving us in charge of her house for the rest of the time. The house is amazing - right on the waterfront.

On Friday we had a restful morning and then a team meeting over lunch. Alison took Ann and I for a walk around her house in the morning, and we saw deer, bald eagles, robins the size of pigeons, woodpeckers, a humming bird, and her next door neighbour - 93 year old Laura. We had a pot luck dinner with the choir, and then a rehearsal at night. I don't know where Roger got the energy from to lead the rehearsal, but he did amazingly well. We covered about half of the songs, and we have a rehearsal tonight. The choir have been very well trained by Sue. Devon seems to know everyone and is greeting each person like a long lost friend. Amazing.

Saturday we held a Rock Roadshow at St. John's. About 40 or so were there. I led some worship to begin with, and they were all really up for it - it was hard to stop them at the end! Roger then spoke about 'I will follow you' - really the basics about following Jesus. After a break he led a creative/prophetic workshop, and got everyone improvising in worship. I think they really enjoyed it. After lunch I led a Holy Spirit workshop with everyone - the most basic one about receiving. They were so open and receptive, and lots people shared about how they had received. We also had at least one of the words we had received at EBRG claimed - the one about the broken collarbone.

On Saturday evening we went to Sarah's for dinner, and her husband Gary had cooked for us. He had been fishing that morning and caught fresh salmon, huge prawns and crab. Wonderful food, if very messy to eat!

Yesterday was another full day. We took most of the morning service at St. John's. Dale, the vicar, was very generous in giving us plenty of space to lead worship and for Roger to preach. There were quite a lot of people there, which was encouraging for the church congregation. Normally they have two services - a 9am traditional service, which is the most popular, and then a 10.30am more modern service which only gets 10-20 people.

In the evening they wouldn't normally have a service, but they deliberately organised a united service with the other churches of the area. Roger began by explaining the tabernacle structure for a block of praise - enter his gates with thanksgiving, his courts with praise, and then entering the most holy place. Ann then led a block of praise afterwards which followed that structure. I think the block was a lot longer than they are used to, but most people went with it. Then Roger spoke about the Transfiguration, and we ended the service with some more praise and a bit of ministry.

Today we have a free day, which is nice, and then a rehearsal with the choir at 5pm.

I hope you are all well.

Helen
x

An Evening with Michael Card

2011-04-14T14:20:00.000+01:00

A couple of months ago while on the beach in Weston, Roger had a surprise phone call from a member of Michael Card's team to say that there was a spare date in his tour schedule, and would we like to host him. Roger's instant answer was yes, and then the office staff got down to some seriously hard work getting it all off the ground!

Michael is a wonderful singer-songwriter, well known for songs such as El Shaddai and Immanuel. He has many fans in Christ Church, and so they were delighted to have him come.

Annie gathered together an amazing string quartet made up of herself and three players from the CBSO - Libby, Heather and Corinne. The strings added a huge amount to the concert and made it incredibly special.

Helen sorted out a close harmony group, which involved Miriam and Ann on soprano (some of which was incredibly high), Catherine and Amy on alto, Helen and Tim on tenor, and Paul and Richard on bass. Richard is a massive fan of Michael Card, so it was great to have him singing with us - he worked incredibly hard to learn his part, which was fantastic. We were also supported by Martin who did a wonderful job setting up the sound.

Michael brought with him Ron on sound, Gordon his tour organiser, and Scott his musical director. Scott played piano for many of the songs, and Michael played guitar or piano, or just sang. His guitar skills were mind-boggling as he plays a right-handed strung guitar left handed!

The evening was themed around Easter, beginning and ending with the song 'Only his wounds'. There were a couple of really moving songs such as 'Ride on to die', 'Tears of the world' and 'Why', and a really special moment where the congregation joined in with the song 'Immanuel'.

Organising the concert was hard work, but very rewarding, and the almost sell-out audience were very appreciated. Hopefully in future if we have another such event we will have longer to get the word out!

Two Sisters in Witney

2011-04-14T13:50:00.000+01:00

A week after our exploits in Sheffield, we travelled south east from Birmingham to Witney, a town to the west of Oxford. We have often visited Witney over the years as a group there led by Paul Herrington has often performed Roger's musicals.

