Two Sisters at Rochdale

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

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!

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

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

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

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

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

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

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!

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

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

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

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

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...

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

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

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.

Start the new year in the best way

CMM and EBRG began 2011 in the best way possible - we went on retreat together.  On Thursday 6th January we had our first EBRG meeting of the year preparing for the retreat, and then on Saturday 8th we all travelled to Shallowford House near Eccleshall/Stone.  This year we didn't have an outside speaker, but spent a lot of time in prayer and discussion togther thinking about the future.

Shallowford House is a wonderful venue for this kind of retreat, and it has also recently been taken over from a couple that CMM knows from previous visits to Lee Abbey.  The warm welcome and friendly atmosphere was perfect for our needs.

On the Saturday afternoon, Roger, Annie and Helen shared their ideas for the future, and then on the Sunday Mike helped us to come up with some questions to help with the discerning process on Thursday nights over the next few weeks.  Then we finished up with worship and lunch - a lovely weekend.

Happy Christmas and New Year!

The last few days before Christmas were incredibly hard work for CMM - not due to a massive amount of orders, but because Roger and Mary finally moved house.  We are now finally installed in Lickey End, Bromsgrove, but there is a lot of unpacking to do.

On the final day we took our minds away from the unpacking and walked up the road to the local garden centre for our Christmas dinner.  Helen's husband James had the day off, so he joined us as well.  We were treated brilliantly, and the meal was lovely.  Roger and Mary had Christmas presents for everyone, but they were in a box somewhere in the house, so we had to wait until the new year!

Thanks so much to all our supporters - 2010 has been a wonderful year!

Christmas ladies' meetings (part 2)

The following week, Annie and Helen travelled to Sutton Coldfield Baptist Church.  Annie had been asked to lead their Christmas meeting, and Helen came as a soloist.  It was a fantastic meeting - there were a large number of ladies there despite the snow - at least 30, and they seemed to really appreciate all Annie had to share.

Annie spoke about Jesus as the one who was, the one who is, and the one who is to come.  A particular highlight came at the end when we sang 'Great is the darkness - come, Lord Jesus' and Annie led a wonderful come, Holy Spirit time.

And then mince pies were served all round!