Rock of Ages

The day following Pharisee, Roger had a special speaking engagement. It was the 10th anniversary of the Gloucester and District Christian Choir, led by Pamela Dewick, and they held a special service at which Roger spoke.

Pamela (known affectionately as the Duchess) formed the choir in 2000 specially for the Gloucester performance of Snakes and Ladders, and they have been involved in every tour since then.

To celebrate, the choir had a weekend away together in Somerset, and it was great for Roger to meet with them at this special time.

Pharisee in Weston

Early in September Annie had been invited to Weston to help with a Pharisee in a day at Locking Castle Church. Pharisee is quite a long musical to learn in a day, but Annie managed it! She was greatly aided by some fantastic local soloists including CMM regular Kaye Cooke, and the lack of men meant that she just had to teach the soprano and alto parts.

Annie conducted the performance brilliantly, and Roger and Mary came and were part of the audience, which was lovely for the choir.

Jairus' Daughter in Sidmouth

At the start of September a CMM team consisting of Roger, Mary, Bill & Barbara, Helen and Amy travelled down to Sidholme, a Christian Guild hotel in Sidmouth, Devon. The host couple for the week were Peter and Joy Mills from Leamington, and it was great to work with them again following previous weeks at St. Ives. The hotel was totally full, and about two thirds of the guests took part in the CMM week.

The musical for the week was Jairus' Daughter. We had expected just to have a choir at this week trained by Helen, but we also had several musicians, so Amy took a small orchestra with Roger on piano, and a flute, a clarinet, a trombone and a saxophone. Jairus' Daughter is a fairly simple musical, so the guests learnt it very quickly - the choir were beautifully balanced and made a fantastic sound. They were a real pleasure to conduct as they all looked at the conductor and responded brilliantly to dynamics and expression.

As well as learning the musical, we had several other sessions during the week. Bill spoke at the Sunday morning service, Helen led the introductory evening and did the main Bible teach

ing on Monday morning. On one evening we had a Ways to Praise session looking at Psalms, Hymns and Songs, and we also gave a special preview of Two Sisters and a Funeral. All the rest of the team chipped in leading worship and epilogues. Peter and Joy lead morning prayers every day, and it seemed to grow and grow until there was nearly no space in the lounge.

The performance went fantastically well with some lovely solos from the guests. There was also quite a large audience - we had to bring in extra chairs.

By the end of the week it was clear that God was blessing and working with most of the guests, and it was a real privilege to be there to minister.

Two Sisters

Throughout the summer we have been working really hard on Roger's new musical, Two Sisters and a Funeral. The soloists for the CD have been meeting together, and the backing vocals group have also rehearsed.

Main soloists:

Jesus - Martin Fisher

Lazarus - Devon Brown

Martha - Alyson Ottaway

Mary - Emily Bray

Then there are a few other soloists:

Some women of Bethany:

Caroline Finney

Amy Carter

The 'baddies' in Jerusalem:

Bill Carpenter

Richard Harvey

Jonathan Chappell

Pete Hazelwood

Andrew and Gemma's Wedding

Friday 27th August was the second Jones family wedding of the year. This time it was Andrew's turn to tie the knot with Gemma. The bride and groom looked apicture, the groom did a great job with his funny speech, and the families had a wonderful day together - first at the church in Wolverhampton and later at the beautiful reception venue.

There was a gifted cartoonist at the reception who amused the guests throughout the day. Every now and again there would be a huge peal of laughter whenever he finished his

latest creation.

Willersley 2010

In mid August we held a music week at Willersley Castle near Matlock in Derbyshire. This was our second summer music week at Willersley, and it is a fantastic venue - brilliantly accessible in a beautiful part of the country.The Christian Guild hotel was a complete sellout, and it was wonderful to have so many taking part in the week.

The host for the week was Marion, who has hosted with us several times - usually at Abbot Hall near Grange-over-Sands. It was wonderful to have Marion with us, and she did a fantastic job - even more so when we heard that her husband John had died (aged 98) only a couple of weeks before. John was a wonderful character, and will be sadly missed.

The musical for the week was From Pharaoh to Freedom, and this time Helen was training the choir, with Annie sorting out the orchestra. We also had Phil Parkin on team who did a wonderful job accompanying. As well as Phil, Helen and Annie, the CMM team comprised of Roger and Mary, Paul Edwards and Alan Walker. It was great to have Paul over from France, and we look forward to when he comes back to the UK and we can see him more often.

The choir and the orchestra were absolutely excellent, and they produced a wonderful performance on the Friday night, and quite a number came to watch, including some friends from Sheffield. But beyond the performing, the highlights of the week came in ministry, as quite a number of people were touched by the Spirit and received prayer.

