Jazz Church

New Worship Event in Coventry!

Adam — Fri, 27 Jan 2012 09:43:00 +0000

This Sunday sees Jazz Church in Coventry for the first time at Coventry Central Hall in the city centre.

Come along for the worship event at 5pm, hope to see you there!

Jazz Mass Review

Adam — Fri, 27 Jan 2012 09:36:45 +0000

It seems the Jazz Church team have done it again, delivering yet another exciting and thought-provoking worship service! Arguably their most adventurous project to date, replete with an expanded horn section and a jazz choir, the congregation were led in a truly inspirational rendition of Scott Stroman’s ‘Jazz Mass’. From the opening bars of the sombre Kyrie Eleison, to the jubilant choral echoes of ‘pacem’ (peace), concluding the Agnus Dei, we were led on a contemplative journey of discovery as we explored the mystery of the Eucharist.

Rev. Jayne Webb presided, as we sang our way through excerpts from the Latin Mass, put to moving Jazz compositions. Translations of the Latin text appeared on the screen, interspersed with inspirational images, aiding us in reflection. Musical highlights included the joyous Latin-American groove of the Gloria, following the absolution, and the instrumental twelve-bar blues during the distribution – reminding us that communion is a celebration, not just a time for quiet and contemplation! Jayne shared a wonderful message about what Christ’s work means in light of ‘God’s time’. Drawing on the theme of remembrance, through an exposition of Exodus 12 and Luke 22, she spoke of the exciting truth that remembering Jesus is not simply a passive, backwards glance into the past, but an all-consuming, ongoing participation in the eternal Christ-event. In the act of communion the Church actually relives this event, because it belongs to God’s eternal time. In this sense it transcends our human, linear time world, thus having cosmic implications for our future in God – a future that we begin to experience now, in the mysterious event we call ‘communion’.

Perhaps the most compelling thing about the whole service was how well integrated it was, the music flowing seamlessly with the spoken liturgy, engaging our hearts and minds as we were drawn into an exploration of the theme. The impact of this was really summed up for me afterward, when I overheard someone remark that it was the first time they could remember being really challenged to reflect on a deeper level about the act of communion. I only hope this won’t have been the first and last time I have the opportunity to experience the Jazz Mass!

John Pearson

Jazz Mass

Adam — Mon, 16 Jan 2012 16:53:18 +0000

Thanks to everyone involved in last nights service. Here is a post from Rev’d Jayne’s blog:

Well I have to report that jazz mass at Jazz Church last night was one of the most profound acts of worship that I have ever been involved with. The music was magnificent, Adam had brought in a larger band and also a choir formed specifically for the event and the mass was sung in Latin. I can not begin to put into words the ambience that these highly gifted singers and musicians brought to this act of worship nor the way in which they led us through the Eucharist which was absolutely core to the service. It was truly a transcendent moment and one that will stay with me for a very long times.

Thank you to all those involved and to all who came and embraced this very different approach to Eucharistic worship

New Jazz Church worship event starting in two weeks time (29th Jan) at Coventry Central Hall 5pm.

Jazz Mass – Sunday 15th

Adam — Sat, 07 Jan 2012 10:19:34 +0000

Just over one week until the next Jazz Church service which will take quite a different form to the previous services. We are going to be sharing communion together and exploring some of the usual themes of communion through a Jazz Mass written by Scott Stroman. Rev’d Jayne Webb will be presiding and preaching.

As all the music for the service is new, we invite you arrive at 5:30pm for the service at 7:00pm so that we can familiarise ourselves with the main music themes. If you are unable to arrive at 5:30pm then please feel free to arrive for the usual time of 7pm when the act of worship will begin.

We look forward to see you at Shirley Methodist next Sunday!

Adam and the Jazz Church team.

Christmas Drink

Adam — Sat, 17 Dec 2011 08:24:12 +0000

Please join us tomorrow (Sunday 18th) at 3pm at the Elizabeth of York in Moseley for a Jazz Church Christmas drink!

Hope to see you there,

Community Gathering – Tomorrow!