The choir had been rehearsing for several weeks, although there were a few newcomers on the day. A brilliant part of the day was that time had been left in the programme for Roger to be able to do some teaching on the theme of the musical, and to really invest in the choir.

Before and after lunch Helen and Annie took some sectionals - Helen with the ladies downstairs and Annie with the guys upstairs. The soloists divided between the two rooms - this time we had Martin as Lazarus, Phil as Jesus, Caroline as Mary and Wendy as Martha. In the performance we were joined by two local soloists who took the baddie parts, and Helen and Annie played their instruments.

After the sectionals, Roger led a creative workshop, which added an extra dimension to the day ahead of the runthrough in the afternoon. We had a wonderful tea with the choir and then tried to make as much room as possible for the audience. The room was absolutely packed, with standing room only, which was a fantastic end to the day.

Thanks so much to Paul and also to Shirley Enoch for all their work on the day and before. The choir are learning Snakes and Ladders for Paul's swansong later in the year. Hopefully we will be able to get the dates of their performances up on the blog before long.

Two Sisters in Sheffield

2011-04-14T12:57:00.000+01:00

The end of a busy week saw a CMM team travelling to Sheffield for the fourth Two Sisters event in 8 days. This Sheffield event was organised by John Mellor, ably assisted by his wife Margaret. The church, St. Peter's Ellesmere, is an Anglican/Methodist partnership in a very poor area of Sheffield. It stands like a beacon on the hillside, and it was wonderful to be able to take part in mission in the area.

John had held one rehearsal prior to the event, in which he and Muriel Stonehewer divided the choir up and took sectionals. On the day itself the choir was supplemented by quite a few singers, but having the core of those that were already familiar with the material made a huge difference.

The CMM team for the day were Devon (Lazarus), Martin (Jesus), Helen (Martha), Ann (Mary), Richard (baddie), Pete (baddie) and Marilyn on flute. We hadn't seen Marilyn since the Rock Symphony Hall finale, so it was wonderful to work with her again. She had the chance to experiment with Annie's special instrumentalist arrangements, and it worked well.

On the Saturday we all worked really hard - Roger and Helen led sectionals, and the choir were excellent. It was interesting to meet some of the members of the choir, who came from all kinds of backgrounds and cultures. John had been tirelessly inviting everyone he met to come and take part in the day, whether they were Christian or not.

The same was true for the audience in the evening - the church was absolutely packed out - standing room only. There were Muslims, a Buddhist, some non-Christians, a former president of the Methodist Conference, and lots of faces familiar to CMM such as the Hopkins clan, Sally Rhodes and Liz Tipple to name but a few.

It was a wonderful day - thanks so much to John for his tireless energy. After the performance half of the CMM team went home, but Roger, Helen, Devon and Ann remained to take the service at the church the following morning. It was a wonderful service - the congregation were so hungry and ready to worship. Ann led a praise block, and as soon as we started the first song percussion instruments came out, as well as flags. Roger spoke once again about the More Than God, with a focus on Mary, Martha and Lazarus, and quite a few people came for prayer. People chatted after the service for a really long time. It was wonderful to be part of it all.

Two Sisters in Coventry

2011-04-14T12:35:00.000+01:00

Another event in a very busy week saw a team from CMM travelling to Coventry Methodist Central Hall. The organising force behind the event was Olive Holtom, a long term supporter of CMM. She was very sad that we were unable to come to Coventry with Rock, and so bullied us (nicely) over a number of months about Two Sisters. She managed to book the Coventry Central Hall, and also its minister, Paul Wood, to train the choir. Paul did a brilliant job - the choir sounded fantastic. The choir were joined by a few extras from the East Birmingham CMM choir, but they weren't really needed.

The central hall is a wonderful venue, with loads of room for audience, wonderful tiering on the stage, and plenty of space for the cast. Paul worked really hard to set up the sound system, especially when he was surprised by the addition of Annie on viola and Helen on flute and trumpet. The rest of the CMM team was unchanged from the Leicester performance.

At the previsit Olive had been asked how tickets were going. She said that she was sold out, and when asked how many she had sold, she said she didn't know as she kept printing more! The turnout at the performance was wonderful - downstairs was nearly full, and upstairs held a decent number too - probably just under 350 in the audience, which was wonderful. Well done Olive! Thanks so much to both you and Paul for all your hard work.

