juhboy

2011-07-28T21:11:00.001Z

The place God calls you to is the place where your deep gladness and the world’s deep hunger meet.

Frederick Buechner

Guiding Light

2011-07-28T20:53:00.001Z

BANDWIDTH / Foy Vance from Bandwidth on Vimeo.

If you have the time watch this entire video but, if not, at 3.45 Foy Vance excels himself with 'Guiding Light'. It's absolutely beautiful. The end of the video is also truly special. Enjoy.

2011-07-28T20:51:00.000Z

Napoleon

2011-01-24T21:39:00.001Z

IN STORES NOW#47: Napoleon / "Listen To Me" from Bandwidth on Vimeo.

Rock of Ages

2011-01-02T20:51:00.002Z

Please check out this Radio Ulster programme

Rock of Ages

Goodbye 2010

2010-12-31T17:46:00.002Z

Hi folks,

It has been a while since I blogged but I thought I'd say hello. Hope you had a good festive season and wish you and yours a very happy New Year.

Here's to life, love, change and creativity in 2011.

I'll leave you with my song of the year... Nathaniel Rateliff's 'Early Spring Till'

Enjoy.

J.

You never trust a millionaire quoting the sermon on the mount

2010-09-09T15:20:00.006Z

Arcade Fire's critically acclaimed new album, The Suburbs, is loaded with spiritual references.

Buried in the middle of 'City With No Children' are the great lines:

'You never trust a millionaire quoting the sermon on the mount
I used to think I was not like them but I'm beginning to have my doubts
My doubts about it

When you're hiding underground
The rain can't get you wet
But do you think your righteousness could pay the interest on your debt?
I have my doubts about it'

Win Butler, thems is some heavy lyrics. They are pointers to what, I feel, God has been telling me lately.

My faith, if it can be called that in this context, still seems to start with me, not with God. That its now time I ditched my self-made spirituality where my pursuit of God is riddled with selfishness.
I'm slowly coming to realise that this approach is fundamentally wrong; it's God who pursues me. To quote another well-known lyric, 'Sometimes, you can't make it on your own'.

'But do you think your righteousness could pay the interest on your debt?
I have my doubts about it'

Mumford & Sons

2010-09-09T15:14:00.003Z

I had the pleasure of going to see Mumford & Sons in Belfast this week as part of the Open House Festival. It was, naturally, a great gig. This is a picture I took on my phone as I left the marquee at Custom House Square.
Towards the end of the show they played a song called 'After the Storm' which Marcus Mumford admitted they didn't often play live. Here are some of the beautiful lyrics:
'And there will come a time, you'll see, with no more tears.
And love will not break your heart, but dismiss your fears.
Get over your hill and see what you find there,
With grace in your heart and flowers in your hair'.

It's not a race

2010-05-30T17:22:00.005Z

This pretty much sums up how I feel at the moment. I'm fed up with the competition cause I've realised there isn't one. It's not a race.

Though the scriptures speak insistently of the divine initiative in the work of salvation, that by grace we are saved, that the Tremendous Lover has taken to the chase, (our) spirituality still seems to start with self, not with God. Personal responsibility replaces personal response. We seem engrossed in our own efforts to grow in holiness. We talk about acquiring virtue, as if it were some kind of skill that can be acquired through personal effort, like good handwriting or a well-grooved golf swing. In seasons of penance, we focus on getting rid of our hang-ups and sweating through various spirtitual exercises, as if they were a religious muscle-building program.
The emphasis is always on what I do rather than on what God is doing in my life. In this macho approach God is reduced to a benign spectator on the sidelines. It orients us to attribute any growth in the spiritual life to our own sturdy efforts and vigorous resolutions. We become convinced that we can do a pretty good job of following Jesus if we just, once and for all, make up our minds and really buckle down to it. Well, if that's all there is to Christian discipleship, then in the words of the singer Peggy Lee, "Let's break out the booze." All we're doing is transferring the legend of the self-made man from the economic sphere to the spiritual one.

What makes this day good?

2010-04-06T21:51:00.002Z

This poem was used at a Good Friday church service I attended over Easter. Here it is:

If you have ever believed that love inevitably leads to betrayal
this day says it doesn’t.
If you have ever believed that some people are unloveable, irredeemable
this day says they aren’t.
If you have ever believed that there is a limit to forgiveness
this day says there isn’t.
If you have ever believed you aren’t worth saving
this day says you are.
If you have ever believed that you don’t deserve freedom
this day says you do.
If you have ever believed that fear, anger, hate and despair will always win
this day says they won’t.
And this day is good for you.

Cheryl Lawrie

Mission impossible?

2010-01-29T14:05:00.000Z

‘… for me, mission is not about trying to get people ‘saved’, or trying to get them to join the Church, or even about trying to get them to convert to Christianity. Mission is about making God’s liberating love and peace and justice a flesh-and-blood reality in ways that can potentially transform people’s lives, or potentially transform a neighbourhood, or potentially transform the world.’

Dave Tomlinson

Pray for Haiti.

2010-01-23T21:02:00.000Z

Normal

2010-01-06T17:44:00.001Z

Normal is getting dressed in clothes that you buy for work and driving through traffic in a car that you are still paying for – in order to get to the job you need to pay for the clothes and the car and the house you leave vacant all day so you can afford to live in it. – Ellen Goodman

Low Rising

2009-12-28T11:27:00.001Z

What a beautiful video. I expect nothing less from The Swell Season.

