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.

Cumbria Tour: Barrow-in-Furness

For all of the performances on this Wildfire tour we have been joined by Sharon Collins and Mike Bailey, who have had to travel quite long distances on some days after work to join us. But this venue on the tour was their home venue - Barrow-in-Furness.

We left Whitehaven on the Thursday morning and meandered our way across the Lakes to Sedbergh stopping at Crummock Water for a photo snap and then at Buttermere for lunch. The weather was great - not sunny, but very warm and still. We then had tea in Sedbergh with Carole and then travelled to Barrow for their rehearsal.

Sandy and Beth had now finished the majority of their time with us, so it was over to the technicians at Barrow - Alan, Rachel and Linda - who had already been there for hours before we arrived.

This was going to be quite a different performance: as well as the choir trained by Sharon Collins, there was also a drama group trained by Margaret Manvell and two flautists, who were joined by Helen to play a couple of extra links for the drama group. Because of these extra complications, the rehearsal was a bit chaotic and nervous but we got through it. It was hard to force Sharon to sit down and stop her worrying about her excellently trained choir and just to concentrate on being a soloist! It was fantastic to see familar faces from previous tours, as this choir has supported us several times over the years, most recently at the Coronation Hall in Ulverston with Wildfire, Jail Break and Rock.

The following day we had a lazy morning with some staying in Sedbergh and Helen with her family in Grange. We all met together again for a faith tea in Barrow followed by a good long rehearsal in which we covered most of the musical. After all the previous night's difficulties the drama went brilliantly in the performance - the drama team included all the rest of Sharon's family - Keith, Anthony and Gemma.

The church was packed, and there were very few seats left, and Helen's mum and dad sat right in the middle on the front row! Sharon was able to relax and enjoy herself too, which was great. The performance was excellently received and there was a good response afterwards - lots of great conversations and some prayer ministry too, with Brian from Wholeness Through Christ. WTC are following up this tour with an introductory meeting in Penrith in the Autumn, so do pray for them.

Cumbria Tour: Whitehaven (and Wigton)

We left Penrith for the beautiful drive across the top of the Lake District, stopping off for a walk and lunch at Mungrizedale (for those of you who care to know, the pie people have moved on, but the pub still does great pie). It was a lovely walk up behind Blencathra, although we almost lost Jonathan for a while up the side of the mountain.

After lunch we travelled on to Mirehouse, a very deprived estate on the edge of Whitehaven. It feels strange looking back on our visit to Cumbria, just before the tragic events that happened in the area days after we left - the bus crash and the shootings. Right in the centre of Mirehouse is a small green with a few shops, but also two churches, one of which is St. Andrew's Church, and their vicar Chris immediately stood out to us as someone full of the Holy Spirit and passion for Jesus. It is a long thin church, which presented a bit of a logistical challenge - fitting in a choir of 60+ and all of Sandy and Beth's technical equipment.

We left Sandy and Beth to it (at their request) and went to the seaside at St. Bees. Bill went for a swim and the rest of us threw stones at a milk carton. Then of course there was the usual tea drinking and cake eating.

In the evening we had a rehearsal with the choir which was really exciting as there were a group of 15 kids from St. Joseph's RC church in Whitehaven. They were really enthusiastic and seemed to enjoy it. Overall the effect was a wonderful Mirehouse choir with lots of power and enthusiasm trained by Angela. The altos, tenors and basses were a little outnumbered however by sopranos and children!

The next day we travelled to Wigton - about a 45 minute drive away. Wigton had put their own performance of Wildfire on a couple of weeks earlier as it wasn't possible to fit them in to the tour. We had lunch with the Ferriby's, who were the mainstay of the Wigton performance. It was great to be able to see them and share with them, and after lunch we held a meeting at Wigton Methodist Church - there were 30-40 people there, which was fantastic for a weekday. Roger did his talk on using musicals in evangelism and ministry, so hopefully they will take and use some of what they had heard in future.

We travelled back to Mirehouse and bullied Chris and Jane Casey into taking a couple of extras for dinner in the form of Roger and Ann. We then headed to the church for a brief pre-performance rehearsal only to find the audience arriving an hour early. It was so amazing - an incredible sense of anticipation.

After a brief rehearsal Roger led a prayer time. He had asked the kids from St. Josephs to bring a candle, which was a lovely touch, and it was a fabulous prayer time which was interrupted every now and again by people bringing in extra chairs for the audience.

It was absolutely crammed in the church when we went back in, and the soloists discovered their performing space had been taken over completely by wheelchairs - some improvising was needed! It was a fantastic evangelism opportunity, and some asked for prayer while others took Why Jesus leaflets. Roger and Chris found themselves greeting each person on the door in turn like a wedding lineup, and the comments were incredibly positive. Several people mentioned to rev Chris that they'd be at church on Sunday, and Roger was encouraged by someone mentioning to him that their life had been completely changed by the finale of Snakes and Ladders at the Bescot Stadium all those years ago.

What a fantastic evening - standing room only - and not even any standing room left! There were people sat on the organ seat as well as standing in the entrance porch.

An hour to go...

Time to begin!

Cumbria Tour: Penrith

So after our morning in Alston we travelled to Penrith Methodist Church, a venue we know well from both Jail Break and Rock tours. We were met there by Graham Allan, who has always ensured we were looked after brilliantly on our previous visits, and we began preparing for the afternoon choir rehearsal. Sandy and Beth weren't able to arrive as early as they'd like for a set up, but they did an amazing job of setting up around us while we rehearsed with the choir. The choir were excellent and had been brilliantly trained by their three dynamic conductors.

