SOUL SURMISE

LIFE IN ALL ITS SPECTACULAR WONDER (KLA TO ARUA)

Today, I should be on a bus for 12 hours. I should have left Kampala early this morning. It is a long journey to Arua but over the past few years I have gotten to love that road. Oh there may be miles and miles here and there where I read a book or have a nap. For most of it, though, there is always intrigue out of every window. I feel the utter privilege of driving through Africa. For parts of it I listen to Paul Simon or Johnny Clegg or our own Jonny Fitch, adding to the stimulation of the visual a soundtrack to make it even more spectacular.

I am missing this journey today. Here it is, as I remember it. Travel it with me. Imagine it, in all its extravagant wonder. Please God, I will be back on this road very soon.

 

Take the Bombo road

Heading north out of KLA

Where lives are gridlock wasted

And boda bodas and car horns trap the urban beat

Give the man 2000 shillings for a New Vision

Then clear all the panoramas

To see matoke, maize and mango trees

Along the green rolling hills

To Luwero

Pay a white man price for pineapples

The best pineapples in the world

Let the juice drip down

And marvel at the height of the anthills

Smile at the field of sunflowers, as God intended them,

Under African blue

And the trees, African shaped air-conditioning.

 

I breathe and catch the moment

Now

Here

This

Life in all its fullest extravagant wonder.

 

The traffic has eased up now

Like this rural way of life

Up through Nakasongola

What a combination of syllables that is

On a road in the middle of Africa

Oh mercy and my oh my

Bask in every single fascinating scene

Out of every window, every moment

Every precious person

Carrying every kind of load

On bicycles or heads

Slow down around the bend

And down the hill

To Karuma Falls,

Baboons

Cheeky, entertaining and a little dangerous

And the Falls

Stunning effervescent cascade of the Nile

The Victoria Nile

Chasing itself up to Murchison for its spectacular fall.

 

I breathe and catch the moment

Now

Here

This

Life in all its fullest extravagant wonder.

 

After the baboons give up on the scavenge

Make a left

Alongside the edge of the National Park

The road straightens up for miles and miles

No need for McCartney’s Long and Winding Road

Less people now

But keep your eyes peeled

And there might just

If providence pokes the luck

Be a family of giraffes

Seeking the leaves

So elegant,

Their patterns, near perfectly painted by someone

Elephants,

Egrets on their back

Waving their ears to dismiss us

And the hippos,

Basking, bathing, blethering

On the edge of the Nile

The Albert Nile,

Wider, more sedate but no less beautiful

And no less that same Nile

As we cross the bridge at Pakwach

Through the human motorway service station

Boiled eggs, bottles of Stoney, chicken on a stick.

 

I breathe and catch the moment

Now

Here

This

Life in all its fullest extravagant wonder.

 

At last, into West Nile

Through Nebbi

Watching the changing scape of the earth

From the savannah where lions roam

To the more small rugged hills

In the dark shadows of Congolese mountains

The roads meander round, narrow

And thread through these borderlands

Of a district marginalised, maligned and misunderstood

Mud huts, thatched, in family clusters

Smoke oh so slowly spiralling into the now setting sun

Like the evensong rhythms of contented souls

Having hoed all day in their shambos

For enough, just enough,

Never enough for greed

The children still smiling

And waving at the muzungus

As if to amuse us

 

I breathe and catch the moment

Now

Here

This

Life in all its fullest extravagant wonder.

 

Finally,

You

Black as night

So beautifully bright

The shiniest light

In it all.

THE MYSTERY OF BADNESS & THE MYSTERY OF GOODNESS (for Fiona Donohoe)

Our entire city have been drawn into the sadness of the tragic death of Noah Donohoe.

As a community we prayed and hoped as a vast number searched for Noah after he went missing.

As a city our hearts broke at the news that his body had been found. Today, as he is buried, we all want to reach out to his mother Fiona with love and comfort and prayers.

As a pastor I find these situations very difficult. We want to find answers but as the singer David Gray once sang, "we are trying to spell what the wind can't explain". There is a mystery of badness. It is beyond us. 

