In the bleak midwinter...

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

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

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...

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

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

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

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

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

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...

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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...

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

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

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!