Use the links on the front page, or in the list to the left, to go have a look see.

Every blessing,
theREIGN

I would like to place on record my thanks for all the hard work, time effort, support and insight (not to mention skin banging) that Ivan and his various drumkits have give to us over the last few years, and we will certainly miss his presence with us as both a musician and a friend.

But … things have to move on, and with a season of Rock Eucharists already in the diary, replacing Ivan has been a priority for the band over the last couple of months, and we are pleased to announce that we will be joined for our Spring season by Kev Sargeson, former drummer with Destiny Calling (among other Hull Christian bands).

theREIGN are delighted that Kev has agreed to join us, and hope that he feels at home with the band and chooses to stick around beyond the Spring season.

We would value everyone’s prayers for the coming events, especially for Kev as he gets to grips with what we are doing.

Every blessing,
theREIGN

After a very successful Autumn 2009 season of Rock Eucharist events, which took us to the wilds of Scarborough, Tadcaster and Barrow Upon Humber, we have now fixed our programme of events for the Spring 2010 season, and these are confirmed as follows:

Thu 25 Feb 2010: St Peter’s Church, Hutton @ 6:30pm
Sun 28 Feb 2010: St Barnabas’ Church, Swanland @ 7:00pm
Sun 07 Mar 2010: St Mark’s Church, Scarborough @ 6:30pm
Sun 28 Mar 2010: Holy Trinity Church, Leven @ 6:30pm
Sun 11 Apr 2010: St John’s Church, Bransholme @ 6:30pm

In addition, the band is booked for a private birthday party on Saturday 20 March and, looking further afield, we have been asked to hold a concert at Holy Trinity Church, Barrow on Humber, but the original date has now become unavailable so a fresh date for that will be organised shortly. Holy Trinity have also booked a further Rock Eucharist on Sunday 21 November 2010 at 6pm.

Finally, Paul Ganney has invited the band to join him in leading worship at Victoria Dock Church on Sunday morning 20 June 2010 to help him celebrate 20 years as a reader in the Church of England.

All of which adds up to a particularly exciting and potentially very busy 2010.

Every blessing,
theREIGN

All in all, it went pretty well, a couple of things to tweak slightly and the flow of the whole thing, particularly the transitions from section to section and song to song, will undoubtedly improve as we do it more but, for me, it felt like the best debut of the three in terms of how well prepared we were and how well we played as a band.

Rachel claims it was scary (it was her own church and congregation, after all), but you certainly couldn’t tell from the way she led things from the front.

If you can make it to one of this series of events (and they are well spread out) we would love to see you there. If not, you could always book us for your church in the Spring.

Every blessing,
theREIGN

Further afield, and following another successful and blessed weekend with our friends in Barrow Upon Humber over the weekend of 7 and 8 February 2009, we have been invited back for a further concert/Rock Eucharist combo (the not-yet-written v3) over the weekend of 14 and 15 November 2009. This is looking good at the moment, but we just need to tie down everyone’s availability in order to confirm.

Finally, and most importantly for us at this point, we have now set a date for a Communion on the Rocks showcase event, to be held at St Aidan’s church in East Hull on Thursday evening 7 May 2009, beginning at 7:30pm. This event is designed for us to showcase/lead the Rock Eucharist event for a congregation of invited local ministers and youth leaders with a view to expanding the event’s ministry within local churches. Please pray for the organisation, promotion and execution of this event.

As always, if you would like to investigate the possibility of holding an event in your own church (or group of churches) drop us a note or give David Cooper a call and let us know.

Every blessing,
theREIGN

All of the posts, pages, calendar and downloadable extras are back in place and up to date, whilst the picture gallery is back in place and just lacking in actual pictures at the moment. The Greenbelt 2008 stuff is back up as it was, and the rest will be done over the next few days.

At least we know this hacker attack (unlike previous ones) was not directed against Christian sites as they basically took out the entire server at the webhosts’ end … and I believe mine are the only Christian sites on it.

Unfortunately, there doesn’t appear to be any way to prevent this kind of thing from ever happening, so we thank you for your continued patience while we resolve the outstanding issues and look forward to getting back to the music imminently.

Every blessing,
theREIGN

This video is the first recording of a full live song performance that we have made available, but we very much hope there will be more to come in the near future. It features the opening song of the band’s well received concert at Holy Trinity Church in Barrow on Humber in July 2008, Jesus The King.

We hope you enjoy this little present, and would like to take this opportunity to wish you a very Merry and blessed Christmas, as well as a Happy New Year. There are some exciting things coming in 2009, and we will keep you posted on all the developments right here.

Every blessing,
theREIGN

Starting off at Holy Trinity Church, Barrow on Humber on Sunday evening 8 February 2009 with “Heaven In The Ordinary”, we then take “Rising Sun” to St Barnabas Church, Swanland on Sunday 22 February and St Martin’s/St John’s churches in Seamer, near Scarborough on Sunday 8 March.

And this is all before our big Rock Eucharist marketing push even gets underway!!

To that end, Rachel Ganney and I will be meeting with a very good friend of the band (and professional marketing guy) Peter Andrews to discuss some exciting ways in which we can promote the Communion on the Rocks event to the wider church over the next week or two, and your prayers would be valued.

As always, please don’t hesitate to get in touch if you would like us to bring the event to your church/youth group/other Christian gathering.

Every blessing,
David

In addition to last Friday’s brilliant East Hull Praise event at St Aidan’s church, we have now been asked to provide some music for the Marfleet Mission Team’s commissioning service on Saturday morning, 25 October, and for the Archbishop Sentamu Academy’s Christmas service on Wednesday 10 December.

The Marfleet situation is pretty exciting. Alison Gilchrist has been invited by the Church of England to really got for the gospel message and good news of Jesus Christ in what is a particularly run-down and deprived area of the City, and she has pulled together a great team of spirit-filled people around her to reach out to this needy community.

It is a real privilege to be able to use our gifts in some small way to help set them on their way.

As for the Sentamu Academy event … this will be theREIGN’s first genuine Christmas event as a band, which is kind of odd after being together for such a long time. The re-invention of the old Archbishop Thurstan School (where we were joined on Djembe by the aforementioned Archbishop Sentamu a couple of years ago) has so far proved a success and, again, we are delighted to offer our gifts to help them celebrate our Lord’s birth.

In between those two events, we will be leading worship for the fifth anniversary of The Ark project on Preston Road estate, another incredible project in another needy and challenging area of our great home City.

What is interesting is how our worship ministry is taking off on the East side of the River Hull … so much so that I feel like an honorary East Huller these days, in spite of having spent my entire life in the West of the City.

Given the desire of the churches (most of which are small in themselves) to move forward in worship that is perhaps no great siurprise, and we have always had strong links with East Hull through our relationship with, first, Ian Cartwright and then Paul Lucas at Kingston Wesley. It is always a pleasure to worship with them, and long may that continue.

Every blessing,
David