Two Sisters in Leicester

2011-04-14T12:04:00.000+01:00

On Ash Wednesday - 9th March, a Two Sisters and a Funeral team travelled to Leicester led by Roger. This time the team were Emily (Mary), Amy (Martha), Martin (Jesus), Devon (Lazarus), Pete and Jonathan (baddies). It was great for Emily and Amy to perform at their home venue, and I am sure they had plenty of home support.

The performance took place at Christ Church URC, Dumbleton Avenue - just across the road from CMM's normal rehearsal place in Leicester - Trinity Methodist. Alan Baum, the choir trainer, was one of the first people to ask to be involved in the Two Sisters performances, and he had done a brilliant job training the choir again. With the help of Sheila on tickets and other local folk, the venue was completely sold out, and over 200 people filled the venue.

It was great to see a lot of familiar faces in the choir - many have sung with CMM repeatedly over the years at the DeMontfort Hall in the tours. The choir sang beautifully, and Roger was delighted with the performance.

Two Sisters at Rochdale

2011-03-21T14:03:00.000Z

On Saturday 5^th March, Roger, Annie and Helen, along with Jonathan, Caroline, Ann, Devon and Martin travelled up to Bamford Chapel, a URC church in Rochdale, and the home church of Walter Brisk, conductor of the United Christian Singers.

UCS are a large choir from the Manchester area, and have been great supporters of CMM for over 20 years since they first began for the production of Mary Magdalene at the Free Trade Hall in the city. Walter conducts the choir, and holds two rehearsals a week – one in the north of the city, and the other in the south, and there are about 100 choir members altogether.

On Saturday UCS hosted CMM, but advertised it as a workshop day open to everyone, so there were about 80 UCS members, but also more than 40 others present – a wonderful choir. UCS had had some rehearsals, so they formed the backbone of the choir, but there were quite a few singers who were new so we treated it as a scratch choir day. Roger led the first rehearsal, and then Annie took the ladies and Helen the men for the second rehearsal. Finally we put it all together before stopping for a wonderful faith tea, and then the performance at 7pm. (I must not forget that the team were treated to a wonderful lunch before the workshops began!)

The performance went really well – the choir remained in the congregation pews and the audience sat around them and up in the gallery. Caroline and Ann were Martha and Mary respectively, Devon and Martin were Lazarus and Jesus, and then Jonathan managed to be both ‘baddie’ parts all on his own! Annie and Helen played their instruments, ably assisted by local techie Gareth who was in charge of the backing track and microphones.

The following day the team split up to cover two services – Roger preached at Bamford Chapel, and Helen preached at Brimrod Methodist Church. This is an exciting development in CMM’s ministry, and it is wonderful to be able to meet with folk who aren’t usually part of the choir. People often see CMM as just musicals, but in the local church situation we are able to bring in far more – teaching on worship and life in the Spirit particularly.

After lunch with our wonderful hosts we travelled home. Thanks to Walter, Tony and all of UCS for hosting us – it was a wonderful day.

John Pye has added some photos and a writeup to the local deanery website: http://heywoodandmiddletondeanery.org.uk/homepage

Roger at Derby

2011-03-21T13:56:00.001Z

On Thursday 3^rd March, Roger took a team up to a meeting of the Derby Crusade Choir in Mickleover. The choir are shortly to hold a production of the Torn Curtain, and the choir leader invited Roger to come up and envision them about music and worship and using musicals in evangelism ahead of their performance. Roger had a wonderful team – Ann, Carolynn, Yvette and Andrew. The start was a bit hectic as Roger had left the beautifully printed running orders at home, but the team managed to make things happen! It was great to have Carolynn and Yvette involved, and we hope to see them much more in future.

Previsit Time!

2011-03-21T13:55:00.002Z

As we are not touring with Two Sisters and a Funeral in the same way as in the past, the call for previsits has been lessened. But this week Roger had chance to take two of them – Leicester and Coventry. As these venues are fairly local, we have been able to fit them in with mid-week performances, but that does mean we cannot spend an afternoon rehearsing with the choirs. The Leicester performance has been organised and the choir trained by Alan Baum, and the Coventry performance has been organised by Olive Holtom and the choir trained by Paul Wood. Previsits are always great fun – time to rehearse, but also time to share with the choirs some of the vision behind the musical.

