CJM releases new album for Pope's visit

Boyce & Stanley

‘Lead Kindly Light’ - Boyce & Stanley’s new six track EP CD Single has been released by CJM Music to mark the beatification of Cardinal Newman and the Pope’s visit to Britain.

 “These new musical settings are a great way to allow Newman’s heart to speak to the hearts of another generation”.

So says Fr Richard Duffield, Provost of the Birmingham Oratory and Vice Postulator of the Cause for the Canonisation of Cardinal Newman, speaking about Boyce & Stanley’s latest audio offering. ‘Our awe at Newman’s mind’, he continues, ‘can make us forget that he revealed his heart most clearly in his poems and prayers’.

Using some of Newman’s prayers and other devotional writings along with a mixture of contemporary styled music including music from the Lead Kindly Light CD, Boyce & Stanley will be leading an hours prayer and reflection between 8am and 9am at Cofton Park in Birmingham leading up to the Beatification Mass. The event is scheduled to be broadcast live on Radio 4 as part of the BBC’s Sunday Worship Series.

Alongside Boyce & Stanley will be a 6=six-piece band and a choir of 40 young people drawn from four Catholic Secondary Schools in the Archdiocese of Birmingham. The schools include; Bishop Ullathorne, Cardinal Wiseman and Cardinal Newman schools all based in Coventry and St Thomas Aquinas School, based in Birmingham and the closest Catholic Secondary School to Cofton Park.

"Cardinal Newman has been a huge influence on the faith of Catholics in this country – both directly and indirectly. Our understanding of who we are as Catholics and what it means to worship as a liturgical Church was greatly enhanced by his reflections and writings" said Mike Stanley, "It is a huge honour for us to be part of this historical day".

CJM Music has been based in the Archdiocese of Birmingham since 1988. During this time Boyce and Stanley have become the UK’s leading exponents of contemporary liturgical music. Their recorded works include two albums of traditional hymns recorded in a contemporary style which they sent on an iPod to His Holiness Pope Benedict XVI back in 2007. "This new recording" suggests Mike, who composed the music to Firmly I believe and truly, "continues the work we began with the Age to Age recordings – using modern musical arrangements to keep centuries old truths on the lips and in the hearts of modern worshippers".

The CD Single is priced at £5.99 and is available from the CJM Music website from 6 September - copies can also be purchased from McCrimmons or St Paul’s bookshops.

For further information see: www.cjmmusic.com

Boyce & Stanley will be guests on ‘Good Morning Sunday’ with Aled Jones on 12 September.