Almost, upon us

2009-12-22T00:03:00.000Z

Almost, upon us. It seems to me one of the miracles of the Christian faith is that the feast of Christmas survives what we have done to it -- all the hoopla, clap-trap, commercialism and all the rest of it that I don't even need to go into because everybody knows what it is. Yet, somehow it does survive. This extraordinary moment when the whole year slows down and you point to this unimaginable event where God somehow became made flesh. It is so cataclysmic; it is so extraordinary; we try to make it habitable; we try to make it cozy; we make creches and we sing Christmas carols. At best, it can be touching and real. At its worst it can be cheap and banal. What often occurs to me about Christmas is that if it is really true, if the word really became flesh, if the mystery behind all that really took the form of a human life, this vulnerable, tiny human life whose skull you could have crushed with one hand, then there must have been extraordinary anguish and intergalactic struggle to have this extraordinary thing come to pass. It wasn't an easy thing to happen. There is a kind of terror about Christmas, a kind of holiness and awesomeness about Christmas that we tend to forget. The resurrection and the life came down and tasted the bitterness of death.

Buechner

this audacious love

2009-12-16T23:39:00.002Z

In a stable, an act of audacious love brought a tiny baby into a broken world,
and turned the world upside down.

And when hope took a human shape
those that the world rejected found company,
those who knew no place they were loved found a home,
those trapped in guilt and anger and despair found wholeness,
those longing for justice and peace found joy.

This audacious love
has not stopped
trying to bring hope to birth in this broken world.
It’s just looking again for a space to be born
and for arms that are open
ready to take hold of hope.

www.holdthisspace.org.au

You can tell a man by how he lifts his hands

2009-11-06T11:38:00.000Z

more often than not

2009-10-26T21:29:00.001Z

We are, more often than not, people of doubt who have beliefs, than people of faith who have moments of doubt.

city walk

2009-09-17T08:52:00.001Z

My friend Darren took this picture on a recent Monday night out in Belfast. I really Liked it so I thought I'd share it with you.

2009-09-14T18:11:00.001Z

The best thing that I can possibly do as a teacher/preacher is to help people to recognize and trust their own deeper and even deepest spiritual intuitions. I am convinced this Deeper Place is what we Christians would call the Indwelling Presence of the Holy Spirit. We are not left alone; Real Guidance is always being offered. My great disappointment in so much of institutional religion is that I don’t think it encourages people to recognize or to trust these deeper spiritual intuitions. Generally, it tells them to trust only authority and words, and never to trust themselves. This creates robots with a superiority complex, but not real saints.

To give people answers to questions they have not yet struggled with or suffered for makes those very answers more a wall than a window. The answers are not deeply understood or subtly felt, and they tend to be used to block further experience; or worse, to find real inner experience of God unnecessary. All you need to do is follow outer authorities or texts, and obey laws. This creates the passive, aggressive, and largely un-transformative religion that we have today. The Gospel offers us so much more.

Richard Rohr
Adapted from The Authority of Those Who Have Suffered

"Irrespective of the uniforms we wore, we were all victims" - Harry Patch

2009-08-05T15:55:00.003Z

"i am the only one that got through
the others died where ever they fell
it was an ambush
they came up from all sides
give your leaders each a gun and then let them fight it out themselves
i've seen devils coming up from the ground
i've seen hell upon this earth
the next will be chemical but they will never learn"

These are the lyrics to Radiohead's latest work 'Harry Patch (In Memory Of)'.

Potently anti-war, Thom Yorke has dedicated the work to Patch and to "peace and understanding".

This is without doubt one of Radiohead's most heartfelt and epic songs.

The last remaining UK veteran of the first world war, Harry Patch died last month at the age of 111.

Download it now at www.radiohead.com

It costs just £1 and proceeds go to the British Legion

U2

2009-07-27T21:38:00.002Z

So we travel to Dublin. Croke Park to be precise. To watch a band in their late 40s. And I'm thinkin: "They're not gonna be anywhere near as good as the last time."

Yeah, remember the last time? The time when you stood on your own with 80,000 others and thought 'wow'. I can't, I mustn't see this band ever again because they have peaked. I said to myself, this is a spiritual night. God drew near.

But I go again to see the band I promised myself I'd never see again. And they rock up with this monster stage. They play (most of) the hits.

I'm thinkin: this is good. But it's not as good as last time out.

Then the band play Ultra Violet and life is good.

Talking a good game

2009-06-28T12:23:00.000Z

Anyone who sets himself up as "religious" by talking a good game is self-deceived. This kind of religion is hot air and only hot air. Real religion, the kind that passes muster before God the Father, is this: Reach out to the homeless and loveless in their plight, and guard against corruption from the godless world.

Not one of those...

2009-06-21T18:33:00.000Z

I’m debating whether to stop calling myself a Christian.

I’m not sure what triggered the temptation to abandon the label entirely. Possibly it was my friend’s latest Sunday family meal during which the conversation centered around whether or not Obama is the Antichrist. How can we be members of the same Christian tribe when I’m thinking, “Finally a leader who can inspire hope and global responsibility in millions,” and they’re thinking, “Is it possible that behind that winsome smile there are seven heads and ten horns?”

Or maybe it was hearing my friend’s roommate exclaim, “Well praise the Lord, my jeans are dry!” I am profoundly skeptical that God is involved with the intricacies of the laundry cycle.

Or perhaps it was just reading the word “Him” in a recent church circular, spookily hanging there with its capital H and no previous reference to a specific subject. Yes, it may well have been the overuse of that pronoun that finally pushed me over the edge.

Trigger
Then again, maybe there was no specific trigger for questioning whether to keep wearing the Christian brand. Maybe it was just a slow inexorable slide, a series of unremarkable events that piled one on top of the next until almost unnoticeably, the structure could no longer stand.