A Weekend (not quite) off

2011-03-21T13:53:00.000Z

When we’re not involved with any CMM events there is no let off! On Saturday 26^th Feb there weren’t any official CMM gigs, but Roger was still busy. He had a day at his own church, Christ Church, where the worship team gathered together, led by Pat. Roger had been asked to speak to them about worship and structuring and leading praise. Since Roger and Mary moved house, Pat has taken over the responsibility of worship pastor at Christ Church, so we pray for her in her new role – she’ll be great!

And then on Sunday Helen was busy preaching in her own circuit, Annie was involved in leading worship at her church, and Roger was preaching at Christ Church. Roger particularly had a pressurised morning, as a local Imam was due to attend the service and find out what Christianity was all about.

Finally on Sunday evening we held the next in our series of renewal meetings in conjunction with Christ Church. The speakers were Rosie and Tim Bunn, from a church in Norwich, but also heavily involved with New Wine. They were there to talk about ‘Treasure Hunting’. This is an exercise where a team would meet in a town centre, and pray together, before filling in a ‘treasure map’. This map is really just a series of questions such as:

1. A location

2. A person’s name

3. A defining characteristic such as article of clothing

There were 6 or 7 questions on the sheet, and after waiting on God for 3 minutes, the team each would answer them – and then go out into the town looking for their treasure. God has done some amazing things through this ministry, and a team of people from the renewal evening were due to be going out the following Saturday.

Before and after Rosie and Tim spoke, CMM led worship – we had a huge group: Roger on keyboard, Tim on drums, Annie on viola, Sarah on violin, Christine on flute, Amy on clarinet, James on guitar, Helen on trumpet and horn, and Martin, Katie and Pat on vocals. It was great to worship and minister together.

Two Sisters in Staines

2011-03-21T12:07:00.000Z

It was a delight for CMM to travel back to Staines in February. Two years ago we had visited the Methodist Church in Staines for a Rock weekend, performing the musical, but also including some Holy Spirit workshops. This time they invited us to bring our own soloists, and they had fewer rehearsals in advance.

The CMM team was Bill Carpenter - Lazarus, Phil Griffith - Jesus, Alyson Ottaway - Martha, Helen - Mary and Kaye Cooke - various solo bits.

Despite the fewer rehearsals, Roz Sendorek had done a wonderful job with the choir, and they sounded absolutely brilliant. We had a wonderful time rehearsing with the group. Helen and Roger took sectionals - Helen spent a lot of time with the men working on the two 'baddie' songs. One of the baddies was John Izzard, the minister of the church, and that led to a lot of laughs!

On the Sunday morning CMM led the morning service alongside John. It was a lovely morning, and God really blessed us. Helen led some worship and Roger spoke about the 'More than' God. It was great to have Phil jamming away on the organ in the worship! At the service we were amazed to be joined by a young man who had flown in to Heathrow from Zambia that morning. He had looked online for the nearest church, and walked all the way from the airport to Staines. After the service he walked back again, and got on his flight home to Helsinki.

The performance went really well in the evening, and there was a really large audience, which was great.

A fantastic weekend - thanks to all at Staines for inviting us!

Jerusalem Joy at Arddleen

2011-03-21T11:34:00.000Z

The Saturday after Lindors, Annie took a team to Arddleen right on the Welsh border for Jerusalem Joy in a day. Annie has travelled to this village several times over the years and led a series of musicals in a day. Her team consisted of Andrew Lockwood (Jesus), Barrie Renwick (Pilate and assorted others), Helen (Herod and assorted others).

There were a lot of people gathered when we arrived ready for what Annie had put in her programme as 'Team Meeting'. Once it had been explained, they all understood that it meant just the CMM team! There was a lovely buzz and vibe around the place though, so people had a hot drink and enjoyed chatting. A large group had come up the road from Welshpool for the day, deliberately for a taster ahead of their Greater than Gold day with Annie in September.

The choir were excellent, as they should be in Wales, and we were also joined by an oboeist and a guitarist, which really added to the performance. Helen played a little bit of flute and french horn too.