Another lovely evening occurred when a team came from a church in Nottingham to lead us in worship and share their testimonies. It was great to be encouraged by them and then for us to encourage them in turn with their future ministry.

We also held some Holy Spirit ministry workshops during the week, as well as a whole evening looking at the new musical - Two Sisters and a Funeral. Martin Fisher was working in the area, so he came to join us for that session.

A wonderful week, and we look forward to next year when we will be working on Two Sisters and a Funeral.

Wydale Hall

On the weekend immediately before our Willersley music week, Annie travelled up to Wydale Hall in East Yorkshire. The purpose of her journey was to lead worship for the parish weekend away for Heversham and Milnthorpe. The speaker for the weekend was Martin Cavendar from ReSource, an Anglican organisation who have a wonderful evangelical charismatic ethos.

Annie had a bit of a difficult journey up and then problems with the projector, but eventually everything settled down and went incredibly smoothly. Annie was greatly blessed by the weekend, and I'm sure everyone was blessed by Annie's playing and worship leading!

Lee Abbey 2010

The annual CMM music week at Lee Abbey in North Devon was a great success once again. This year's musical was From Pharaoh to Freedom, and the full house at Lee Abbey took to it with relish. The choir
and the orchestra were smaller than usual, but the audience was therefore quite a bit bigger.

The choir was led by Paul Herrington, who has been involved with CMM music weeks at Lee Abbey for several years. Paul did a fantastic job with the choir and the soloists,

who all picked up the music very

quickly.

Annie once again was in charge of the orchestra, and she had a lovely group to work with, including an excellent string section. They were also brilliantly supported by a drummer from the Lee Abbey Community, which really added to the performance.

Although the choir and the orchestra were perhaps a little smaller than in the past, there was no let-up for the team. One of the features of the week was the amount of prayer ministry which occurred - God was clearly using Roger's teaching and all of the worship sessions to bless people with more of His Holy Spirit.

We had a lovely email from Sue in Derbyshire after the week:

Hi Roger/Mary

I just wanted to drop you a quick note to say how much we enjoyed last week at Lee Abbey. I thought the musical was fantastic and despite not having sung in a choir since I was 18, I thoroughly enjoyed testing my sight reading skills again. We listened to the CD all the way home to Derbyshire and reminded ourselves of the great time we had.

Roger, you’re obviously in the perfect job given your amazing musical talent and gifts in the way that you communicate with people. It was delight to spend the week with you.

God bless.

Sue

Garden Praise

On Sunday we were honoured to be invited to lead worship at this year's Garden Praise at Middleton Hall, near Tamworth. Garden Praise is organised every year by Sutton Coldfield Churches Together, and is a fantastic event.

In the grounds of Middleton Hall there is a lovely space surrounded by trees which creates a bit of a natural amphitheatre, and there is space for 2-300 people. We had a small stage on which we managed to put Roger on keyboard, Tim on drums and Helen on guitar (Helen had lost her voice so couldn't sing). Then next to the stage we had a row of microphones for Ann Steer, Amy Carter and Richard Harvey. We were also joined by Mick on saxophone - we'd never met him before, but he was great.

Lots of people came - easily over 250, and enjoyed the sunshine, sitting on their deckchairs. The CMM team led some worship, including a few of Roger's songs, and then Roger spoke.

It was a fantastic event, and a real honour to have been invited to take part.

Roger and Mary in Austria and Italy

For the last week Roger and Mary have been ministering with Living Sun holidays in Austria and Italy. They were responsible for a party of 48, which involved looking after their practical needs (lost baggage, blocked sinks etc) as well as their spiritual ones. So this meant Roger and Mary had to lead various meetings with teaching and worship too.

The trip began with a couple of days in Kirchberg where they were surrounded by beautiful mountains. Roger was overjoyed because he managed to find a wireless internet hotspot to use...

Then the group moved on to Oberammergau for two days - the first day getting settled in and then the second day watching the famous 10-yearly passion play. The play lasted over 5 hours with a break for dinner in the middle, and involved the whole town. Roger and Mary's favourite part was the opening scene with the triumphal entry into Jerusalem. Apparently there were hundreds on stage (animals too) and the cries of hosanna were incredible. The Living Sun group had seats on the fifth row back, so they were right in the midst of the action. They also said that the crucifixion scene was very graphic and powerful, but that they could have done with a bit more importance put on the resurrection.

The last five days were in Mals in Northern Italy. This was the time when Mary and Roger could really get down to work - the guests were settled in the hotel, there was an excellent conference suite with projector and keyboards, which meant that there could be lots of worship, teaching and ministry time in the evenings.

Sadly on the final morning one of the party, Mary Rumble, died in her sleep. She had been a wonderful part of the party, and it was a big shock for the whole group. Our prayers are with her family and friends at this time.

