Ministry Report

Last updated August 9th 2007

METHODIST CONFERENCE - July 2007 (report by Sarah Blamire)

This year Wellspring was invited to lead some of the worship at the Methodist Conference. This is the annual gathering of the governing body of the Methodist Church in the UK and worldwide. At Conference, new ministers are ordained, and the policies of the church are debated and agreed. This year it was hosted in Blackpool.

Sally Thornton acted as the coordinator between Wellspring, the conference planning team and the precentor (who in previous years has led the worship alone).

For the opening weekend, a team of 8 Wellspring musicians attended, including two new musicians who had not played with Wellspring before. Praise God the group "gelled" very quickly, causing complete disbelief from those who came and asked afterwards how long we practise together! We also had the pleasure of working with the conference Precentor, Jonathan, who led some fantastic acapella hymns - it was lovely to hear the parts being sung!

We led a mix of contemporary and traditional music. Contemporary worship was new to Conference and the overwhelming response has been very, very positive, and we've already had requests for teaching weekends in local churches. There was a hunger to meet with God and a sense of real blessing in the times of worship, which were interspersed with the necessary conference agenda, and lifted people out of "business" mode and into God's presence. It was also lovely to be able to share in the greeting of the international guests who were present by playing music from their parts of the world.

After the initial weekend, Jonathan (the precentor who also played double bass), Sally and I stayed for the rest of the conference (Monday to Thursday) to help lead morning and evening prayers, and some songs during business sessions. We also took part in a wonderful communion service on the Wednesday morning led by Rev Barbara Glasson from "Somewhere Else". "Somewhere Else" is a fresh expression started in Liverpool where bread is baked together and a lovely community has developed (watch the Fresh Expressions DVD 1 for more information).

We got the impression from all the positive comments that some barriers had been broken down and there was certainly a hope that the worship at conference would continue to bless and encourage in the coming years.

We would like to thank you for all your prayers - it was a busy and difficult time for Sally in the preparation, and a great relief when it all came together and worked so well.

SUMMER CONCERTS (report by Sarah Blamire)

The Wellspring Ensemble, directed by Shirley Richards, have recently performed three summer concerts; one in Poynton with a full ensemble and two smaller chamber group concerts in venues we have not visited before.

The  Summer Ensemble Concert at St George's in Poynton on 2nd of June featured a programme of beautiful string music including the Popper "Requiem" for 3 cellos and the Mendelssohn String Quartet. The evening was very well received and we give a big thank you to Poynton Baptist Church and St George's who both sponsored the evening.

This was then followed by concerts on 15/16 June in Colwyn Bay (Wales) and Barnoldswick (Lancashire) this time as a group of 6 players with Lisa Osborne (nee Verghese) as oboe soloist.

The organisers in Colwyn Bay have said that they were delighted with the concert. Many people who came were very blessed by the whole programme but particularly by Sam Williamson's piece "Storm Clouds" and the "Blessing" at the end, after which they say the silence was palpable. They were also very touched by the fact that there were local players in the group - Rosie Skelton (violin) who lives not far from the church and Lisa who grew up in a nearby town! They are talking about another concert in the future.

The Methodist church in Barnoldswick where the Saturday concert was held is part of the circuit that I belong to so it was a particular joy to have a group come to our area. There was a very good response reflected in the numbers of people who attended (much to the relief of the organisers!!!) and again many wonderful comments about how people were touched by the music. Our daughters' piano teacher came and said she particularly enjoyed the Mozart Oboe Quartet, in which she thought the playing and phrasing was "superlative". She is not a lady to give praise lightly so this is high praise indeed.

A lady from my church said she had taken a non-church friend who asked her why people had clapped after the blessing as it just didn't seem appropriate after the wonderful silence - although perhaps she was not able to voice that God was present with us in a very special way she knew that it was a precious time. Again the church are already talking about another concert maybe next year.

USA 2007

We've just returned from an excellent ministry trip to the USA. Here are some comments received by email since our return:

• Many thanks again for the beautiful music ministry of Wellspring
• Thanks for all of your ministry to us and to His Church.
• I was at New Wineskins again and just relaxed into your music and messages once again. Thank you so very much for coming. My eternal thanks to you and all of Wellspring for your fabulous music and your gifts of sharing with all of us.
• I was one of the many who was blessed with being in the presence of Wellspring, at Prince George. You all have touch sooo many of us it was so moving and I am going through some rough health problems and each song helped heal me inward-out and I thank you all! You all are true blessing from God!