Or perhaps it was my years in East Africa when I worked alongside poor people who had been taught by early missionaries that life here and now is sickness and suffering, but in heaven will be eternal joy. I grew increasingly infuriated that Christianity was the rationale for letting kids die of malaria.

Or maybe it was my four-year stay in Malaysia where I was more compelled by the compassionate faith of my Muslim colleague than the trite American Christian lingo that flooded the local church.

Possibly it was just eight slow years of Bush, where God-talk became a weapon and identifying as a Christian dumped me into a dirty pile of right-wing politics.

Weary
Whatever it was, I have grown weary of saying, “Yes, I am a Christian, but I’m not one of those.”

What I hate is that as soon as I stick on my Christian nametag, I get added to a monstrously diverse club in which I am not at all sure I want a lifetime membership. I get lumped in with the Obama-is-the-Antichrist gang, and the dry jeans laundry girl, and Bush’s security council.

Just saying, “I’m a Christian” can be the easier route. The term is so succinct, so deceptively simple – far faster than trying to stammer out: “Well, actually, yes, I do believe in a God that exists separately from me. And yet within me too. I believe I am in a developing relationship with this God. That the world has gone terribly wrong, but God wants to change it and I play a part. That issues of justice are at the centre. And, oh, I’m sorry, is this explanation boring you?”

And so I feel stuck. It’s either trudge through lengthy justifications, sit silent, or fall back on the old label and cringe. None of these options appeal.

Fluent
The troubling truth is that Christianity is the only religious language I know. And I am fluent. It is my mother tongue, seeped into me like warm spring rain in black earth. I can win a “sword drill” against the fastest Bible-verse-finding fingers in the country. Sit me down and ask me to tell you the big story, from Genesis to Revelation, and I will. Quote me the red letters, and I will say amen. But throw me into Buddhism, black magic or Islam and I would be a traveller without a map.

Like it or not, Jesus is the best way I know to understand who God might be and how God might have us live. Sure, I’ve tried some alternative terms to position me in this camp – person of faith, believer, even church-goer – but they seem so esoteric, so distant from this person of Jesus who I confess, has captivated me. And what does the term “Christian” mean if not one who acknowledges the reality of Christ?

So, Jesus, I’m with you. I’ll keep wearing your label. For now. And as for the rest of you folks that call yourselves Christians – all ye fundamentalists and liberals, emergents and evangelicals, backsliders and legalists, all ye gays and homophobes, wife-beaters and feminists, trickle-downers and socialists, the whole contradictory lot of you – I begrudgingly, painfully, hesitantly, humbly, hope-fully admit . . . we’re in this together.

Brenda Melles

$200 conversion?

2009-06-18T21:10:00.000Z

God Bless America?

2009-06-18T20:32:00.001Z

America controls nearly 20 percent of the world’s wealth. There are around six billion people in the world, and there are roughly three hundred million people in the US. That makes America less than 5 percent of the world’s population. And this 5 percent owns a fifth of the world’s wealth.

One billion people in the world do not have access to clean water, while the average American uses four hundred to six hundred litres of water a day.

Every seven seconds, somewhere in the world a child under the age of five dies of hunger, while Americans throw away 14 percent of the food they purchase.

Nearly one billion people in the world live on less than one American dollar a day.

Another 2.5 billion people in the world live on less than two American dollars a day.

More than half of the world lives on less than two dollars a day, while the average American teenager spends nearly $150 a week.

Forty percent of people in the world lack basic sanitation, while forty-nine million diapers are used and thrown away in America every day.

One point six billion people in the world have no electricity.

Nearly one billion people in the world cannot read or sign their name.

Nearly one hundred million children are denied basic education.

By far, most of the people in the world do not own a car.

One-third of American families own three cars.

One in seven children worldwide (158 million) have to go to work every day just to survive.

Four out of five American adults are high school graduates.

Americans spend more annually on trash bags than nearly half of the world does on all goods.

…

Human history has never witnessed the abundance that we consider normal. America is the wealthiest nation in the history of humanity. We have more resources than anyone group of people anywhere at any time has ever had. Ever.

God bless America?

God has.

(Taken from Don Golden/Rob Bell. Jesus Wants to Save Christians)

P&T

2009-06-07T20:54:00.002Z

Just spent a fantastic weekend in Scotland visiting my brother and my sister-in-law, Trudi (a cooking goddess!).
It was great to spend time with my brother - chatting in Mrs Mennie's in Row 48 and visiting Dundee's 24-hour bakery! (I can't believe I'd never ventured there before).
Spent Friday in Edinburgh catching up with Susan's sister, Claire.
Ben had a wonderful time - if not a touch windy-popped. Ooops.

Love is the frame

2009-05-17T13:29:00.002Z

And when Jesus comes along saying that the greatest command of all is to love God and love our neighbour, he too is asking us to pay attention.

If we are to love God, we must first stop, look, and listen for him in what is happening around us and inside us.

If we are to love our neighbours, before doing anything else we must see our neighbours. With our imagination as well as our eyes, that is to say like artists, we must see not just their faces but the life behind and within their faces. Here it is love that is the frame we see them in.

Frederick Buechner, Whistling in the Dark

sad and beautiful place

2009-05-03T13:28:00.000Z

let all those who do justice and love mercy say amen!

