theREIGN | House of Blogship

theREIGN have been advised that their Rock Eucharist event has been moved once again ... this time forward from 11:30pm to 10:00pm on the Friday evening of the Festival. Given that the original timeslot was going to be 02:00am on Saturday morning, it appears that it has been moved from way out on the edge to the heart of the Stage 2 timetable.

Please pray for final preparation of REv2 ... it's getting close now!

In related news, the band are taking part in the Festival's "Spontaneous Worship" campaign, whereby various groups will be leading acts of worship (unannounced) at locations around the Festival Village over the course of the weekend.

One of those will be led by us.

Every blessing,
theREIGN

Following on from a highly successful weekend concert and service at Holy Trinity, Barrow Upon Humber during July, theREIGN are delighted to have been invited back to the church to lead a Rock Eucharist event on Sunday evening 28 September 2008, starting at 6:30pm.

The band are delighted to see the impact that the Rock Eucharist events are having locally, and hope to add several more of these to their Autumn/Winter schedule for 2008/09.

Every blessing,
theREIGN

The Greenbelt organisers have now confirmed that Rock Eucharist v2.0 will be held on Friday 22 August 2008 (the first night of the festival) at 11:30pm.

If you are attending the festival, it would be great to see you there, and we would appreciate your prayers in the run up to the festival as we pull together the various elements.

Every blessing,
theREIGN

We have now received confirmation that our Rock Eucharist has been booked for a second year at the Greenbelt Festival, to be held on August Bank Holiday Weekend at Cheltenham Racecourse. The whole band were delighted with the reception the event received on its first outing, and very excited to be going back to do it again.

At this stage, no timeslot has been set, but it looks likely to be the late Friday night worship slot as it was last year. A repeat of our being the only item in the programme, and the kind of enthusiastic crowd that attended then would be absolutely perfect.

Greenbelt's general approach with these events is to give them two years and then drop them to allow them to freshen up and develop before considering booking them again. We would therefore value your prayers for this year's preparations as well as developing this particular event as part of our local ministry.

Beyond that, we would value prayer for moving the band onto the next level, which we feel confident of accomplishing following the successful Here Is Hope event at Hull City Hall yesterday. You can find some musings on that in David Cooper's blog.

Every blessing,
theREIGN

There has been both a date and venue change for the April Rock Eucharist event. It will now take place at St Aidan's Church, Southcoates Avenue, Hull on Sunday, 20 April 2008 starting at 7pm following the withdrawal of St Columba's.

Please update your diaries accordingly.

The band are also delighted to congratulate Sound Engineer (and Engineer of Where Jesus Touches The Earth) Dave Cartwright and his fiancee Victoria on setting a date for their wedding. Said nuptials will take place on Saturday, 4 April 2009, with theREIGN providing worship in the ceremony itself and more of a party set at the evening party.

The prayers and best wishes of the band go with them as they begin to prepare for their big day.

Every blessing,
theREIGN

There have been a couple of additional dates put into the band's diary for 2008, and one change. Here is a list of the upcoming events:

Friday 21 March 2008 @ 13:15
Good Friday Service @ Beverleygate, Hull City Centre

Sunday 23 March 2008 @ 19:00
Easter Sunday Celebration @ Hull City Hall

Sunday 30 March 2008 @ 18:30
Rock Eucharist @ St Barnabas Church, Swanland

Sunday 13 April 2008 @ 19:30
Rock Eucharist @ St Columba's Church, Hull

Saturday 19 July 2008 @ 19:30
Concert @ Holy Trinity Church, Barrow on Humber

Sunday 20 July 2008 @ 10:30
Leading Worship @ Holy Trinity Church, Barrow on Humber

Friday 22 - Monday 25 August 2008
Greenbelt_08 Festival @ Cheltenham Racecourse (hopefully)

Friday 12 September 2008 @ 19:00
An evening of story and song for Beverley Causeway

If you can make it to any of these events, we would love to see you there. If you can't, please pray for them. Pray especially that people will feel God's touch through our music and worship.