Sharon Steinmiller from the New Wineskins organisation wrote:

We want to thank everyone at Wellspring for their tremendous contribution to the New Wineskins conference. We thank God for each one of you! It was a tremendous conference and we are hearing stories everyday of how God is using it. For instance, I just got this e-mail a few minutes ago from Letion Chinn, who led a workshop on Reaching International Students at the conference: 'It was a most wonderful conference....very special to have Wellspring minister to us by walking and playing among us...we were ministered unto'.

Andy (& Kitty) Morgan, who invited us to Prince George Church in Georgetown, S. Carolina, wrote on his blog subsequently:

Incredible, Awesome, Fabulous, died and gone to heaven, never before has God’s presence been so real…

These are just a few of the comments after the two concerts we held here at Prince George. I doubt many people have been in a worship service with the quality of these musicians - it was literally PERFECT musically - and it was also anointed spiritually - and I have never before seen a standing ovation given in church. The classical concert and the worship service had EVERYONE in tears. Something very profound happened at the church with Wellspring. This has been key, almost a hinge moment for the church. There has been literally hundreds of people begging us to bring them back and maybe do a tour of the area next year. Maybe. But for now I want to say a HUGE thank you to Wellspring; James, Richard, Corinne, Jon, Sarah, Shirley, Jamie, Marcus, Sam, Sally, Chris & Alan. You have PROFOUNDLY affected me both by your music, and your spirituality.

You may also like to read a personal diary of the trip by Shirley Richards here.

Here are several pictures of the group from the New Wineskins conference in Ridgecrest N. Carolina:

Ministering among the people:

The full team at the New Wineskins conference: Jon & Sarah Blamire, Alan Tokeley, Sally Thornton, Shirley Richards, Roland Faux, Corinne Frost, Marcus Pagnam, Richard Williamson, Chris Swain, Sam Williamson & Jamie Baker:

Instrumental/vocal Workshop at Prince George Church, Georgetown SC:

The team at Georgetown. Also on this picture are James Underwood - violin - kneeling to the left of the picture and Andy Morgan, who invited us to the church, to the right of Alan Tokeley:

CLASSICS BY CANDLELIGHT

We had 3 wonderful concerts just before Christmas with the Wellspring Ensemble. The evenings, led superbly by Graham Cracknell, were performed to sell out audiences in Mirfield, Poynton and Clitheroe. Our concert in Mirfield was our first visit there at the invitation of one of Wellspring's Advisory Board members and good friend Peter Craig-Wild. Many were moved to tears in each concert as they enjoyed to a varied programme which featured Sally Thornton and Alan Tokeley as soloists.

Here's a comment received after our Poynton concert:

Thanks for a super concert on Friday.  It must rate as one of your best Christmas ones.

Here are some pictures from our concert in Clitheroe:

The Wellspring Ensemble in St James Church Clitheroe

Alan Tokeley performing Mozart's 4th Horn Concerto

Sally Thornton singing with the Ensemble

MINEHEAD 'UNDER THE RAINBOW' EVENING

On Oct 1st a group of us from Wellspring presented an evening of classical music, solo songs and worship at the Regal Theatre in Minehead, Somerset. The event was organised by the John & Rachael Loescher - owners of a highly successful Christian Bookshop in Minehead ('Under the Rainbow'). Having founded the bookshop several years ago, and seen it go from strength to strength, John & Rachael believed that God had called them to hand over the running of the bookshop to a new couple. The evening we took part in was an opportunity to celebrate all that had been achieved with the bookshop, but also to publicly pass on the baton to the new owners.

Wellspring performed several pieces of classical music, alongside some wonderful solo songs by Sally Thornton ('The Best is Yet to Come', 'Father's Song' and 'Rise up and See') - and also some congregational worship. It was clear that many hearts were touched by God during the evening - an evening that brought around 300 Christians together from all the local churches in Minehead.

It felt slightly strange for us to go to Minehead at that time of the year (having been several times over the years leading worship at Spring Harvest)! We thoroughly enjoyed taking part and felt that the evening was a real testimony to God's love and faithfulness.

We've had some amazing comeback from this evening. John & Rachael wrote to us subsequently saying:

The celebration was a very special evening, and people are still coming up to us saying what a wonderful evening it was and how much they enjoyed it. Lots of people came up to us during the interval and afterwards, telling us how much they were enjoying the evening and particularly commenting on the brilliant and talented performance by Wellspring. 