2009-01-23T00:21:00.001Z

God of our weary years,
God of our silent tears,
Thou who has brought us thus far on the way;
Thou who has by Thy might
Led us into the light,
Keep us forever in the path, we pray.
Lest our feet stray from the places, our God, where we met Thee,
Lest, our hearts drunk with the wine of the world, we forget Thee;
Shadowed beneath Thy hand,
May we forever stand,
True to our God,
True to our native land.

Get on your boots

2009-01-20T23:01:00.001Z

son of my right hand

2008-12-29T21:43:00.002Z

Hey God.
At 1.16am on December 23 our lives changed forever.
The gift of life at Christmas. Just perfect.
Mad, relentless, consuming, instantaneous, unconditional love. Just like yours.
Thank you so much.

A time for renewal

2008-12-29T21:37:00.002Z

I heard this Brian Houston song for the first time this week. I think the words are bleeding with vulnerability and with raw honesty. It's a cry for renewal. And when God's people cry out... he listens.

I am the one with the unclean lips
I am the one whose mind is jaded
I am the one with the impure heart
and all my innocence is faded.

Wash me clean in your river of mercy
restore my soul by a clear blue stream... renew me again.

I am the one whose walk is faithless
I am the one who walks away
I am the one whose debts are many
and I am the one who cannot pay -- wash me clean.

You are the lord who is my fortress, you are the lord who is my hope.
You are the lord who is my refuge... the only safe place for my soul.

Wash me clean in your river of mercy... restore my soul... renew me again

2008-12-22T14:38:00.002Z

ALBUM OF THE YEAR 2008

2008-12-19T18:12:00.002Z

Happy Christmas

2008-12-09T17:18:00.001Z

After hearing this song, Christmas has officially begun. Unto us a child is born. Peace and grace to one and all. Happy Christmas.

2008-11-16T18:45:00.001Z

For if you forgive others their trespasses, your heavenly Father will also forgive you; but if you do not forgive others, neither will your Father forgive your trespasses.
- Matthew 6:14-15

The Morphing of the Church

2008-10-19T09:29:00.001Z

Emerging churches recognize that Western societies are moving beyond the context of Christendom which has prevailed for sixteen hundred years. In this post-Christendom and culturally pluralistic environment, the church finds itself increasingly marginalized and no longer a pillar of society. As it forfeits its privileged position, it must learn a different tone of witness—with grace and boldness in a marketplace of differing ideologies. In response to cultural shifts of seismic proportions, emerging churches re-imagine themselves, seeking to be a missional presence. It is this conviction that lies at the heart of the emerging church conversation.
The boundaries of the emerging church movement are difficult to define. A wide range of theological positions as well as ecclesiastical traditions are represented. Some caricature the movement as the reaction of disgruntled and disillusioned people who have abandoned the church traditions of their youth in order to “do their own thing”—a people defined more clearly by what they are not than by what they are. In our estimation, these strident voices are not representative of the mainstream emerging church conversation, which is attempting to deconstruct some archaic traditions rather than to demolish them.

If it aint broke don't fix it

2008-10-18T16:10:00.004Z

Duke Special is back with that altogether 'difficult second album'.

If it aint broke don't fix it. 'I Never Thought This Day Would Come' is not a major departure for him.

Piano-based tom-fullery with a hefty helping of soul-searching, self-observation and a subtle pinch of yearning.

Admittedly, I've only listened to it once through. But, based on my whimsical early impressions I get the feeling that it's a bit of a strange record.

At it's worst, it's a bit Chas and Dave. And with some of the songs I can't help but feeling the melodies sound like something from a kids tv show (never a bad thing, if you're six).

'Nothing Comes Easy' and 'Mockingbird Wish Me Luck' roll deeper. They are Duke at his introspective best.

But like all records I'm not too sure of initially, my feeling is this one will win me over ... eventually.

See what you think, yourself. http://www.dukespecial.com/

remember me

2008-10-18T16:08:00.001Z

This is my body, broken for you. Do this to remember me.

After supper, he did the same thing with the cup: This cup is my blood, my new covenant with you. Each time you drink this cup, remember me.

What you must solemnly realize is that every time you eat this bread and every time you drink this cup, you re-enact in your words and actions the death of the Master.

You will be drawn back to this meal again and again until the Master returns. You must never let familiarity breed contempt.

2008-10-18T16:04:00.000Z

don't give them an inch

psycho

2008-10-18T16:03:00.001Z

oranges

2008-10-02T19:08:00.000Z

coca cola jesus

2008-07-21T21:09:00.000Z

This piece of art by Samodurov connects 'Christendom to the values of western societies...capitalism, image and consumption'.

Read more at shifty's blog

RdhD:HS oF CrdS

2008-07-21T20:55:00.000Z

A 'first tentative step'

2008-07-21T20:16:00.002Z

Zimbabwe's opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai has said a pact with President Robert Mugabe is a 'first tentative step' in the political crisis which is gripping the country.

Following Mugabe's 'win' in the recent bloody and farcical elections, the pair have decided enter into immediate talks aiming at establishing a new government.

It's clear international pressure from the United Nations (UN), the African Union (AU) and, closer to home, South Africa, is taking its toll on Mugabe. At 84, is an ageing 'politician' anchored in the past and synonymous with bloodshed.

The decisive movement of the UN and the AU in siding themselves with South Africa's President Thabo Mbeki has also been of comfort to the Tsvangirai-fronted Movement for Democratic Change (MDC).

According to the MDC, many of their supporters have lost their lives, countless people were tortured and countless more were threatened and harrassed into voting for Mugabe's regime.

Here's hoping they can find a positive resolution to resolve the madness.

Read more by clicking this

rock 'n' roll or racist?