Adam — Sat, 19 Nov 2011 11:50:31 +0000

We have a community gathering tomorrow afternoon at 2:30pm. We are going to meet in a pub in Moseley to have a chat and generally get to know each other a bit better. The pub is the wetherspoons near the main crossroads:

http://www.jdwetherspoon.co.uk/home/pubs/the-elizabeth-of-york

Hope to see you there!

Worship – Review of last event

Adam — Wed, 16 Nov 2011 09:18:19 +0000

Well we enjoyed a great evening of praise and worship at the lat Jazz Church event. There was a good number in the congregation, who all seemed in fine voice. We opened with a fabulous arrangement of O come all ye faithful which seemed the perfect opening to the theme for the evening which was worship.

During his message Adam reflected on how strongly held opinions about worship can divide congregations. Some churches respond by offering all different opportunities for worship with the aim of suiting everyone but resulting in splitting he congregation, whilst others stay together but lose members. Then there is the issue of the rapidly changing world, should worship meet these needs or, since worship is the heart and soul of church life should it not meet the needs of the membership? He then explored styes of worship and named many form the contemplative to the charismatic and to exemplify the variety he showed an hilarious clip fro the Blues Brothers in which James Brown led the worship which was lively to say the least. Adam then posed an interesting question about what happens if we take the spotlight off the preacher in worship and instead focus it on the congregation and ask – How good was your worship today?

Having explored the nature of worship we then listened to a performance of Revelations chapters 4&5. This was particularly good and I was surprised how different these chapters seemed when performed compared with simply reading them. The central theme for the 2 chapters reminds us that worship is about God not about us and as we understand this we understand that we pale into insignificance. After this we sang an amazing arrangement of Holy Holy Holy is the Lord. I really do believe that the music just goes on getting better and better at Jazz Church and in this case was so right in terms of the theme, the atmosphere and it led us deeper into our worship. For our prayers we made paper crowns as we reflected on the Kingship of God.

All in all it was an excellent service in which we not only explored the theme thoroughly but we were led into a state of worship by the wonderful musical arrangements, the readings and the opportunities to respond. Well done to the team, Jazz Church continues to go on getting better each time and is a real must for all who are seeking new approaches to worship, and if you love your Jazz – well this is definitely for you.

Jayne

This Sunday

Adam — Mon, 24 Oct 2011 17:57:17 +0000

Just a quick reminder that we have the next Jazz Church event this Sunday evening, 7pm at Shirley Methodist. The will be quite a bit of news about what happened over the summer, what is going to happen in 2012.

Adam will be sharing a few thoughts on Worship from a jazz perspective, inspired by the book of Revelation and, as usual, the Jazz Church band will be leading worship.

Hope to see you there!

A Little Jazz Mass

Adam — Sat, 08 Oct 2011 10:59:34 +0000

Just a quick notice – Bob Chilcott’s A Little Jazz Mass is being performed at Bewdley near Kidderminster tomorrow morning at 10:30am.

If you are interested then head on over! More details are below:

St Anne’s Church Bewdley

Sunday 9^th October,10.30am

Free entry – Part of the 2011 Bewdley Festival

Further details contact Revd Keith James – 01299 402275

First Community Gathering – This Sunday

Adam — Mon, 12 Sep 2011 12:37:51 +0000

The first Jazz Church community gathering is to take place this Sunday afternoon (18th September)at 15:30pm in Birmingham City Centre at a place called Cathedral Heights which is on one of the roads which face St Philips Cathedral - http://www.cathedral-heights-birmingham.com/

Come in the main door in the picture and use the lift to go to the top floor. If you have any problems then give me (Adam) a ring on 07716853569.

The community gathering is a very different type of thing to the worship events, it is an opportunity to discuss some of the ideas, have some coffee, listen to some music, hear something about the story of jazz church so far and help to shape its future. Everyone is welcome but we anticipate this being a much smaller group compared to the congregation for the worship events at Shirley.

Hopefully see you at Cathedral Heights on Sunday afternoon!