One lady rang us last week to say how much she enjoyed the evening, and went on to say that it was the best concert she had ever been to! Others have commented on the way the whole evening with all it's variety blended and flowed so well. Another couple said they believed that the Celebration at the Regal had made a 'spiritual marker' for future events in the town for God to move in unity across the churches. Quite a number of people have asked us if Wellspring will be coming to Minehead again!

I quote from a letter in the local press the following week:
'It was good to attend the positive, exuberant celebration at the Regal Theatre marking the change over at the Under the Rainbow bookshop. A well thought out performance and act of worship combining music by Mozart, Bach and Pachelbel with modern songs led by the Wellspring Ensemble. The varied traditions represented showed Christian unity at its best, and drew together the prayerful goodwill and support which the bookshop has rightly earned. The Regal Theatre was almost full and was a demonstration that Christianity is still a dynamic force.'

BUXTON RENEWAL EVENT

On September 25th we had an excellent time at St John's Church in Buxton leading worship at a 2nd renewal event for the Derby Diocese - with our good friends Michael Mitton and Peter Craig-Wild. As at the previous event in Derby, the evening (entitled 'Desert Highways'), included a 'Renewal Eucharist' put together by Peter Craig-Wild and some wonderfully constructed zones for people to explore as part of the worship for the evening - the zones having the themes of 'Comfort', Refreshment', 'Strength' and 'Hope' - all taken from passages in Isaiah 40-42. Again it was clear that many people were touched and refreshed by the evening. Michael Mitton wrote to us subsequently:

Thank you so much for all you gave to us at ‘Desert Highways’. As ever it is the combination of your excellence of playing, sensitivity to the Spirit and humility of heart that gives your leading of worship such a unique quality. I thought it was a very special evening. The setting and environment was quite different to Derby and it was good to see that the same programme worked so effectively in both places. For those who came, it was clearly a very special event, and it was encouraging talking to folks after the service who spoke of how the Lord had touched them.

Another person who attended wrote:

I heard Wellspring at St Johns Buxton at a renewal Eucharist & thought they were wonderful.

NORTHERN LIGHT

We had a great week leading worship at Northern Light - a Christian Summer Holiday week based at Hollybush Farm near Thirsk in N. Yorkshire. This is so different to being at big conferences like Spring Harvest! There were about 400 people (including children and young people) and it really felt like each person who was there was a special part of a loving community for the week. I highly recommend it as a refreshing, relaxing and inspiring week if you're free to come along next year (August 12th-18th).

Wellspring led worship for morning Bible readings (given superbly by Roy Searle from the Northumbria Community) and also led worship for the evening celebration meetings. Speakers in the evening included Lisa Holmes from Skipton Baptist Church, Marion White and others. Marion was challenged recently to become actively involved in a new organisation looking at eradicating human trafficking in the UK and around the world. Two hundred years after William Wilberforce was instrumental in bringing an end to the slave trade there is a desperate need to challenge the growing tide of young people being sold as sex slaves etc throughout the word. Do visit the Stop The Traffik website and have a look at the important work they are doing. Sally Thornton from Wellspring also gave a excellent, challenging seminar each morning on Mission Shaped Church which, by the end of the week, had clearly caused a number of people to begin re-thinking church and mission.

It was great to have a number of younger musicians as part of our team this year. Sam Williamson, who has just completed his first year at University, played keyboards for the week and we were also joined by Lisa Verghese (oboe) and Tom Osborne (trumpet) who have only been out of music college for a year or so (both extremely gifted!).

One person came up to us during the week and handed us a note which read:

Your music to me this week has been like taking me to a 5 star hotel and indulging me in the most luxurious facilities. Thank you!

WELLSPRING RECORDING

Our new recording 'Sanctuary' is now available! Over 3 days at the end of June, nearly 30 people came together to record this new album which is very much in the style of our previous recording ‘Benediction’. The presence of God amongst us was extraordinary at times over the 3 days. There was laughter and tears, intercession and a deep sense of worship as the Spirit of God was moving amongst us. For all of us there was a real sense of God’s anointing & leading in a great deal of what we recorded. We feel have fulfilled a long-held desire to bring out a fresh recording featuring what we still believe are the main strengths of Wellspring – i.e. using the classical instruments to minister to the Lord and to share the heart of the Lord! We do hope you’ll agree that this comes across powerfully in this recording. For more information and to listen to sound samples of the tracks, visit our recording information page.