2008-07-21T20:04:00.002Z

Sex Pistols' John Lydon has been accused of hitting Bloc Party's Kele Okereke backstage at a gig in Barcelona.

According to the Guardian newspaper, Okereke says he was left with severe facial bruising and a split lip following what he claims was a racist attack by Lydon

Apparently, it took Kaiser Chiefs' Ricky 'I predict a riot' Wilson to separate the rock stars...

Read more by clicking this

P&J

2008-07-14T21:53:00.003Z

don't really go for 'me' or 'us' posts but here goes:

went see friends of ours (you know who you are) up the coast on fri/sat. we had a really relaxing time with them all. wonderful kids, wonderful place. thanks. J&S

Banksy has been outed

2008-07-14T21:23:00.003Z

Gasp, horror! Banksy isn't a fictional character. His cover has been blown. He's an actual person who makes art. Worse than that, according to the Mail on Sunday, he went to public school. He's middle class! He lived in suburbia! What did people expect? That just because he started with graffiti and grew into street art that he was some council estate hoodie with a knife?

For more from The Guardian's report click this

Big Ideas (Don't Get Any)

2008-06-26T10:27:00.003Z

Using obsolete 80s technology a Glasgow art student filmed his own version of Radiohead's 'Nude'

Watch the clip (it all kicks in after a minute or so)

Check out the story below

Big Ideas (Don't Get Any)

amazed by grace

2008-05-30T18:04:00.002Z

I've read and heard a lot about grace. But today I felt it rush through me like a river about to burst its banks.

Little Dreamer

2008-05-20T20:53:00.003Z

It's been a long time since I've had the chance to blog. A lot has been happening. Too much to mention here, not that I would divulge much via this medium anyway.
You dunno whose gonna be havin' a butchers, do ya?

So, I've been listenin to Beth Rowley's 'Little Dreamer' album. The BBC says she was 'born to testify'.

I like that. I like her. Her voice is something quite marvellous.

I first heard Rowley perform with Duke Special on Radio 2 (I think) and saw her perform with said Special One at the Grand Opera House with Sooz, Sherry, Leah and Samantha Mumba (she didn't hear Beth but she was stood beside me at the bar before the gig).

Any way. What I'm getting at is this: If you are (like me), sliding inevitably towards melancholy and 30, or you're a girl (bit of a sweeping generalisation) you should consider buying this Little Dream(er) of an album (see what I did there?).

And for your £7.99 you'll get a quite remarkable duet (Angel Flying Too Close To The Ground) with the Duke, a nice wee cover of Dylan's I Shall Be Released among other gems.

Not bad, I say.

Viva la Sevens

2008-05-02T12:32:00.004Z

The Sevens won the league last week. We play in the Ballymena and Provincial League and have been promoted to Division One.
Well done to all the lads who took part in this year's league campaign (some are not in the pic Jackie, JC, Derek).

Now for the double...

Match report fromour last game against FC Larne can be found here

2008-04-20T11:22:00.001Z

(From the Observer)
For 35 years, Bruce Springsteen has been the authentic, poetic voice of the blue-collar States, a liberal courted by all shades of politician to endorse their campaigns. As the latest presidential campaign nears its end, he has now cast his vote
Read more here

MLK 40

2008-04-06T19:22:00.003Z

The Drum Major Instinct (1968)
Sermon at Ebenezer Baptist Church in Atlanta (Feb 1968)

Every now and then I guess we all think realistically about that day when we will be victimized with what is life's final common denominator — that something we call death. We all think about it. And every now and then I think about my own death, and I think about my own funeral. And I don't think of it in a morbid sense. Every now and then I ask myself, "What is it that I would want said?" And I leave the word to you this morning.
If any of you are around when I have to meet my day, I don't want a long funeral. And if you get somebody to deliver the eulogy, tell them not to talk too long. Every now and then I wonder what I want them to say. Tell them not to mention that I have a Nobel Peace Prize, that isn't important. Tell them not to mention that I have three or four hundred other awards, that's not important. Tell him not to mention where I went to school.
I'd like somebody to mention that day, that Martin Luther King, Jr., tried to give his life serving others. I'd like for somebody to say that day, that Martin Luther King, Jr., tried to love somebody. I want you to say that day, that I tried to be right on the war question. I want you to be able to say that day that I did try to feed the hungry. I want you to be able to say that day that I did try in my life to clothe those who were naked. I want you to say, on that day, that I did try, in my life, to visit those who were in prison. I want you to say that I tried to love and serve humanity.
Yes, if you want to say that I was a drum major, say that I was a drum major for justice; say that I was a drum major for peace; I was a drum major for righteousness.
We all have the drum major instinct. We all want to be important, to surpass others, to achieve distinction, to lead the parade. ... And the great issue of life is to harness the drum major instinct. It is a good instinct if you don't distort it and pervert it. Don't give it up. Keep feeling the need for being important. Keep feeling the need for being first. But I want you to be the first in love. I want you to be the first in moral excellence. I want you to be the first in generosity.

stuck in a moment...

2008-03-15T19:23:00.002Z

went to this U2 night a while back.

suzanne bennett sang 'stuck in a moment' and she stole the show...

I'm across the road from hope

2008-03-15T19:20:00.000Z

Go ahead sanj!!

yes, this is belfast...

2008-03-08T10:41:00.004Z

Hey man, slow down, slow down...

2008-02-28T20:50:00.003Z

This is public art in action. well, inaction really.

Maybe it's an artistic metaphor. Maybe we should all be taking time out to notice what goes on around us.