In the week before, EBRG had prayed about this event, and had some interesting words of knowledge and pictures. Annie was very brave in her talk to the choir, and shared the words with them. One of them in particular was claimed, and it was a real Spiritual high-point in a wonderful day.

Andrew and Barrie sang really well - and particularly Barrie, who managed to lay to rest a bad experience of singing the part of Herod at Rhos on Sea a few years ago!

A Week in the Wye Valley

2011-03-21T11:23:00.000Z

In February we had our first music week of the year. This time it was a music in worship week, similar to the week at Whitby last year, and it was at Lindors Hotel, near St. Briavel's on the Welsh border.

The team for the week was Roger, Mike and Barbara Rowarth, Helen, and in a real treat for Helen, her two sisters Deb and Miriam, with some wonderful support from Deb's husband Jon and their daughter 18 month old Bethan. We had no phone signal for the week, so Helen sent email updates to EBRG each night to let them know how it was going. Here are some edited highlights:

Day 1:
The journey down to Lindors was fine - only an hour and a half. There's about 20 here for the week. This evening Roger got them all to share about what they do worship-wise, and what they are expecting from the week. There aren't any who are just here for a holiday - they are here to learn, and to experience more of God, which is fantastic. We have several musicians, several who are trained worship leaders in the Methodist Church (which basically means they are trained to lead the rest of a service apart from the sermon), we have a group from a parish in the Lakes (Roger led their weekend away two years ago, and last summer Annie went with Martin Cavendar to lead it - they are really hoping to learn about leaving space in worship for the Holy Spirit), and then we have three Welsh pentecostals who love worshipping.

Day 2:

Had another good day at Lindors.

One of the members of staff has her mum living nearby, who has been to a couple of our Lee Abbey weeks. She rang her mum, who after being assured she would be allowed, has come to every session today!

Wholeness Through Christ Visual Aid

The first session this morning seemed to be well received - it didn't really lead into any ministry, but was just a kind of overview about being a worshipper. Roger will get down to some of the nitty gritty from tomorrow onwards. The workshop was fun - people were very happy calling out answers, and even though Roger went very off topic and ended up missing out half of the session, it was a good (God) digression and I think people received a lot.

Mike and Barbara led a Wholeness Through Christ introductory evening, which seemed to strike a chord in quite a few people, so hopefully it has set the tone for the week and they will follow up by asking for prayer.

Day 3:

A quick email tonight as I'm typing on my phone...

Miriam led worship really well, which was great. It isn't a tough job though as everyone here is up for it!

Deb and Bethan

Roger's session on Mary went down really well- he majored on the bit about being overshadowed by the Holy Spirit. In the workshop that followed stuck to his plan :-) and got them all thinking about how they would lead a praise block. They are all very willing to join in.

Mike and Barbara had 3 prayer ministry appointments this afternoon, and also had one very deep one yesterday. Pray for stamina and strength for them.

This evening was good fun. I got them all singing delirious songs and thinking about evangelism. Deb and Jon did a really funny sketch too.

And Miriam!

Day 4:

Another late night email from my phone.

This morning was an interesting session. Roger spoke clearly and uncompromisingly about demons and the power of praise and worship in demolishing strongholds. The tricky thing was that some people who were day visitors and new to us picked this session to turn up. Roger could easily have softened the message, but he didn't, and God really blessed the session. Not many are receiving prayer at the end of the morning sessions, but plenty are seeking out private prayer ministry at other times which is good.

Mike, Barbara and Roger all were involved with prayer ministry this afternoon.

This evening was very special. Roger led the evening and shared quite a bit of his story, which included some hard things about grieving. A lot of people were really touched.

Day 5:

Last update!

Had an excellent final day. Roger spoke about Peter and the mount of transfiguration - we have to allow God to take us up the mountain in worship, and then allow him to take us down again ready to minister wherever he puts us. Obviously there was a lot more to it than that, but you get the gist. At the end we simply spent time in God's
presence - again, not a lot of ministry needed, but people were very open to receiving.

The Holy Spirit workshop went well - everyone got into groups and had a go. There was even a spot of healing, so praise God for that.