The CMM choir

For the last month or so, the CMM choir has been busy performing Jail Break right across the West Midlands. The choir originally performed it at the premiere weekend back in October 2005, but have not performed it since, so it was great for them to be able to re-learn it and bring it to a wider audience in the Birmingham area.

The dates of their performances were:

15th May - St. Thomas' Aldridge

30th May - The Link, Water Orton

13th June - St. Francis' Bournville

20th June - West Bromwich Baptist Church

3rd July - Far Forest, near Kidderminster

The performances were excellent - the choir blends brilliantly together, which is impressive because they rehearse in two separate locations every week. The soloists were really good, with Alan Walker reprising his Quintus role for several of the performances.

I think most of the choir would agree that the final performance in Far Forest was the highlight - the hall was completely packed out, as it was a special anniversary for the church. So while it was a very long journey for many of the choir members, it was worth it.

Jairus' Daughter in two locations

For the last couple of weekends Annie has been working hard leading two separate Jairus' Daughter in a day events. On Saturday 26th June she was in Knaphill, Surrey with her team for the occasion:

Amy Carter (clarinet and girl)

Ann Steer (woman)

Steve Brown (Jesus)

And two local soloists took the part of Jairus and the girl's friend. Jairus was played by Ian, the local church musical director, and the girl's friend was played wonderfully by Juilet. It was great having Steve Brown on board, as he has been involved with CMM events in Worthing for the last few years, and it was good to have him as a soloist for the first time. Amy worked really hard with a couple of young beginner instrumentalists - on trombone and trumpet, who had a fantastic day, although Amy says she found it quite hard to help them play their parts when she was supposed to be pretending to be dead on the stage...

And then on Saturday 3rd July, Annie travelled to Arddleen on the Welsh border. She had a slightly different team this time:

Ann Steer (woman) - she knew it well by this point!

Rachel MacLaren (Girl)

Simon Cooper (Jesus)

Barrie Renwick (Jairus)

Laura Cooper (bookstall and lots of other incredibly helpful things)

Ann Dackevych had organised the day, and she sent a wonderful email to Annie afterwards:

"Once again, thank you for a lovely day. It was a day full of blessing and fellowship that left us wanting more... Lovely to see you again and, as usual, you always bring delightful people with you. "

Jairus is such a fantastic musical to do in a day. There isn't too much difficult part singing, but a lot of the songs are wonderful and great fun. And above all, the gospel message of Jesus' love and healing comes through really strongly.

Rock in Scotland

Most of June 2010 was spent travelling around Scotland with Rock. Do have a look at the Rock blog to find out more. http://rockthemusical.blogspot.com

Another wedding

On Saturday 5th June there was yet another CMM wedding. Ann Walters, one of the dancers in both Jail Break and Rock got married to Nigel , a farmer from Lincolnshire. And yes, he did propose by tying the ring on to the leg of her favourite cow with a ribbon.

The wedding was a wonderful hot day in and around Spalding in Lincolnshire. CMM provided the music for the service, and Felicity and Anna danced in the service. The reception afterwards was good fun, and Ann and Nigel's first dance was something not many of us will forget!

Congratulations to them both.

May Bank Holiday Week

The May bank holiday is the traditional week for CMM's visit to Grange-over-Sands in Cumbria. The team visit Abbot Hall, which is part of the Christian Guild chain of hotels, and it is situated right next to Kent's Bank Station. The week at Grange is always one of the highlights of CMM's year. This year the CMM team was Roger, Mary, Annie, Sharon Collins (choir trainer and soloist), Jaime Dawson (drums), and Jonathan and Linda Chappell. Marian Jones was the host again, and great to be with her.

This year the musical of the week was From Pharaoh to Freedom, and the rehearsals were led by Annie (orchestra) and Sharon (choir). The orchestra was smaller than usual - 1 violin, 3 flutes, clarinet, 2 percussionists, 2 guitars and cornet. Linda sat with Matt on guitar and they worked together wonderfully, which was great to see.

The choir also was smaller than usual, but they still provided plenty of soloists, including Sharon's son Anthony who played the part of Pharaoh.

The morning worship and teaching sessions were great fun. Jonathan preached on the Sunday morning, and during the week Annie, Jaime and Mary all led worship. Roger had three morning talks based around the musical. The themes he covered were:

"When I see the blood" which looks at the Passover and the Exodus, linking them to Jesus

"Face to face with God" in which Roger looked at Exodus 3:5 - 'Moses hid his face from God because he was afraid' and examining how our relationship with God was ruined and how it has been restored.

"Let my people go!" which looks at the different kinds of freedom we can experience through God's love.