From improveverywhere.com:
On a cold Saturday in New York City, the world’s largest train station came to a sudden halt. Over 200 Improv Everywhere Agents froze in place at the exact same second for five minutes in the Main Concourse of Grand Central Station. Over 500,000 people rush through Grand Central every day, but today, things slowed down just a bit as commuters and tourists alike stopped to notice what was happening around them.

hope, at the end of the day, connects us all, no matter how different we are

2008-02-25T18:20:00.003Z

Marketa Irglova's Oscar acceptance speech:

I just want to thank you so much.

This is such a big deal, not only for us, but for all other independent musicians and artists that spend most of their time struggling.

This - the fact that we're standing here tonight, the fact that we're able to hold this - it's just to prove, no matter how far out your dreams are, it's possible.

And, you know, fair play to those who dare to dream and don't give up.

And this song was written from a perspective of hope and hope, at the end of the day, connects us all, no matter how different we are.

glen and marketa win best song oscar...yes!

2008-02-25T18:15:00.000Z

duke wins best irish male

2008-02-24T11:45:00.000Z

sad...and beautiful place

2008-02-20T20:04:00.003Z

Book launch and exhibition of

sad... and beautiful place

photographs: Gordon Ashbridge, words: Steve Stockman

to be held at Derryvolgie Hall, Monday 3rd March 2008.

The evening will begin at 8pm followed by an artists talk at 8.45pm.

All proceeds from the sale of books and limited edition prints will go to Capetownship, a justice mission project working in South Africa.
The exhibition will continue until 10th March.
For further information please contact Derryvolgie Halls 49a Derryvolgie Avenue, Belfast t: 028 9066 9090
Capetownship is a project of the Presbyterian Church in Ireland at Queen's University, Belfast.

Sorry

2008-02-15T14:36:00.003Z

Australian PM Kevin Rudd says sorry to generations of Aborigines for the "profound suffering, grief and loss" inflicted on them by decades of abuse and mistreatment.

It's not an issue I know a lot about but what really struck me was the power of the act of confession. Of course, confession is not forgiveness but it is a honest step in the direction of hope.

The guardian reported that his words, spoken as part of a motion in the Australian parliament, were primarily directed to the "stolen generations" - the tens of thousands of mixed-race children taken from their families in a strategy of white assimilation only abandoned in 1970.

Rudd also said sorry to all of Australia's indigenous people who still live on the margins of society, saying that in the future he wanted them to have the same opportunities as other Australians.

My Body is a Cage

2008-02-15T00:14:00.001Z

this is Arcade's Fire's 'My Body is a Cage' to a scene from a western. cheers to sanj for the tip. it's really powerful stuff...

Stop Clowning Around

2008-02-14T23:59:00.002Z

this is a friend of ours. she is quite the raw musical talent... you heard it here first.

Grace Lent Blog

2008-02-07T18:41:00.000Z

Please check out the Grace Lent blog

I've been a fan of it in years past. Can't think of any reason why 08 should be any different.

Giving up Lent for Lent

2008-02-07T18:32:00.001Z

Made some pancakes on Tuesday and haven't touched chocolate in two days. It's the new me.

Oh yeah, I'm also gonna give up Facebook for Lent. Should be easy enough...!

Here's an article you may find of interest. It's titled: Giving up Lent for Lent.
See what she's done there?

Got the skills to pay the bills

2008-01-28T15:25:00.000Z

Oscar nomination for Hansard

2008-01-25T16:10:00.000Z

Glen Hansard and Markéta Irglová have been nominated for a Best Original Song Oscar for 'Falling Slowly' from 'Once'.

In an interview with RTÉ Hansard said he "couldn't believe" the remarkable achievements of director John Carney's low-budget film.

"I just couldn't believe it. I didn't sleep last night. It's a mad, mad concept, our little film that went and did this. It's insane," he said.

Come, with healing in your wings

2008-01-23T20:17:00.001Z

I'm reading Frederick Buechner's 'Secrets in the Dark' and there's this prayer, written/spoken by him, i assume, that i can't get away from. It's incredible.

JESUS, Son of the Most High, Prince of Peace, be born again into our world. Wherever there is war in this world, wherever there is pain, wherever there is loneliness, wherever there is no hope, come, long-expected one, with healing in your wings.

Holy Child, who the shepherds and the kings and the dumb beasts adored, be born again. Wherever there is boredom, wherever there is fear of failuure wherever there is temptation too strong to resist, wherever there is bitterness of heart, come, blessed One, with healing in your wings.

Saviour, be born in each of us as we raise our faces to your face, not knowing fully we are or who you are, knowing only that your love is beyond our knowing and that no other has the power to make us whole. Come, Lord Jesus, to each who longs for you even though we have forgotten your name. Come quickly, Amen.

Wanna get yourself connected? Start talking to each other

2008-01-23T19:01:00.000Z

I've just checked my email for the first time in a few days. And in my bulging inbox I find a message from a friend with the subject: 'I'm outta here'.

His correspondence explains why he has to cut ties with me. He no longer wants to be my friend.

When I say friend, I mean virtual friend. At arm's length. Only talk to each other when we can be bothered... that kind of friend.

He breaks the news rather gently. He's off to commit facebook suicide...

Why?
And I quote...

"I'm canceling my Facebook profile due to its ties with neo-conservatism, libertarianism and the CIA. Instead, I intend to do something quite radical - stay in contact with my friends the old fashioned way via email, telephone and instant messaging. Old school, I know, but I don't care to be associated with the kind of people who're running this show (not by choice, anyhow)."