After the choir rehearsal we had a bite to eat and then were involved in the evening service which was led by Phil Jackson. It was a fantastic evening service, and one of the longest normal evening services that I've been involved in - starting at 1830 and finishing at 2010. There was a wonderful praise time, and Roger spoke, and then Phil led a special communion. Lots of the choir came to the service too, which was great to see.

The following morning Roger relaxed while the rest of the team had to work! We met with Graham Allan who is writing a biography of Roger - so we spent time talking about him. We then carried on the conversation with Roger over lunch at Pooley Bridge, near the shores of Ullswater. It was an amazing lunch - when you order one cumberland sausage, you get two, and it should be called fishes and chips!

In the afternoon we had a team meeting back at Penrith including Mike and Barbara and Brian from Wholeness Through Christ, and then after a fantastic tea (very healthy one involving salad) we prepared for the evening performance.

The performance was well attended and went well except for a strange problem with Sandy and Beth's iPod that kept cutting out. The choir were magnificent though, and kept singing right through the gaps. There was some good prayer ministry afterwards and a fantastic buzz all around the building. There was a whole line of ladies from Woodlands Methodist Home right on the front row, who had all thoroughly enjoyed it.

Cumbria Tour: Alston

We left Kendal early on Sunday morning and drove a very long way right to the very edge of Cumbria up in the Pennines. Alston has been a familiar stop off place on CMM tours of the past when travelling from Barrow to Sunderland - as you do. So this time it was great to stop and not go any further. It was a beautiful but long drive over - 1 hr 40 minutes of high moors and dales.


The reason for our travels was to take the service at Alston Methodist Church. But we were early so we had a quick coffee (and tea cake) in a cafe which was open half way up the main road through the town.


The Methodist Church in Alston is part of the only Methodist circuit in the country that has absolutely no buildings - they meet in hotel function rooms, schools, other church buildings. The minister says they have been 'liberated'. Alston Methodist meets in the Catholic church - it is a very small church with seating for about 30 people. We had hoped Roger could play keyboard, but when we arrived we discovered the keyboard wasn't very accessible - up in a minstrels' gallery at the back of the church. So Helen thought she'd have to play guitar for all of the hymns as well as the songs, but thankfully her bacon was saved by Sheila, their regular musician who was very good, and very versatile. Thanks Sheila!

Roger preached to the congregation, who included a couple of visitors from Haydon Bridge, and it was a really good service in an interesting location.


Our next port of call was Penrith, so unsuprisingly for lunch we stopped at the bakery at Melmerby. Mmmmm.

Cumbria Tour: Kendal

On Friday 14th May, a team from CMM travelled up to Cumbria for a tour with the musical Wildfire. It was our first tour in this style - we had been invited by Churches Together in Cumbria to perform Wildfire at several different locations in the area over a week as a kind of mission/encouragement to the churches. When this was originally planned, Carole Marsden (regular CMM associate) was the CTiC district officer, and although she finished that role when having a baby, she was still heavily involved.

There was a wonderful vision for this tour - a picture of Cumbria ringed by fire - the fire around the edges of the county working their way in. In the past so many of the big Cumbria Church events have been in the centre of the county - Windermere, Ambleside, Keswick. This tour instead visits the places around the edges.

Our first venue on the tour was Kendal. This was a completely new venue to us but the choir trainer wasn't - Pam Dent. We've met Pam on a few occasions at music weeks and on tour as part of the Penrith choir. The Kendal choir were joined by a few other singers from Penrith and Grange, but on the whole the choir were new to us - and they were excellent!

On the Friday evening we had a rehearsal and set up time. We had some wonderful sound engineers in Sandy and Beth from Sedbergh, who were also involved in prayer coordination for the whole tour. It was great to have them on board with us. The rehearsal went well, enabling the team to bring in a bit of drama to the performance - figuring out where it is best for Stephen to die and be dragged off to etc. Roger also had to give each choir on this tour a crash course in slow-motion stoning - it looked really effective once the choir members had all got the hang of pretending to throw rocks and not darts or confetti.

There were also some dancers who had been working really hard for the event - it was 8 girls, and their leader who we could see dancing at the back - a fantastic group.

The Saturday was Roger's birthday, so we made a little bit of a fuss of him with a football birthday cake. We had a free morning and so some of the team spent a bit of time exploring Kendal, then later we had a team prayer time before a short rehearsal. Roger perhaps chose the wrong chair to sit on during team prayers - very old, with equally old varnish... he stuck to it.

We had two performances - a matinee and an evening performance, and we were thrilled by the turnout at both. There were excellent narrators too - who we used again at the finale at Carlisle Cathedral. A scary moment occurred in the performance when Mike made his entrance as Paul's Pharisee henchman - looking terrifying in his hoodie...

There were also some familiar faces among the audience - a lady called Tanya who used to work in the CMM office, another lady who used to be in EBRG and lived in Hodge Hill right near the office, and Keith Harris - one of our music week regulars. It was also great to have Mike and Barbara Rowarth join us to help with the prayer team as well as Brian, who was representing Wholeness Through Christ.

Huge thanks to Pam and Carole and all at Kendal who made such a wonderful day possible and looked after us exceptionally well.