The evening was very special. We had a long time of worship, and then Roger spoke about worship that transforms. We shared bread and wine, and then Mike and Barbara prayed for everyone and anointed them
with oil. There was a tremendous sense of love and unity within the group.

Christian Dance Ministries

2011-03-08T12:01:00.000Z

A new and exciting venture has been brewing for some time - Christian Dance Ministries. Sally Taylor (formerly Jones!) has gathered together a wonderful group of dancers from various places, including the Wildfire and Rock tours, and some girls from Sally's gap year with Springs.

Over the past few months they have been meeting regularly, and putting together a presentation of a number of dances to take to different churches. They have also included a couple of workshops with local dancers to encourage them.

So far they have held three presentations in aid of cancer research - one at Christ Church Burney Lane, another at Nuthall Methodist in Nottingham, and one at St. Andrew's in Barnt Green. There is one more to come on Saturday 26th March at Selly Oak Methodist. Call CMM if you would like more details.

The presentations have been wonderful, with a mixture of comedic and poignant dances, and a few songs and instrumental links interspersed between them.

Please pray for Sally and all of the dancers as they begin to think about their future and seek God for what he has in store. They are a wonderful group, and their performances are both spectacular and thought-provoking.

Lunch in King's Heath

2011-03-08T11:44:00.000Z

On a Friday back in January, Roger, Mary, Devon and Helen went to a church in King's Heath. They had invited Roger to come and speak at their regular lunch meeting. There were quite a number of people there, and the lunch was wonderful - lovely soup and bread followed by various puddings and cheese and biscuits. This lunch meeting is for anyone who happened to be available, so there was a big mix of people present, including the son of the organiser, who was off school having hurt his foot.

Roger shared about using musicals in evangelism, which gives plenty of opportunity to share CMM's vision and aims, and sing lots of songs. Devon was well known to the group, so it was lovely for him to sing and share with them.

At last - the official launch!

2011-02-28T13:06:00.002Z

On Saturday 5th February we finally launched Two Sisters and a Funeral. Over a hundred singers gathered at Christ Church Burney Lane to learn the musical and perform it all in one day. There was an incredible buzz around the place, and people seemed to really enjoy themselves.

We had the full team of soloists from the CD taking part during the day - Emily and Aly as Mary and Martha, Martin and Devon as Jesus and Lazarus, as well as Caroline and Amy as some women of Bethany and Jonathan, Bill, Pete and Richard as our 'baddies'. There were quite a number of other future soloists at the day, including Phil, Wendy, Sarah, Carolynn and Yvette.

Roger kicked off the day with a bit of worship and teaching about the themes underlying the musical, and then we spent a bit of time all together working on a few of the songs. Then we split into sectionals - Annie took the sopranos and altos, and Helen the tenors and basses. It was so lovely to put it all together at the end of the day, and hear one another's progress.

After a short break, we let the audience in. As there were so many in the choir the audience had to sit in the chancel - at least 30 of them, including Alison Fuggle, Tim Jones, Ann Parkin, chair of the trust, Beresford and Kate King-Smith, and families and friends of the soloists. The performance went really well, and Helen and Annie improvised some solo instrumental parts. Annie will eventually write some official tour parts for when we have the occasional instrumentalist during the performances over the next couple of years.

A weekend in Bramhall

2011-02-28T11:29:00.000Z

While Annie was busy leading Simeon in a day in Droitwich, Roger led a team to Bramhall just south of Manchester for a weekend of Two Sisters and a Funeral. Roger, Jonathan, Amy and Helen travelled up on Friday night, and then were joined on Saturday by Martin, Wendy, Devon and Pete. It was both Wendy and Pete's first gig - fantastic to have them with us.

The day had been organised by Paul Barnsley, who runs an organisation called Heart Notes Ministries. Paul has been a wonderful supporter of CMM over the years and we have often held a kind of pre-tour practice performance of a new musical with him.

Paul had gathered a wonderful choir of over 60 singers to come and learn the musical in a day, and he and his wonderful band of helpers had also catered for everyone. The choir worked incredibly hard as Helen and Roger taught the musical, and the final outcome was pretty good! It was very tricky to learn in a day (we have since used sectionals, which makes a huge difference), but the choir managed it. For the evening performance the audience wasn't quite outnumbered by the choir, but they had to sit all around it!