The evenings were filled with different activities: Saturday night was a fun introductory session, Sunday was a sing-through of the musical, on Monday night Roger led an evening, on Tuesday night the social sec led a games evening, on Wednesday night was a rehearsal and then on Thursday night Annie led an evening. Some of the evenings really opened people up spiritually, and alot of prayer ministry took place. Please pray that people continue to be healed and to move forward in their faith.

The performance went well in front of a big audience. Annie says it was one of the best orchestras she has ever had - quality, not quantity!

David in Dinas Powys

While Roger, Helen and co were travelling around the Lake District, Annie took a small team to Dinas Powys near Cardiff for a David in a Day. The day was organised by Dot Connell, who also organised our South Wales tour productions of Jail Break (St. David's Hall, Cardiff) and Rock (Barry Memorial Hall, Barry).

Annie took with her Kaye Cooke, Caroline Finney and Sue Walker to help her, and between them they managed all the solo parts.

A highlight of the day for Annie was the children - before the day Dot had asked for suggestions for the children's activities, which were to happen while the choir were rehearsing. They made armour, and they coloured in big signs which spelled out the name David ready for song 9 - Oh David is the one to be the King.


There were a few familiar faces in the choir, and it was great to have some friendships renewed.

New CMM Albums

In the past few months we have been working to create two new albums at CMM.

The first album has been the product of Annie's hard work and it is CMM's first instrumental album. Annie has taken a number of the beautiful ballads that CMM has produced over the years and recorded them all on solo viola. The CD also includes a couple of tracks with extra flute (Helen) and cornet (Kevin). Many of the tracks on the album are ones which particularly highlight Annie's orchestration and feature some wonderful instrumentalists over the years.

Annie brought together a string quartet for the occasion:

Violin - Heather Bradshaw, Claire Lewis-Lim

Viola - Annie Routley

Cello - Corinne Frost

One of the pieces - 'When I see the blood' - From Pharaoh to Freedom - Annie had arranged specially for string octet - so this particular piece is a completely new recording.

The other new CMM album is called 'The Look of Love', and it is the first CD to accompany the brand new 'Roger Jones Song Collection'. This is a collection of songs of healing and wholeness including songs such as 'Broken Chains' from Jail Break, 'In my dreams' from Snakes and Ladders, 'See how he dies' from Pharisee, 'Let me see your face' from Mary Magdalene and many more.

We recorded one brand new track for this album, which is 'Sitting at his feet' - Ann Steer took most of the vocals, with a little bit towards the end from Helen Pollard. This song will appear in Two Sisters and a Funeral, but will be sung by different vocalists and may have a slightly different format.

These two albums are £12.99 each, or both together for £20. You can also buy these with the Song Collection music book for £30. Visit the CMM website for more details - http://www.cmm.org.uk/

Cumbria Tour: Sedbergh

And so we finished off our Cumbria tour at the hub of the action - Sedbergh, the home of Carole Marsden and also Sandy and Beth who took part in so much of the tour. Carole and Helen got up early and climbed Winder, a peak just to the north of the town. It was Carole's first trip up since having baby Hannah.

The team met for one last time at Sedbergh Methodist Church to take part in a united service - a special event for Pentecost. Helen was part of the music group led by Sandy, and Jonathan, Bill and Ann helped the choir. The service included the songs 'I was glad' and 'Signs and wonders'.

Roger preached and various different groups from the area took part, including a youth group from the Anglican church. It was a good way to finish off an excellent week.

If anyone would be interested in initiating a similar tour in your area, don't hesitate to give us a ring for a chat.

Cumbria Tour: Carlisle

The tour finale in Carlisle was a special day. Carole had designed the tour so that all the choirs could gather together at the end in Carlisle Cathedral for a 'big sing'. We even had a couple of extras that weren't in the choirs - Sheila the organist from Alston and Brian from Wholeness Through Christ (he'd heard it enough times to be able to join in!).

Carlisle Cathedral is an interestingly shaped venue. There isn't really a large body of congregation space anywhere, so we found ourselves performing up near the altar area with the audience taking their seats where the choir would normally sit.

The team arrived in time to have a wonderful lunch in the Prior's Kitchen in the Fratry having battled through diversions around Carlisle town centre. We polished off the remaining Moroccan lamb casseroles... We had a quick sound check and then the choir started arriving - well over 100 of them! They made a fantastic noise, particularly in the acousic of the cathedral.

It was a beautiful sunny day, and fantastic to spend a bit of time seated outside before the early evening performance. We even had our prayer time outside.

The performance was lovely, and there were quite a few in the audience - a lot more than we expected, including the Bishop of Carlisle and the chair of churches together in Cumbria, who we had seen at several of the performances.

Lots of people seemed to be really excited and fired up by this tour, so we hope and pray they will use it as a springboard for further outreach in the future.