Chritianmusicministries

Rock - the end?

We're coming to the end of this CMM blog. There are a couple more Rock events to come - a trip to the Isle of Wight and one to Vancouver, but I'll cover those in the CMM blog.

Just one last thing to highlight the continuing ministry of the musical. We received this email a couple of days ago:

Hello Roger,

We enjoyed having you come and help with our first performance. We were able to perform it a second time in May at St. Isidore's Roman Catholic Church. It was a wonderful experience to perform with them at their church as a significant number of them were part of the chorus the night you directed us at St. Paul's.

We are planning on a November performance with yet another church here in Ottawa, Parkdale United.

Rev Roger Briggs, a semi-retired Anglican priest was part of our chorus the night you conducted. He served for nearly 50 years in the Canadian Arctic. He and I are feeling moved by the Spirit to take the Rock to Iqaluit Nunavut sometime in May of 2011. We would like permission to translate the Cornelius part into Inuktitut, one of the main dialects of the aboriginals. The plan at the moment is a very daunting one, we hope to take a total of 18 persons and stage the musical sometime during the Synod of the North.

Blessings,

Ann Faurbo,
Director of Music
St. Paul's Anglican Church
Ottawa, Ontario, Canada

'Scotland Tour': Monday 21st June

On our final day away from home we spent the morning exploring Berwick, before travelling together to spend the afternoon on Holy Island. For many of the team it was a first visit to the island, so it was fantastic to take the opportunity to be tourists for a while!

We then went to Martin Colam's house for dinner - a wonderful buffet - an amazing job to feed us all.

In the evening we travelled back to Berwick Methodist to lead the regular Unisong rehearsal. It was great fun. Roger mostly led his talk on using musicals in evangelism and mission, and included a load of songs which are great fun to sing - from 'Jesus rode a donkey into town' and 'brothers and sisters' through to 'Come, see the beauty of the King'. We also sang 'Sitting at his feet' from the new musical which will be published in a few months time.

It was wonderful to visit Berwick for the first time, and we hope to go back.

You don't need to here about our journeys home - but thanks for reading about our wonderful Rock tour of Scotland and Northumberland in June 2010.

'Scotland Tour': Sunday 20th June

So, not really in Scotland any more, we reached the final venue of our tour - Berwick Upon Tweed.

Some of our team were staying overnight in some holiday appartments owned by Martin Colam, the choir trainer in Berwick. As Martin had been at a wedding the day before, arrangements were made for the team to have breakfast at Berwick Methodist, along with several people from Holy Island, who had to come to the mainland early due to the tide.

After breakfast we discovered that we had no space to rehearse at the theatre in the morning, so Andy Raines from Holy Island let us in to St Aidan's Peace Church to rehearse. The rehearsal was mainly for the dancers, as our two were joined by a group led by Andy, which was part of Unisong, the choir we were joining up with for the Berwick venue.

Eventually we got into the Malthouse theatre, and had a bit of a mad session trying to set up and rehearse before the audience came in. It was wonderful to be able to perform on such a big stage, and also great to join up with Unisong, who are doing such a great work among all the churches and also with non-Christians in Berwick.

For the first half of the concert we did a shortened version of Rock, missing out a few of the songs, and then in the second half we had a bit more of a worship event, with Roger leading some teaching about Peter, and various members of the team singing solo or dancing. We also included a couple of songs from Wildfire, which the choir had performed previously.

After the performance we had dinner with our hosts, and then most of the team went to Martin Colam's holiday appartments for a birthday party - both Aly and Simon had their birthdays on that day. It was a fantastic evening, and great to relax together. It was also the last evening we could be together as a team - a car bound for the East Midlands carrying Marilyn, Amy, Felicity and Laura were due to leave early the next morning.

Scotland Tour: Saturday 19th June

And so began one of the busiest and most eventful days of our Scotland tour. We began with a rehearsal in Beith in the morning ready for their early afternoon performance. The rehearsal was quite hard work - it took a long time to get the sound balanced with the microphones. Laura R had flown in to Glasgow airport, and she arrived just in time for the rehearsal.

It felt like the rehearsal was quite fussy and difficult, but in all the noise and bustle, God was working. We then had lunch with the choir and the performance began at 2pm.

It was not a big audience, but the weather was absolutely beautiful which probably kept a few people away on a Saturday afternoon. As it turned out, the size of the audience didn't matter - God really touched those who were there, particularly a few people in the choir, which contained quite a few non-Christians. There was lots of prayer afterwards, and one lady made a decision to come back to God after 60 years. Derek and Kathryn, the organisers, may well have been disappointed by the turnout, but all their hard work was worth it in the end.

We then got in the car to drive for 3 hours to get to Berwick, an honourary part of our Scotland Tour. Some groups found a Little Chef for lunch, but the lucky ones ended up with fish and chips on the beach in Prestonpans.

We arrived back in England and were met at Berwick Methodist Church by Kirsten Coulter and Keith Osborne, local Anglican and Methodist clergy. Berwick is also a new venue for us, so it was good to meet with our hosts and disperse to the different places for accommodation. Aly and Helen were staying with Kirsten and her two dogs, and also had to look after Annie and Sarah while they waited for their hosts to arrive. So five of us and two large dogs (a German Shepherd and a Collie) piled into Kirsten's car and headed to an incredibly cold and dramatic beach for a walk very late at night!

Scotland Tour: Friday 18th June

The day after our Logie Easter we had a complete day off - barring travel. We left fairly early, and began the long but beautiful journey down to Beith, which is just south of Glasgow. We chose to take the scenic route - along Loch Ness, through Fort William, through Glen Coe, over Rannoch Moor, along the side of Loch Lomond, and over the Erskine bridge. The sun was out, and it was a beautiful day for the drive.

We arrived in Beith at various different times and were greeted by Derek and Kathryn Turner and a few others. It was also great to see Kaitlyn Turner, who has grown up incredibly over the last 3 years since we were last there with Jail Break. They fed us lasagne, and it was great to be able to socialise with them for a while.

We then dispersed to our hosts, and the unfortunate ones among us managed to pursuade our hosts to allow us to watch England v Algeria in the world cup...

Scotland Tour: Thursday 17th June

Today we had nothing to do until the evening, and so we took advantage of the freedom and most of the team travelled to Dornoch, just to the north of Logie Easter. The only two that didn't come were Alan and Laura R. Laura had to fly back to Nottingham from Inverness airport ready for a friend's wedding, and Alan drove her there, taking the opportunity to visit some friends who lived close by.

In Dornoch we travelled straight to the beach and had a wander, enjoying the sunshine and the vast amount of space. While on the beach we managed to lose Devon, and no-one could get hold of him on his phone. Before we panicked too much we managed to find him back in the town. In the town itself we split up and explored, finding lunch, including haggis, neeps and tatties.

Later on we had a team meeting at Logie Easter church led by Alyson, and then had a lovely dinner again - I think this must be the first time I've ever been fed dressed crab on a CMM event!

The performance was great fun - the church was packed, which was fantastic to see. I think people were so excited that something so 'professional' had come to their area. Sheila Hay, the choir trainer received a present from the choir - a large piece of rock with 'Rock of Ages' engraved upon it. It was a well deserved present - she has worked so hard to make it all possible. The interregnum minister, Keith, was also in the choir, and it was fantastic to meet and chat with him about all the work going on in the area.

After the performance there was an incredible buzz around the church. No-one wanted to leave, and there was a fantastic array of cakes to encourage the chatter.

Visiting Logie Easter was an absolute delight. Please pray for the congregations there, for Keith the minister, and also for Sheila, who has started to do some excellent work with the Kildary Kroakers.