Roger, Amy, Jonathan and Helen stayed overnight with wonderful hosts, and then led the service at Bramhall Methodist on the Sunday morning. Most of CMM's previous events in Bramhall have been at the Anglican church, but this time it was great to be able to spend some time with the Methodists. We were welcomed wonderfully, and the service was great fun - the whole congregation even joined in with Helen's children's actions song! Roger spoke on the 'More Than' God, and also shared some of the pictures and words we had at EBRG on the preceding Thursday. It was great at the end of the service to spend lots of time chatting and praying with people. We had a lot more requests for prayer after the morning service than after the musical, so this shows that our new schedule of including some input into a regular church service is a good way to go.

Huge thanks go to Paul for organising such a wonderful weekend, and thanks to all his helpers.

Simeon in a Day

2011-02-25T14:06:00.000Z

On Saturday 29th January, Annie continued in her series of musicals-in-a-day with Simeon at Droitwich Methodist Church Centre. Annie had a wonderful team for the day, comprising of Paul Edwards, Kathleen Owen, Caroline Finney and Beresford King-Smith. It was great that Beresford could be involved as he plays Simeon on the original recording, and wrote the narrative links between the songs.

Annie says that it was an incredible day - a huge choir of 60 or so, and some fantastic singers among them. There were also a lot of instrumentalists, which meant that the final performance could be live, and the backing track could stay in its case.

Jenny Bulman contacted Annie afterwards with some pictures and a note:

Let me just say again a very big thank you for such an uplifitng and enjoyable day on Saturday. Several people have said how they felt blessed by the whole experience and would love you to come again. I have just about stopped spinning round now and can enjoy it calmly in retrospect and am looking forward to playing the CD of 2 sisters.

Apostle in a day, Harborne

2011-02-25T12:25:00.001Z

On Saturday 22nd January, Annie led 'Apostle in a Day' for the churches together in Harborne, Birmingham. It isn't often we are asked to lead something so close to home - Annie could have walked there! The church was St. Faith and St. Lawrence, one of several large Anglican churches in the Harborne area, as well as lots of other denominations. Annie spoke at a churches together in Harborne event last year, and the invitation for a musical in a day followed on from that.

Annie had with her on team Jonathan and Amy - Jonathan taking the part of Paul, and Amy filling in a variety of other things including Ananias.

Annie says that the day was absolutely wonderful. There were over 40 in the choir with quite a few in the audience in the evening. Even the vicar, Priscilla, took part. A musical in a day is a brilliant way to celebrate the Week of Prayer for Christian Unity, as it can bring so many different denominations together.

Holy Spirit Workshops

2011-02-24T13:28:00.000Z

The day after the evening with Devon in Hemel Hempstead, the CMM team travelled the very short distance up the road to Watford, to the Church of the Nazarene. The church had decided to have their away weekend at home, and invited CMM to come and lead the morning service and also a couple of Holy Spirit workshops.

It is always a challenge to travel to churches that are unfamiliar, as it is very difficult to know what people are used to regarding Sunday morning worship, and also how far to introduce anything new. The congregation at the Church of the Nazarene seemed to take everything in their stride, and were very welcoming and open. Roger spoke about the 'More Than' God, and Helen led worship. Annie and Roger did a bit of a 'name that tune' session as part of the service too, which was great.

After the service we were served up some absolutely amazing home made soup and cakes, which set us up nicely for the afternoon. Annie led a workshop called 'Never too old to serve', which was about ministering to one another in the power of the Holy Spirit, and Helen led a receiving the Holy Spirit workshop. Interestingly, Helen ended up with most of the church leadership in her workshop - perhaps they just wanted to sit in God's presence and just receive for a while and let the rest of the congregation do the work!

After the workshops we gathered together for one last short plenary session. One lady shared something incredibly interesting. During the morning service she had had a song going around in her head - a very old song that she hadn't thought of for years. At the end of the service, Annie had deeply felt that she should play this particular song, even though she hadn't played it for years. Amazing how in something very small like that, God can meet with us all as individuals and show us how much he loves us and cares for us.

Thanks so much to Eva for sticking her neck out and inviting us. It was fantastic to be able to hold a day focusing on the Holy Spirit.

Your performances...