Every blessing,
theREIGN

After a several month lay-off (due to everyone just being too snowed under with day jobs and their own church commitments), life is picking up speed for theREIGN in early 2008. These are the events already in the diary

Sunday 3 February 2008 @ 19:00
Rock Eucharist @ Victoria Dock Church, Hull

Sunday 17 February 2008 @ 18:30 (TBC)
Rock Eucharist @ St Barnabas Church, Swanland

Sunday 23 March 2008 @ 18:30
Easter Sunday Celebration @ Hull City Hall

Friday 12 September 2008 @ 19:00
An evening of story and song for Beverley Causeway

In addition to these events, St Columba's church in Hull is interested in staging the Rock Eucharist in May/June 2008, and we remain hopeful of an invitation to run it again at Greenbelt_08. This should be confirmed by the organisers soon.

We are also still investigating a couple of worship evening opportunities with other local churches, and are hopeful of a repeat invitation to lead music for the Hull City Centre Good Friday service following the success of the 2007 one.

Please pray for these events and, get in touch with us if you are interested in us doing something in your church.

Every blessing,
theREIGN

Hi Friends,

Hot on the heels of our last update, we have some more events in the early planning stages.

Communion on the Rocks
Following on from the success of our late-night Rock Eucharist at Greenbelt_07, we have begun the process of promoting this as a specific event with local churches. We have already provisionally agreed to hold this event at Victoria Dock Church on 3 February 2008, and St Barnabas are interested in holding one on the 13th or 27th of January 2008.

Worship
A local church is keen for us to do a Sunday evening worship service for them very soon. Unfortunately, Sunday evenings are a difficult time as several band members are tied up with other commitments. Please pray that we can make this happen as soon as possible.

WellSprings
Paul Lucas, the new Minister at Kingston Wesley is introducing a new Sunday evening, informal, creative service to which he has asked theREIGN to contribute on an ongoing basis. Again, the Sunday evening thing is a stumbling block, so your prayers would be greatly appreciated. David will be providing the worship for the first of these by himself.

As always, your prayers and support are valued, and if you want to make contact, or would like theREIGN to do something in your own church, please get in touch us ... info@thereign.net.

Every Blessing,
theREIGN

Having got Greenbelt out of the way (more about that on David's Blog), we move onto our next events.

First up, on 21 September, is an evening of music for The Causeway, a group of educationally challenged adults from Beverley in East Yorkshire. This will be something very different for us, and we need to incorporate some drama and a lot of interactivity. Please pray that we get the balance right, and those in attendance can have a lot of fun as well as getting a sense of God's Kingdom.

Next, on November 3rd, is Laura McWilliams' big birthday bash, at a smart hotel up in Scarborough.

Beyond that, we have been invited to once again lead Victoria Dock's first Sunday morning service of the year - 6 January 2008 @ 10:45. The service we led back in January 2007 was a great morning, and God was really present with us there. We pray that he will be there in power again this time around.

We are also looking at the possibility of some members of the band joining David and Kathryn in one of their regular slots leading worship at St Barnabas Church in Swanland.

On a wider note, the time has come for the band to set regular rehearsal time in the diaries as it is becoming increasingly difficult to get everyone together. A second Gathering at Christmas time is also a distinct possibility.

We would appreciate your prayers for all of these matters.

Every Blessing,
theREIGN

Following hot(ish) on the heels of David's recent Radio Humberside interview, Greenbelt Festival organisers have now confirmed our booking to lead a rock Eucharist at the 2007 Festival, with only the question of when it will happen still to resolve. We are leaning towards the late Saturday night slot ... after all, how many people can you realistically expect to show up for a rock Eucharist at 9 o'clock in the morning?

Please pray for us as we now consider how this event will run, what will be included and how we can make it radical and exciting whilst leaving intact the incredible message of the Eucharist.

The plan is to to run this event at least a couple of times in Hull before the festival, in order to make sure that we have ironed out the kinks and make sure that we meet the needs of the festival. However, this will also give us the opportunity to offer something that we believe will be of value to local churches as well in reaching out to those on the fringes, or even those who never normally set foot inside a church.

There have already been one or two nibbles from interested parties.

Please pray for us as we put together this exciting event, pray for the content, for those involved (which includes Revd Rachel Ganney as well as the band) and for the festival as a whole.

If you are going to be at Greenbelt_07, we hope you will be able to be there to celebrate with us.

We are also still awaiting confirmation of whether we are to be invited to perform another set on Stage 2 this year as part of the performance programme.

That will do for now ... but do get in touch with us if you have any questions.

Every blessing,
theREIGN