POYNTON & HARPURHEY CONCERTS

On July 1st the Wellspring Ensemble put on their summer concert in Poynton. Entitled 'Refresh and Relax', this was a really lovely evening - based at Poynton Methodist Church. The audience were treated to a very varied programme of classical music and specially written pieces by Sam Williamson and Peter Richards. Many of the items were recorded during the previous 3 days or were arranged specially for the concert, including Dvorak's New World Symphony slow movement theme, 'Agnus Dei' from Fauré's 'Requiem' amongst others - plus a Vivaldi concerto for 4 violins and the Bach oboe and violin concerto played beautifully by Lisa Verghese (oboe) and John Kane (violin). We also put on a similar concert on July 21st at Christchurch Harpurhey (Manchester). Our good friend of many years, Mark Ashcroft (vicar at Christchurch), invited us to put on a relaxing classical evening suitable to bring unchurched people to. A number of people from the church brought their friends to this evening and it was clearly very well received. We're praying that something of God's reality and love will have touched & moved those who joined us for the evening.

One person who was at the Harpurhey concert subsequently contacted us to say:

I'm sure I speak for everybody who was present last Friday when I say it was a great evening and look forward to seeing you again.

DERBY RENEWAL EVENT

On June 5th we led worship for the first of two renewal events for the Derby Diocese alongside our good friends Rev Michael Mitton (Renewing Officer for the Diocese of Derby) and Rev Canon Peter Craig-Wild (vicar of Mirfield Parish Church and on the Liturgical Commission for the Church of England). The evening, entitled 'Desert Highways' included a 'Renewal Eucharist' put together by Peter Craig-Wild and some wonderfully constructed zones for people to explore as part of the worship for the evening - the zones having the themes of 'Comfort', Refreshment', 'Strength' and 'Hope' - all taken from passages in Isaiah 40-42.

The aim was to bring refreshment and renewal to people from all shades of church life in the diocese - and clearly many who came experienced God's touch in a variety of ways. Here is one of the many comments we've received since:

MISSION SHAPED CHURCH COURSE

In the Spring of 2006 we ran our first Mission Shaped Church teaching course - based at St Chad's Church, Romiley, Stockport. Spread over 5 weeks, this course was designed to inspire people to 'think outside the box' and re-imagine mission in a contemporary context. With teaching by Sally Thornton from Wellspring and Tony Hardy from C3 Stockport and worship led by Wellspring, the 100 or so people who came to this course were clearly challenged in their thinking and hopefully inspired to look at new and creative ways to reach out to a society increasingly alienated from the church.

Here is a selection of comments from those who were on the course:

• I have found the course very thought provoking, interesting. Thank you
• Excellent and well presented.
• Informative, challenging and exciting
• I find the worship very meaningful and relevant
• This course has been very positive - & much needed to pull people out of blinkered attitudes misconceptions about church, mission, God and the people beyond the church building
• Very thought provoking course. Valuable few weeks. Thank you.

SPRING HARVEST

From March 26th to April 5th 2005 we led worship in the alternative celebration for 2 'weeks' at Spring Harvest in Skegness. Rob & Marion White joined us as main leaders for the celebration. The response to what we offered night by night was very encouraging. On both weeks our venue was packed out by the 2nd or 3rd day - clearly the mix of worship, dance, storytelling and creative response zones in our celebration met a need in many people. The theme for this year was 'Singing the Lord's Song in a Strange Land' and many of the talks we heard were very challenging as we face the fact that the church is increasingly becoming a minority group in an increasingly secular society. Our dancers Kitty, Jo, Rhonda and Shelley were wonderful as was Roland Faux who put together some brilliant visuals to enhance our worship and the theme for each evening.

Here are extracts of several letters we've received since returning:

• Thank you very much for your ministry at Spring Harvest - I was at the second "week" at Skegness and appreciated your leading of the worship. We as a group of God's people were worshipping with you, even when you were doing an item by yourselves. I praise the Lord He blessed us all.
• Having just returned from week two at Skegness with a group from Christ Church, Cockermouth I felt I just had to write to thank you for the wonderful way in which we were blessed by the ministry of Wellspring (and the rest of the team) in the “alternative worship” sessions. Now back in Cockermouth both refreshed and challenged we turn to putting into effect the great teaching we have received!
• Thankyou for your leadership of the worship in the Alternative Celebration at Spring Harvest (31 March - 5 April). I really appreciated your work, enjoyed your gentle style and impressive musicianship.
• I just want to take this opportunity to say thank you to you and Wellspring for leading the worship at SH, for leading us to worship Jesus, it was a real blessing to us. Thank you and thank you to the rest of Wellspring.
• I was at Spring Harvest, Skegness week 1, and was SO blessed by your ministry during the Easter Morning Communion service, and the Alternative Celebrations. I am a music and worship leader in my own Church, and you all gave me such inspiration, and some new ideas, for our own worship.