What we can bring is the mystery of goodness. God never promises that there will be no mysteries. He promises, though, to be a rock and refuge in the mystery. I so pray that for Noah's mother and family today. 

 

Mysteries

Intrigue in the novel and film

But in reality

Their crashing in on our lives

Smashes our hearts to pieces

The shards blow out across communities

Cutting deep.

 

Today you grieve in the mystery

The mystery of badness

The mystery of randomness

The mystery of why you

The mystery of never being explained

Yet having to learn to live in it.

 

I believe in another mystery

The mystery of goodness

The mystery of love

The mystery of comfort

Jesus called the Holy Spirit a comforter

So, I pray for you

That in the mystery of why

In the mystery of what

You will know the mystery of how

Comfort can

Against the odds 

Reach into the depths of your broken heart

And mysteriously give you resilience

As you walk into the grief

Of the days and years to come.

 

STOCKI'S FAVOURITE 10 RECORDS OF THE FIRST HALF OF 2020

As June comes to an end here are my favourite albums of the first half of 2020. The quality of records released has been excellent, especially coming out of our own wee country.

 

1. BOB DYLAN - ROUGH AND ROWDY WAYS

I haven't reviewed this one yet. Not sure I can do it justice. It is a long time since he was so lyrically engaging, socially acute and cultural aware.)

 

2. SAMMY BRUE - TEENAGE MAYHEM

From a 79 year old at number 1 to a 19 year old at number 2. Brue with the help of co-writer and producer Iain Archer has come cup with an album that respects the past and energises the present with an eclectic mix of styles. 

 

3. JASON ISBELL - REUNIONS

Between Dylan and Brue in age lies Jason Isbell, maybe the best songwriter of his generation.

 

4. THE AIRBORNE TOXIC EVENT - HOLLYWOOD PARK

Main man Mikel Jollett's Memoir of the same name might see this accompanying record getting lost in the rightful critical acclaim of the book but this is Californian indie guitar rock at its best with perhaps the most poetic writer in that genre. 

 

5. DEACON BLUE - CITY OF LOVE

Deacon Blue get better and better. An album about Glasgow and the stories of love within it. Could be your city or mine. Crafted songs that I cannot what to see come alive live!

 

6. RAY LAMONTAGNE - MONOVISION

This might be Lamontagne's very best record. My review is coming but there are echoes of Morrison, Mitchell, Fogerty and Young. Rustic and true. Woodstock 69 revisited, not the Festival, the town.

 

7. DENISON WITMER - AMERICAN FOURSQUARE

An utterly utterly beautiful record of the gentlest mediations on small life America. 

 

8. MALOJIAN - HUMM 

Stevie Scullion teams up with Jason Lytle from Grandaddy, a perfect match for the song writing craft and instrumental layering. Sumptuous!

 

9. ARBORIST - A NORTHERN VIEW

Can a good thing come out of ballymena. Also-flippin-lutely. This is an imaginative look at Northern Ireland's place in the Brexit fragmentation. Stunning collages of sound with a Heaney-like sense of land and sky.

 

10. ANTHONY TONER - GHOST SONGS VOL 1/ THE PRESLEYS - EMBRACE

Two more Northern Irish albums. I needed to squeeze them both in. Anthony's covers record is wonder4ful in its breadth of choice and stripped back arrangements. 

The Presleys is a side project of Brian Houston's. Heavy on the blues with a spiritual underbelly and seems more set in urban America than East Belfast. Another successful musical adventure from Brian.

 

 

 

 

 

SOUL SURMISE INTERVIEW WITH ROBERT SINCLAIR ABOUT HIS EMOTIONS ALBUM

In the early 90s I discovered a young singer songwriter called Iain Archer. For a few years Iain played at everything that I had anything to do with. He went through a few band members but one remained the same - Robert Sinclair.

Robert is not a talented pianist. He is way beyond talented. He has a natural genius and that was on display night after night as he added grace note flourishes to anything Iain did. There were instrumentals when the two of them achieved musical trickery that was an amazing spectacle as well as sound.

