We know that many of those who knew and loved Mike will want to join us in person or united in prayer, as we celebrate his life and commend him back to God.
Reception into Church and Evening Prayer
Monday 17th June at 7pm.The Funeral Mass
Tuesday 18th June at 11am.
A PERSONAL MESSAGE FROM YVONNE STANLEY
Dear friends of CJM,
I wanted to let you know the sad news that Mike died just before 6pm on Thursday 6th June. It was a very peaceful death and I was at his bedside at St Giles Hospice in Lichfield, where Mike was cared for so well for the last few days of his life. The words ‘take me home Father, Spirit and Son…‘ from Song to the Trinity were playing as the Lord called him home.
We have been sustained by so many prayers during Mike’s illness, and have come to know some of the ways in which his music and his wish to share it has made a difference to so many people. Continue Reading…
This sung response to the Prayer of the Faithful was written for our diocesan pilgrimage to Lourdes in 2012. The pastoral theme in Lourdes for that year was “with Bernadette praying the Rosary” and our archdiocese had chosen to focus, in particular, on the Mysteries of Light.
Each day the times of prayer and liturgy focused on one of the particular luminous mysteries and we used the corresponding text for the sung response.
Since then we’ve found various opportunities to use this piece as the corresponding scripture texts come up in the cycle of readings, or even adapting new text as we did recently at the Celebrate Conference during Easter week. Continue Reading…
Dear friends of CJM,
It’s been a while since Mike wrote to update you on how life has been. We would, first and foremost, like to say thank you for all the messages, cards, prayers and Masses that we have received over the past two years.
Through so many rounds of chemotherapy and treatment, Mike has continued to find inspiration and strength. He has written many beautiful songs, which we hope will mean as much to you as they do to us.
For more than a decade the Celebrate Conference has been one of the highlights of the annual CJM MUSIC ministry calendar. Each year, however, we face the challenge of finding new ways to bring the Liturgy to life in these great days of the Easter octave. The readings are always the same and it would be so easy to just do what we did last year …
Thursday’s Family Mass | Photo by Michael Woodward
After much prayer, brainstorming and time spent with the readings and that well known liturgical preparation tool – Google, we did come up with a few ideas that we thought we’d share. Continue Reading…
It’s no surprise of course that for us, the Year of Faith has found expression in music and song. As we approach midway point in the Year of Faith, Jo Boyce and Friends are preparing for the first nine dates of our “I Believe” concert tour.
We’ve partnered with Dan Callow of www.OneLifeMusic.co.uk whose music has long been a firm favourite in many primary schools across the Archdiocese of Birmingham and beyond. We’ll also be sharing the spotlight and the microphone
The hymn Firmly I Believe and Truly is a powerful affirmation and proclamation of faith. The text is an adaptation by Anthony Petti of a portion of the 1865 poem, The Dream of Gerontius by John Henry Newman (1801-1890)
The text captures the fundamental tenets of our faith and makes a great anthem for this Year of Faith. The new tune by Mike Stanley makes the text accessible in a new way for young and old alike.
It’s quite amazing how much stuff you can accumulate in 16 years of music ministry! We found out the hard way as we boxed, shredded and relocated everything we’d crammed into our offices at Don Bosco House over the past decade.