2011-02-24T13:08:00.000Z

At Christmas we received a couple of reports about how well your own performances of Roger's musicals have gone around the country.

We received this from Mary Edwards:

Dear Roger
I contacted you a few weeks ago and you very kindly gave me permission to perform your musical,"The Inn Crowd" at Linslade Methodist Church, Leighton Buzzard. It took place on Wed evening, Dec 15th and quite a few of the older folk turned out in spite of the very cold night. Quite a few of my choir were suffering from bad colds and coughs.

I gave the congregation your greetings and they appreciated the performance very much.
Quite a number of folk told the choir and myself how much they had enjoyed the modern music and drama.
They said it was so easy to follow the story and understand the christian message.
Most of the folk that came were over 70!!

So thank you Roger for allowing me to share this lovely musical with the dear folk at Linslade.
May God Bless you and your team in the work that you do and long may it continue.

We also received this report from Danny White in Blyth:

Just a few lines to update you with the events over Christmas involving the music The Inn Crowd & Stargazers.

Our Central Methodist Church Choir and Friends performed The Inn Crowd in place of our normal evening service. The lord did smile on us as the weekend we performed was clear of snow,(the first time for weeks) It proved to be well received ,which was particularly pleasing as it was dedicated to a recently deceased church member. A further comment from a widowed member of the church, that she found the message and music uplifting.
The Churches Together in Blyth were asked to sing at the Town Carol Service and we chose Just You from Stargazers which was very well received, uplifting and put us in the mood for O Come all ye Faithful immediately after.

Thanks so much for letting us know how things are going. I've you've got a performance coming up, let us know the dates, and also send us a report! It is always so encouraging to hear how God is using the music.

An Evening with Devon

2011-02-18T14:16:00.001Z

On Saturday 15th January a team from CMM travelled to the South Hill Centre in Hemel Hempstead. We had been invited by Sarah Moreton, trainer of the Joyful Noise Choir (our regular Watford/Hemel area choir), to come and hold an Evening with Devon.

We last held one of these evenings about a year ago at Barnt Green Parish Church near Birmingham and used quite a big group of backing singers and instrumentalists. This time the evening was quite different. We had the wonderful added dimension of Sarah's choir for quite a few of the songs, which meant we did not need so many backing singers - in the end the team was just Devon, Roger, Trish, Paul, Sarah, Annie and Helen.

We included an interval for the first time, and either side of the interval we had choir performances. Before the interval we had a performance from the choir local to the venue called Urban Choir. They are a gospel-style choir run by Christians for any singers at all - Christian or otherwise. After the interval Joyful Noise sang 'Like Eagles' and 'Love can build a bridge' with Sarah and Christine as soloists.

It was fantastic having the choirs there, particularly when Joyful Noise were able to join in with some of Devon's solo items. Devon shared quite a bit of his story, and the audience were really blessed by the evening. It was also wonderful to see that Urban Choir stayed to watch the whole of the second half - even those that aren't Christians. It was a wonderful opportunity to share the Gospel.

Thanks so much Sarah for inviting us, and well done Devon once again!

Rehearsal time

2011-02-18T11:10:00.000Z

As may have been mentioned before on the blog, CMM are beginning to work a bit differently when it comes to teams and musicals. In the past when a new musical is launched, a team of soloists, understudies, dancers and instrumentalists rehearse over 6 or 7 months ready for the premiere and 50 or so tour dates.

With Two Sisters and a Funeral, the emphasis will be different - there won't be dance (at all venues) or full-costumed drama - instead we will hold a 'concert version' with choir, narration and soloists. This gives us scope to use lots of different soloists and give plenty of people chance to perform.

On Tuesday 11th January we had a gathering of quite a few of our regular soloists - about 20 of us met and sang through the musical together. Roger also shared a bit of his vision for the musical, which was great to hear.

At the same time in the same building, the CMM choir were meeting for the first time since Christmas. It was just a little social gathering, but a lovely opportunity for Annie to meet with the group as their new conductor. They shared food and fellowship together, and then half way through the evening the Two Sisters soloists came and joined them and sang 'O the deep deep love of Jesus' - with a planned spontaneous happening at the end!

It is always lovely to meet with the CMM choir and give them a preview of what is to come - they are wonderful supporters.