When Iain took off to Novello Awards and Grammy nominations for his work with Snow Patrol, Jake Bugg, James Bay and most recently Sammy Brue, Robert remained at home in Bangor, still dazzling on the piano wherever he got a chance to play.

Now, almost 30 years on and Robert Sinclair has made his every own record. Emotions is a solo piano project that shows all the skills of his genius and adds a sensitivity to the different emotions we humans go through. For those of you who love instrumental music this is a winner.

I got a chance to ask Robert about how the album came about, how you name an instrumental piece of music and what he hoped for the new album.

 

So it has taken a long time to make an album. Why now?

Recording an album was a problem. I'm used to playing a lot of different styles so it would be very hard to pigeon-hole me to a certain genre. I’m not tied to jazz, blues, pop, classical, reggae, soul, pop, I just play the lot.  When I was a child I just stuck a record on and played along. 

 

And another problem was the idea of just showing off on an album filled me with dread! It’s not like me to show off - I make mistakes!  I needed a purpose for an album for the benefit of others. That’s when it all came about doing Emotions. Something people can listen to and use to reflect on days or times in their life when they are going through something. Music can do that, sometimes just better than words or anything else.

 

Tell me about where the record began? Did you set out to make an album or did the songs creep up on you and suddenly you had a record?

It’s honestly a collection of music I’ve came up with in the same way as the album’s purpose. It’s been the music I played on my own journey in life over the years. Or sometimes I’ve just been moved by something – Goodbye for example was the music I thought would be perfect for when Dr. Who had to say goodbye to Rose on the beach. I found that quite emotional. I thought – wouldn’t it be good to have a piece to use when you have to say Goodbye to somebody in some way?

I’ve always wanted to have my music used in film and television too. Maybe some day…?

 

How do you give instrumentals titles? I mean were you in Paris at midnight?

Midnight in Paris was recorded previously years ago and is a bit out of place but people liked it so I just stuck it on the album. I’ve never been to Paris at midnight so no lol! It’s just a thought as I wrote it in the early nineties - a place where you could still sit at a table in the street and drink coffee at midnight and watch the rest of the world pass by. The other titles were a lot easier and gives a much clearer link to where I was in life when I first played it.

 

Emotions is the title. When you are writing, is it about putting down the emotions you feel right there at that moment? Would you carry an emotion with you for a while and then eventually write a piece or do you sit down and say “how am I feeling now"?

Definitely the best time to play the piano I found is when I’m feeling emotional about something and, with the exception of Goodbye and Hope, I just press record and start playing. It’s just what comes out.

Hope was written out as I went – that was when my marriage started to fall apart but no matter what would happen, I always had hope. As a Christian, hope is something I hold on to a lot.  All the other tracks are just sit and play. I actually do this a lot but don’t always record it so who knows what I’ve lost! I recorded In Love and When I think of you after being with my girlfriend on different occasions. I listened to When I Think Of You the day after I recorded it in the car and I actually thought, did I play this?? Was that me? I wouldn’t have been able to play it ever again if I didn’t record it…! I actually had to write it all out for the studio to make sure I got it right lol!

 

Is the music about your own catharsis or joy or whatever emotion or do you think of an audience listening?

This album is a green light for me because it’s for other people. I find that a lot easier and acceptable. My music does comfort me and is a channel for me every day and, unless they are just being very kind, people seem to enjoy my music too. I love playing for people – it’s a very powerful God-given gift. I play at weddings and I remember once at a rehearsal, it was all going well, all great, no problems. They were just about to walk down the aisle and then I started playing the piano and after about 4 steps, the flower girl started crying and started off others. Music is powerful indeed!  (I was very professional by the way and didn't cry too!)   

 

What are your hopes for the album?

This is quite an ambition – I currently have 2 aims in life – to live long enough to see my boys married and be a grandad and to have my music heard all over the world or most of it anyway. Again, I’d love my music to be used in a film or even a TV series.

The album took about 5 hours to record and 7 months to actually get it on sale! But now it’s finally online, I hope I can sell as many tracks/albums as possible. But for other people to use. To help them. A life tool. It’s purpose.

It’s all a learning curve this album stuff... The second one will be easier… 6 months lol?