Here are some pictures from the event:

Leading worship in 'Crazy Horse'!!

One of the responses was to make a 'Lenten Cross' full of flowers

One of our preparation meetings (from L to R: Sally, Richard, Mark, Sarah, Susan and Shirley)

Our 'Crazy Horse' venue before people arrive for the celebration

The same venue packed out with people in the evening

RESONANCE

In October 2004 we had a very enjoyable 2 days in Manchester Cathedral taking part in an event called 'Resonance'. The project was borne through a shared concern to see worship and ministry being offered to those who find themselves distanced from usual forms of church culture. Through the use of many different 'zones' all around the Cathedral, and a central worship area, many people joined us for this event to explore the Christian Faith in a variety of ways. As part of the event we put on 3 different and creative services which culminated in a very exciting first performance of 'Gloria' by Sally Thornton involving Wellspring, the Manchester Cathedral Choir and organist, various solo singers and members of the Psalm Drummers and Asaph Drummers. This was a pilot project that we hope will be a spark for further similar events in different Cathedrals and other venues in the coming months and years.

Here are some pictures from the event:

The Creative Zone

Bob Hartman - our resident Storyteller!

The central worship area

Some of the drummers who went out on the streets and who joined us in the final 'Gloria'

Here are some comments received subsequently...

• Thoroughly delighted with the EVENT – hope you do another. Will bring along some friends who would enjoy what is going on.
• Very good experience. The Cathedral felt alive and buzzing, yet still there were quiet places
• I haven’t entered a strange cathedral before & met a relaxed welcome of atmosphere & familiar lovely surroundings amid the ancient 
• Resonance was a potent mixture of holiness, creativity, healing, prayer, fun, relaxation and blessing. We found the whole event liberating, thought provoking, hard hitting, creative and surprising!
• I’ve been blessed. I came in on Friday stressed and left ‘chilled’ God speaks to us on so many levels, through music, art, listening – to His word, and to one another. It was great to see the Cathedral as a living, open vibrant space – a non-threatening environment. I hope this will be the first of many throughout the country.
• Wonderful – could have stayed all day. Felt the Cathedral was alive and being used well.
• A great range of different experiences and opportunities set in a building that has seen worship for such a long time.
• I was really impressed with it and thought it was a fantastic idea.

An audio report from this event (as first broadcast by BBC GMR radio) is now available here.

USA CONFERENCES

At Easter time 2003 we led worship at a wonderful conference in the USA. The conference was an Episcopal Missions conference called 'New Wineskins for Global Mission' run by the Episcopal Church Missionary Community (ECMC). A full report including pictures can be seen here. It is also available as a PDF document here. (If you don't have the free Acrobat Reader installed on your computer (needed for reading PDF files), you can download it for free here). Extra pictures from the trip can be seen here.

Below are some comments received since returning:

• THANK YOU for the glorious worship music you provided at the New Wineskins conference. Your music ministry was a beautiful blessing to all of us who participated and the songs will ring in our hearts for many days to come.
• I wanted to tell you the blessings brought by the worship times at New Wineskins this weekend.
• I was at New Wineskins, and Wellspring led worship there in a remarkable way. Thank you and God bless you!
• I just came from New Wineskins - in North Carolina - with all four of the CDs you had there.
  They are still healing me. What an anointing!!!
• Thank you again for the fabulous music you all provided for us at New Wineskins. I hope you will be there again in three years.
• I was greatly blessed by both your musical skill and your heart for the Lord.  I have also heard much praise for the times that we were in worship with you and how the Lord moved, spoke, inspired and blessed people beyond what they could have asked for.  Thanks!

You can read about our previous USA trip in 2000 by clicking here for a full report - including pictures!

We will be returning to the USA at Easter time 2007

PRAGUE

In August 2000 we had a very successful and stimulating ministry trip to Prague. Click here to read a full report written by Huw Humphreys.

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