Churchill, Wendy

Author & Composer

b Broxton, Cheshire 1957. Moving house several times as her father was a Methodist minister, she began to write songs at the age of 10, and attended Roundhay High Sch W Yorks; Plympton Grammar Sch, Devon; Southampton Univ (Music and English, 1975–78; and LSU Coll of Education (PGCE for Middle Sch teaching, specialising in Music). In 1975 she produced and performed in the popular Christian musical Come Together. After marriage and family arrivals she taught piano and became involved with music at her church, writing and producing 2 short musicals with Marianne Le Boutillier. In 1989 she resumed music teaching at the King’s Sch, Southampton, and then in a job-share at St Anne’s (Convent) School for Girls. At that time she belonged to the Community Church, and wrote several songs and another musical, mainly for the St Anne’s Junior Choir. Some songs are recorded, including ‘O Lord, most holy God’ (in MP from 1997) and (with Sue Hutchinson) ‘I will extol you’. In Sept 2005 she moved with husband Peter to SE London to join a church plant from the Synagogue Ch of All Nations, whose HQ is in Lagos, Nigeria. One of their daughters has been training as a pastor, and they ‘have been deeply influenced by the church’s teaching and life’; so have Wendy’s more recent songs, written for the church where she leads the music group. She has also led music at conferences and other wider gatherings; Peter and Wendy’s son David has made a CD of his own songs written for Southampton Community Ch. No.490.