Two Sisters and an Orchestra

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

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

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

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!

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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!

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

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

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

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

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.