He signs off with a link to a story in the Guardian - the contents of which have left me deeply alarmed...

these numbers have faces

2008-01-14T22:54:00.000Z

found this site tonight click here. not only does it sound like a fantastic project, it also features photographs from the talented mr. ashbridge

please check out the site and spread the word.

J

domesticated jesus

2008-01-13T14:37:00.000Z

whatever you do...

2008-01-12T11:24:00.000Z

whatever you do, don't tell the truth. just keep it to yourself.

Happy New Year everyone

2008-01-01T19:26:00.000Z

"Listen to your Life
See it for the fathomless mystery that it is
In the boredom and pain of it no less than in the excitement and gladness:
Touch, taste, smell your way to the holy and hidden heart of it
Because in the last analysis
All moments are key moments
And life itself is grace."

Frederick Buechner

foy and duke

2007-12-27T19:26:00.000Z

Christmas may be over but I couldn't let this wee gem sit for another year.
Sit back and watch two AKA legends perform with the Salvation Army.
Merry Christmas y'all.

Magnificent '07

2007-12-27T16:13:00.001Z

2007 was another great year for music. for me stand out moments in the past twelve months include: hearing arcade fire's 'intervention' for the very first time; radiohead's in rainbows and the emergence of laura marling. watch out for her in 2008.
here is my list of top albums / songs (for those who haven't released an album)in 2007.

14. Cherry Ghost 'Thirst for Romance'
13. Foy Vance 'Hope'
12. Feist 'The Reminder'
11. Glen Hansard & Marketa Irglova 'Once'
10. Bright Eyes 'Cassadaga'
9. Fionn Regan 'The End of History'
8. Bloc Party 'A Weekend in the City'
7. Ryan Adams 'Easy Tiger'
6. The Cinematic Orchestra 'Ma Fleur'
5. Kings of Leon 'Because of the Times'
4. Laura Marling 'New Romantic' (single)
3. Editors 'An End Has a Start'
2. Arcade Fire 'Neon Bible'
1. Radiohead 'In Rainbows'

Liverpool Nativity

2007-12-20T00:00:00.000Z

This contemporary music drama reworks the nativity story. Set in a fictitious state, it tells the story of a pregnant young girl set against a backdrop of political tension.
It's on BBC Three on Sunday night at 22.45

We know you'll understand, God

2007-12-19T23:55:00.000Z

We know you will understand, God,
if we don’t have the faith that Mary had
- not quite yet, anyway.
We’d be willing to believe that love is waiting, just around the corner,
to be born into our world
and that when it is we’ll see the hungry fed, and the humble lifted high
but it would really help to have some angels come visit who would talk us into it.

So all we can commit to, today,
is to prepare the place for you to be born
even if it doesn’t seem likely.

Because while we are a little sceptical about Christmas
we’d really love to be convinced.

from [hold :: this space]

comfort guaranteed

2007-12-12T00:36:00.000Z

from small ritual

it's comin on christmas

2007-12-04T22:45:00.000Z

some interesting stuff going on at paperlesschristmas.org
why not get festive and check it out?

Everybody wants a little somethin'...

2007-12-04T22:41:00.000Z

Radiohead webcast 091107 reckoner

2007-11-21T23:05:00.001Z

just where is the church going wrong?

2007-11-21T22:46:00.000Z

just a little something a read a while back:

There are certain sections of the church that are hugely judgmental. It's almost like, "God loves you unconditionally—but, actually, here are our rules: dress like this, sit like this, attend these prayer meetings, never say this, don't laugh. Also, you're not allowed to doubt anything."

Recently, I asked a friend of mine, who was a church leader, why he'd left the church. And he replied, "I've left the church because I'd rather live with questions I can't answer than live with questions I can't ask."

Steve Chalke

america's ice cream

2007-11-21T22:43:00.000Z

the truth will set you free

2007-11-08T00:09:00.000Z

right, so i've been thinking about worship after a conversation with a friend of mine. we were talking about how difficult it is (in the church) to get around the fact that for most of us (and i include myself) worship has become a bunch of songs we sing when we meet together. it's something that really grates on me.

and that got me thinking of just how much i miss godspace. them were special times for me.
there we were, getting together every two weeks, coming up with ideas to get people thinking of higher things.
i just miss the honesty of it all. i miss the quiet. i miss the time out.
i miss the creativity and the ambience, but most of all i miss the people involved. we were honest with each other. it was warts and all. no strategies, no real agendas, no major jargon. it was the closest i've ever come to seeing christians be real with each other and trying let the truth ring out.

really that's what i think worship might be. it's not some neatly packaged medley of acoustic-driven songs on a sunday morning, songs that just happen to have a snug fit with the preacher's theme. its not about that. it's so much more than that.
have a wee look at this...

blessed are the poor

2007-11-07T23:43:00.000Z

i saw this vid when it hit youtube last year. please watch all of it... i was gonna write a few thoughts but i'm lost for words.

Once... you'll want to see it again and again

2007-10-31T17:13:00.000Z

I've been waiting to see Once for ages. So when I found out it would be playing at the Movie House (Dublin Road) I was busting to see it.

It's a fantastic little film. Beautifully shot, there's not much room for dialogue and it has music at its heart.

It tells the story of a talented bohemian busker played by Glen Hansard who finds a soulmate in a young Czech mother (Marketa Irglova).
Hansard's character is trying to come to terms with a break up with a long-term girlfriend and finds a kindered spirit in Irglova, who herself knows what it's like to lose in love.

There's an undeniably natural on-screen chemistry between the pair who find common ground in music, melody and time spent together.

The pair perform a breathtaking collection of heartbreaking songs and deserve the recognition they are attracting just now.

