MCMS - serving
music in Methodism
A report on the MCMS 2007 conference at the Swanwick
conference centre - as it appears in the January 2008
edition of the MCMS magazine Notes.
When we were planning last
year's conference we wanted to ensure that we properly celebrated
Charles Wesley's tercentenary and also took notice of comments passed
after last year's conference that we did not include enough singing.
The returned evaluation sheets clearly show that we achieved these two
objectives.The weekend opened with a session led by the popular musical director of BBC's Songs of Praise, Paul Leddington Wright. Paul, who is a member of MCMS, took us through his newly published work Praise the Lord! This work was commissioned by the New Room in Bristol and blends together new and traditional tunes to Charles Wesley's immortal words. Only a few days before the conference Paul suggested that it would be helpful if we could hold a rehearsal for early arrivers and we were amazed that so many people managed this last minute option. After Spencer Freeman formally opened the conference we moved immediately into Paul's session proper and all 130 attendees were treated to a wonderful evening of singing, interspersed with Paul's comments and witticisms - "from the moment we met him, Paul's enthusiasm and musicianship inspired and carried us through the afternoon and evening - a wonderful start to the weekend" ; " a super work and Paul was an inspiration" ; "An excellent session - plenty of life from the leader and plenty of interesting material to sing and explore"; "What a pleasure, a really uplifting start to the weekend"; "Brilliant!".
Saturday dawned bright and frosty, but inside
the recently refurbished
Yew Tree Hall the atmosphere was warm and expectant before Revd Dr Tim
Macquiban's keynote session 'Charles Wesley for today - illustrating
aspects of his life and legacy with his hymns'. And we were not
disappointed - Tim's presentation was clear and concise and well
interspersed by either reading or singing Wesley hymns - "Tim brought
out many points from the life of Charles Wesley that we need to take up
again, the social gospel, the inclusiveness and the gospel for All.";
"Very informative session - gave us an insight to the Wesley's life of
which we were unaware"; "Another excellent session which could have
been tedious, but was delivered in an easy to understand manner"; "A
very informative and well presented address".After coffee it was time for the first formal introduction to Revd Brian Hoare, who had been present since the beginning of the conference. A break from the Wesley theme, but the opportunity to rehearse Brian's work New Creation. This was published during his presidential year, but sadly is now out of print. The idea of this session was to familiarise ourselves with the work in readiness for a full presentation during the evening. Although time was short we managed to get through most of the work, and for some it was a really good sight reading exercise.
Something completely different was planned for Saturday
afternoon - a
visit from Tony Jasper and the Jasperian Theatre Company. Tony had
revised his work Charles Wesley 1707 and was in the middle of a
country-wide tour. The work lent itself to a performance in the Yew
Tree Hall as no set and few props were required. Tony and his four
colleagues brought the work to life and provided an interesting and
different slant on the lives and times of the Wesley brothers. "This
certainly grabbed my attention - it's doubtful whether anything else
could have kept me awake after lunch! It contained material that was
new to me shedding new light on the Wesley brothers"; "Powerful -
excellent, all the performers were so gifted - I was there!"; "A good
contrast to the rest of the content on Wesley"; "A very moving
performance by a group of talented actors"; "Super drama. All involved
were great performers. Held spellbound throughout".After this presentation there were a series of options available - Tony Jasper was available to talk about issues raised in the earlier presentation; Rob Newton led a session on leading Wesley hymns with guitars; the instrumentalists met to practice the music for our Sunday morning worship or there was the opportunity to take some time out. As the weather was so glorious many folk took the opportunity to get some fresh air by walking in the grounds of the High Leigh Centre. Those who attended the organised sessions found them interesting and valuable.
Saturday evening was the time for our
presentation of New Creation led
by its composer Brian Hoare. It was clear that the practice session
earlier in the day had been very worthwhile and a very creditable
performance was presented, enhanced by some of the narration and drama
provided in the score. "Didn't we do well! I felt the gospel message
came through so clearly as well as being good to sing"; "A wonderful
experience"; "The singing was terrific! The instrumentalists were
wonderful and it was a privilege to take part."; "I love Brian Hoare's
music. It was such a wonderful experience to sing `New Creation' all
the way through".Our Sunday worship was led by Revd Graham Tidmarsh, and Revd Brian Hoare was our guest preacher. The musical accompaniment was led by our group of talented instrumentalists and Catherine Boxall at the organ. "All the elements of true worship"; "An inspirational service. If only worship of this quality was the norm in our churches these days!"; "I felt that I had been fed and challenged in so many ways"; "A most moving service with an inspirational sermon. One of the best conference services I have attended" "The high point of the weekend".
We continued after coffee with an interesting
session on the proposed
new hymn book and rolling musical resource, led by two members of the
Music Resource Group, Revd Ian Howarth and Damian Boddy. They gave a
position statement and set out the timetable for production. There was
then the opportunity to sing through a number of hymns and songs that
were being considered for inclusion and also individually vote on
whether or not we felt that they should be included. A lot was crammed
into this session but most people enjoyed being part of this
consultation process. "Good to have the challenge of commenting and
scoring fast!"; "The openness to new suggestions is to be welcomed";
"Something that we can feed back to the grass roots back home"; "Was
pleased to have the opportunity to find out about this and play some
small part in its production".As usual our Annual General Meeting was held on Sunday afternoon and the meeting dealt efficiently both with the more routine matters - annual reports, finance, election of Executive Committee etc. - and the major decisions on our future, which are outlined elsewhere in this publication. Some people had to leave either before or immediately after the Annual General Meeting, but there were still a good number who stayed on for the last two sessions on Sunday afternoon and evening.
For the
first
session Philip Carter introduced some of the winning hymns from
the recent Wesley Hymn Challenge. Another interesting and enjoyable
session." ;"Interesting to see and hear what ordinary people write and
what the experts say about their work!" "I enjoyed this - some
interesting new words."For the closing session Ian Howarth introduced three new 21st Century settings of Wesley that had been used in his Circuit at a Wesley Celebration earlier in the year. Although by then numbers were fewer and we had done a lot of singing, those who were present thoroughly enjoyed both the material and the way that Ian led the session. " A beautiful end to the weekend"; "Wonderful, a privilege to sing in harmony such sensitive music"; "Inspirational - I would love to sing in a choir led by Ian"; "Some lovely anthem settings".
One of the recurring comments about the weekend was the slow service in the dining room and these and other comments on housekeeping matters have been passed on to the Management at High Leigh.
So, all in all, I think that we got it right this year. It will be a hard act to follow but we will try our best for 2008! This year's Conference leaflet and booking form are included with this edition of Notes and you are advised to get your bookings in as soon as possible to ensure you get the accommodation you want
John Bailey
Our 2008 conference
will also be at the
High Leigh Conference Centre Hoddesdon from 24th to 26th
October.
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