SOUL SURMISE

73A Penwith Road

On this our anniversary I thought I'd post a poem I wrote for Janice when she was living at this address in Earlsfield, London in the 90s. It was turned into a song by our good friend Sam Hill who made it the title track of one of his eps and sang it as Janice was coming up the aisle at our wedding... He changed that address to Beyond the Masquerade... romantic waltz tune... lovely!

Where there's mist on the Lake

And painted African faces

Romantics in a field of poppies

And badgers in a thousand places

Smell the sweetest fragrances

Of flowers on the window sill

Homemade cooking in the kitchen

There's always more than your fill

In the midst of all these changes

Memories. time cannot erode

My heart discovered love right here

73a Penwith Road.

 

Where the arms of love are open

Heart wider than the sky

Touching those who need a touch

And never asking why

Hear the dance of laughter

See the radiant sunshine smile

If pounded by the weary world

Then sit down and rest a while

Feel the strength of gentleness

Come take your heavy load

I fly with freedom in my soul

73a Penwith Road.

 

 

 

TOMORROW IN FITZROY 19.5.13

Tomorrow morning (11am) in Fitzroy we have the pleasure of ordaining 4 new elders - Paul Lutton, Stephen McIlwaine, Ivor Spence and Dave Thompson. This will be a special service when Presbytery come calling but when we fit the informal edge of Fitzroy in and around any formality that might be needed on such occassions! Chris Blake and a cast of musicians will lead our worship and include one hymn written by one of those elders, we will welcome back my predecessor Rev Dr Ken Newell to pray and Rev Alex Wimberley from McCracken Memorial will preach. It is Pentecost Sunday - perfect! There will be a lunch afterwards too!

In the evening (7pm) one of our elders Elma Greer will lead an evening of prayer and reflection around the hymn Be Thou My Vision. Come along to go deeper, wider and higher in your vision and faith!

BABEL MOON - LUKE MACULEY (from Froth On The Waves by Steve Stockman)

I have been imagining the life of a character called Luke MacAuley for some 12 years. He is a Ballycastle boy and a musician who signs for Apple Records and hangs out on Ballycastle beach with Paul McCartney. He doesn’t last long at the upper echelons of music and that is the story. Why? What happened? This is a song I wrote for this fictitious character’s small recording catalogue. I imagine he wrote it in late 1969 when the Moon Landing was inspiring songs like Space Oddity and Rocket Man. Luke is bringing Biblical thoughts and images to the event. Imagine Graham Nash without Crosby and Stills and who knows that might be the sound! The “reaching for more/And ending up less” is from a phrase I heard Darrell Johnston, former preaching guru at Regent College, Vancouver use about the story of the Fall in the early chapters of Genesis... maybe more from Luke as his story develops...

BABEL MOON

It lights up the night

And pulls at the tides

Now just a dumping ground

For our new pleasure rides

It reflects the world so pretty

Will we now deface it

It hangs in such humility

Will we now disgrace it

 

Is this our Babel Moon

Our Eden idea of progress

Reaching to be more

And ending up less

 

They say a leap for mankind

In this tiny step of a man

But where is the leaping to

And who will rule the land

We can build the greatest things

And tear our souls apart

Becoming slaves to flags

And not the servant heart.

 

Is this our Babel Moon

Our Eden idea of progress

Reaching to be more

And ending up less

Reaching to be more

And ending up less

WORSHIP SONGS FOR A HEALTHY SOUL - Stocki's Sermon

Is the hymn or worship song just a warm up to the main event of the teaching? Are we aware of the power of the song to theologise, pastor, bring hope and be cathartic. In a Church world where the old hymns are too dull and archiac yet filled with great theology and the modern songs are attempting to be contemporary but might lack in their catachising ability, this is the sermon I preach on the dilemma of hymns that deal with the head and the heart.

Listen here...

http://www.fitzroy.org.uk/Media/Player.aspx?media_id=105651&file_id=115630

A PRODIGAL BORN TO RUN HEADS HOME

In Fitzroy last Sunday might we did another in our Gospel According To... Series. On such evenings we take the songs of iconic musicians and perform them live with spiritual commentary drawing out the meaning of the songs. Last Sunday was the turn of Bruce Springsteen’s catalogue and there were some mighty performances by Fitzroy’s Musical Collective plus quality guest spots from Mark Houston on an acoustic Born To Run and Gentry Morris on Mary Don’t You Weep.  

In my commentary I leaned heavily on writings I have done on Springsteen down the years BUT what became the crux of the evening was Springsteen’s introduction to an acoustic version of Born To Run that is available on The Complete Video Anthology 1978/2000. I had set the evening up as a journey of Springsteen’s faith in an almost Prodigal Son story. We had set off with songs of alienation and escape. The Radiator Blues Band had just done a rocked out version of Thunder Road with its “this town’s for losers and we’re busting out of here to win.” This alienation’s need to leave somewhere and find something better made great rock n roll and some great albums BUT... did they win? 15 years after Thunder Road Springsteen brought a new twist to his biggest anthem Born To Run. His introduction went like this: -

“it’s changed a lot over the years...when I wrote it I was 24 years old... the questions I am asking in this song... it seems I have been trying to find the answers to ever since... when I wrote the song I was writing about a guy and a girl who were on the run and would keep on running... and that was a nice romantic idea...but I realised that after I’d put all those people in all those cars I was going to have to figure out some place for em to go... and I realised that in the end individual freedom when it’s not connected to some sort of community ends up feeling pretty meaningless... so I guess that guy and that girl were out there looking for connection... and I guess that’s what I am doing here tonight... this is a song about two people trying to find their way home... this song has kept me good company on my search and I hope its kept you good company on yours..."

Needing a place... freedom without connection is meaningless... songs as companions on the way home... wow! Springsteen eventually found his home. In the 90’s he married, had children and made a literal home. He also started to find himself drifting, or being pulled, back to the home of Christian faith; his Catholic upbringing. He even, after a sojourn in California, came literally back home to New Jersey. The songs that followed Born To Run on Sunday all pointed to this need. That individual freedom is meaningless without connection is powerful wisdom and deeply spiritual. When Dave Thompson sang Death To My Hometown it was revealed as a cathartic song of lament for a community ripped asunder. Caroline Orr led the “congregation” in the prayer that is My City Of Ruins, a commitment to rebuilding community. Caroline’s closing If I Should Fall Behind rose above it’s romantic meaning to become another commitment to connection and giving to another. It says I cannot make it alone and when I struggle I need you to be there for me. In between The Spring Teens gave a vibrant version of Rocky Ground, Robbie McIlwaine’s guitar sparkling and sparking Sarah McNeill’s haunting vocal and Jonny Fitch’s edgy rap with Tom Trinder on the back beat; shepherds are being called to help the flock through to a “new day coming” an eschatological hope that was cranked up in The Radiator Blues Band again on Land Of Hope and Dreams with a lovely Gospel singing People Get Ready ending from Burnett, Orr and McKinlay! Springsteen’s songs are nowadays full of this life of connection and community. He caught on to the limited satisfaction of freedom roads and the Prodigal needed to come home to a land of hope and dreams!