The film, lauded by Speilberg, wreaks of self-belief, hope and love. It's a wonderful little movie so bravely put together by director John Carney on a shoestring budget.

Critics have raved about the film which, i'm gonna boldly predict, is destined to win awards.

Once is a film you should go and see, buy and watch again and again.
www.oncethemovie.com

Banksy? Is that you?

2007-10-31T17:03:00.001Z

Snared?! Is this graffiti artist Banksy at his work. One anonymous citizen journalist in London seems to think it might be.
The snap was taken at Bethnal Green and may, or may not, hold the key to the Bristol street artist's identity.
Read the full story on the beeb

fionn

2007-10-21T17:40:00.000Z

ok, so forgive me, if you will.

i have just got my hands on fionn regan's quite wonderful 'the end of history'.
it's a beguiling and altogether rather charming piece of work.
fionn (pronounced 'finn', i think) is firmly in the dylan(ish), willy mason, iain archer mould of singer-songwriters with lyrics revealing a real strength in his tender years.
the album, deservedly shortlisted for this year's mercury music award, is a finger-picking mish-mash and a trip into an enchanting world of vulnerability.

listen to this for starters: put a penny in the slot
check out his website www.fionnregan.com

in rainbows pt 2

2007-10-10T15:33:00.000Z

got the album today and first impressions are good. not bad for a quid. had it on in work this afternoon, gave it the full spin and for me, All I Need is an obvious heartbreaker.

others i'm liking include Videotape, Bodysnatchers and Faust Arp.

read what the guardian has to say about it all, here

2007-10-09T22:27:00.000Z

Speaks for itself, really. Worth a wee look if you've got a mo. click here

in rainbows

2007-10-09T19:13:00.000Z

so. Radiohead's 'In Rainbows' gets its digital release tomorrow. i'm expecting something epic.
if you haven't already done so, get your name down for a copy here

been a while

2007-10-09T19:07:00.000Z

hi. it's been a wee while... here's some thoughts courtesy of steve chalke and the door. it makes for really honest, interesting reading.

I've seen the church teach people a theology that condemns them, and they walk around with a huge load of guilt because they aren't holy. They don't really know what holy is, but they're sure they're not it because they look at porn magazines, get tempted with sexual thoughts, don't concentrate in prayers, get bored while they're reading the Bible, or whatever it might be. People leave the church by droves because they say that they're disappointed with Jesus. It's not Jesus that's disappointing. Rather, it's the churches' presentation of Jesus that's watered down or boiled down. We give them a reduction of Jesus, and then wonder why they're not interested.
The majority of people I meet in church are bored out of their brains. They sit there Sunday by Sunday, and they're bored with a dull Jesus, and dull songs. They drop out because they're disappointed with Jesus, they're disappointed with church, and they're disappointed with our theology. They're disappointed with God, but the reason they're disappointed is because this lively Jesus who confronts oppression has not been announced to them.
There are certain sections of the church that are hugely judgmental. It's almost like, "God loves you unconditionally—but, actually, here are our rules: dress like this, sit like this, attend these prayer meetings, never say this, don't laugh. Also, you're not allowed to doubt anything." Recently, I asked a friend of mine, who was a church leader, why he'd left the church. And he replied, "I've left the church because I'd rather live with questions I can't answer than live with questions I can't ask."

the body and the blood

2007-07-09T22:58:00.000Z

I stumbled on this tonight and it blew me away.
It's a piece of liturgy london's jonny baker put on his blog. It's by cheryl lawrie. See what you think.
(Oh yeah, it's written for use in prisons).

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------

On their own, the bread and wine are nothing.
To become a foretaste and a promise
of love made real and a world made whole,
they need a story and a blessing
and a people who believe…

It would not have been God’s table
if they hadn’t all been gathered around it:
the betrayer and the friend
the power-hungry and the justice seeker
the faithful and the fickle.

When Jesus poured the wine, and the bread was broken;
when everyone could eat -
the outcast and the beloved
the arrogant and the gracious
the wrong-doer and the wrongly done by -
the table became a foretaste
of love made real
and of a world made whole.

Your company at the table
will include the betrayer and the beloved
the wrong-doer and the wrongly done by.

It would not be God’s table without them.

And the promise is
that when you are together,
when you tell the story and give the blessing
when you break the bread and pour the wine
you will discover a foretaste
of love made real
and of a world made whole.

Theology

2007-06-29T15:05:00.001Z

The wonderful Sinead O'Connor has a new album out.
Haven't heard it yet but jonny baker has blogged about it and he reckons its great.

its called theology. you can listen to a few tracks on sinead's space

God is in the slums...

2007-06-14T21:21:00.000Z

the poor are where God lives…. God is in the slums, in the cardboard boxes where the poor play house. God is in the silence of a mother who has infected her child with a virus that will end both their lives. God is in the cries heard under the rubble of war. God is in the debris of wasted opportunity and lives, and God is with us if we are with them.

P.Hewson.

Shalom

2007-06-14T21:20:00.000Z

For I was hungry and you gave me something to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink, I was a stranger and you invited me in, I needed clothes and you clothed me, I was sick and you looked after me, I was in prison and you came to visit me.

Self-isolating, self-serving, self-perpetuating, self-centered?

2007-05-02T16:35:00.000Z

A thought from Brian D. McLaren

Are our churches and broadcasts and books and organizations merely creating religious consumers of religious products and programs? Are we creating a self-isolating, self-serving, self-perpetuating, self-centered subculture instead of a world-penetrating, world-serving world-transforming, God-centered counterculture?