AD 1926: most churches and chapels have a flourishing choir.

AD 2026: most don't.

Times have changed, true, but there's no reason why anywhere which would like a small choir for Christmas (or any other time of the year) shouldn't have one.

Since September 2022, the North Monmouthshire Ministry Area has experience a renaissance of choral singing. The North Monmouthshire Ministry Area Choir (NMMA Choir) has participated in forty four (at the time of writing - June 2026) services.

Drawn from the seventeen parishes of the ministry area, and also with singers of various denominations from beyond the MA borders, the choir has contributed introits, motets, anthems, and other music to these services, apart from supporting the hymns and liturgical music.

This has been possible by having a close and responsive management structure, and a book of super-flexible anthems (Fifty Oven Ready Anthems) which means that, whatever the response of singers to a particular request, an anthem can still be sung.

During this session, we shall learn some of the Christmas repertoire from Fifty Oven Ready Anthems, and find out how flexible they can be, ranging from performances for just a few voices (using the parts termed Essential) through to performances adding parts termed Optional and/or Optional Men.

These arrangements DON'T have any very high or low notes and they are designed for quick-learning.

During this session we shall also look at the organisational structure of the NMMA Choir and see how it can be adapated to other areas. Additionally, we will touch on other free, online resources, which can help a church with its music-making. These will include:

• Rehearsal tracks in audio and video format;
• Backing tracks, if needed
• Simplified hymn accompaniments;
• Slim Carols - carol arrangements for irregular groups of instruments:
• Super Slim Carols - carol arrangements for any two instruments, and it doesn't matter who plays the melody and who plays the accompaniment - it all still fits.
• Check these out HERE.

Anyone, with the most modest of musical knowledge, can run a small choir. This session shows how to do this. The materials used will be:

• The Toolkit Series
• Fifty Oven Ready Anthems

See Above

The following might well find the afternoon interesting. People who:

• would like to have a choral group singing in their church or chapel but are unsure about how to go about starting one;
• would like to be part of a choral group in their church or chapel and are looking for ideas to take to a potential leader;
• would just like to spend an afternoon learning some new, easy carol settings.

This choral project will be led by Philip Norman. Apart from a lifetime of directing choirs and choral projects, he has, in the last four years, started two choirs using the principles which will be demonstrated in this session, namely Llanddewi Rhydderch Festival Choir and North Monmouthshire Ministry Area Choir.

At the end of the day, every participant will have a repertoire of simple carol settings that they can take back to their own church or chapel which can be used to start a choir or choral group.

Similarly, they will be armed with the materials and techniques necessary to make this a possibility.

• 1.30: Registration. Light refeshments available.
• 2.00: Session 1.
• 3.30: Break. Light refreshments available.
• 3.50: Session 2.
• 5.00: end.

Nothing - it's free. But there will be a collection to cover the cost of lighting and heating the church, refreshments and publicity.

If you want to, you can just roll up on the day. However, it makes it SO much easier for the organisers if we have some idea of how many people are coming in advance.