 

IT'S JUNE 29! CHURCHES CAN OPEN. WHY FITZROY WON'T BE OPENING YET!

Today, June 29th, is the day that we have been told that we can consider re-opening churches again. I read one local newspaper that seemed to be claiming themselves the heroic instigators of such a decision. The argument was that if off-licenses were opened then it would be "an appalling contradiction" in a country with such deeply held religious convictions to have churches remain closed.

It is a bizarre argument. It is quite a stretch to compare off-licences with churches. In the former you walk in and purchase a few cans or bottles and leave. The latter is built on fellowship and a community listening to God's word and communal singing in worship. Off-licences can be opened quickly, they can be restricted to numbers easily. Contact between people will be minimal.

Sunday services in churches is a whole different matter. If we need to have numbers limited so that some are left out of fellowship and worship. If we cannot actually have fellowship because the after service coffee is not allowed. If we cannot actually sing as that seems to be scientifically a dangerous activity that might spread the virus. If all of this is the case, then we are not opening on anywhere like the same level as an off-licence. It would be good to ask if this is church at all and not just a few people meeting, very spread out in a church building.

Now I understand that buildings are important in some denominations and that I am speaking from a Reformed Presbyterian position where the building has no special or sacred importance. Yet, whatever our spiritual practice the June 29th date has thrown many church leaders into a quandary as to what to do and put them under pressure to simply return to how it was in early March. That can be done in an off-licence but certainly not in a Sunday morning worship service. I have spent a lot of time debating, discussing and wrestling with other clergy as to what we might do after we reached today's date!

Fitzroy's Session has decided that we will not be opening through July and August. We will continue to do Church on-line. We will relook at the possibilities of some kind of re-opening in the early autumn depending on what the Covid 19 status is in Belfast as we come out of the summer months.

Returning to gathering for worship is fraught with difficulties. The Presbyterian Church has sent all churches a very helpful document that includes a lengthy check list of the vast array of things that need done before we could meet the health and safety criteria. We will start working through that dossier very soon and use the summer to get ourselves in a place where those stipulations are met. 

By the end of August we may find ourselves in a healthier situation. Taking two months to see how the coming out of lockdown works out will be helpful. Of course it could go the other way and we might be back with more restrictions. These are the uncertainties we are living with. The reopening of pubs and restaurants, a main gathering place for people will be a test as to whether we can contain this virus. These will be hotspots for the possible spread. Churches might be too. Even more reason, in a love your neighbour way, to not be putting our members and the wider public at such risk.

The wonderful thing is that we have found Church in lockdown. We have somehow discovered a way to be Fitzroy, feeling very much together, even though we have been isolating on our own. Our on-line services have kept us all in touch. Indeed they have done so much more than that and we have now a virtual congregation that stretches from British Columbia and Alberta to Ohio through the British Isles and across to Greece, down to Bangladesh and over to Australia.

Our Children’s and Youth ministry has been doing an incredible imaginative job, not just surviving but thriving. Pastorally through telephones and even letters we have all looked out for each other and made sure that lockdown has not meant lonely or isolated.

In an email this weekend I thanked everyone in Fitzroy for their contributions in a plethora of ways throughout lockdown. I also asked that as a congregation we would be patient as we moved forward and worked our way through the challenges in our way so that we can gather together again.

At our last church gathering in March I spoke about the need for grace and imagination as we started the journey into lockdown. I thank God that he has given us that grace and imagination in abundance. I pray that God will continue to give us that grace and imagination as we traverse these difficult days out of lock down towards opening again as church in the early autumn. (If you wish to hear my sermon on that yesterday then you can watch it here on FITZROY TV)

There have been many lessons learned in these past few strange months. Lessons for individuals and hopefully society but also for churches. We have learned that church is not about buildings but about people. We have learned new ways to reach out missionally and how to do pastoral care more intentionally. We have lived in the revolution, not just sentimental cliche, of love your neighbour.

As I have blogged before the rhetoric to open churches on June 29th is much easier than the reality. The business community and particularly the hospitality community have been putting much pressure on government about opening and the physical distancing restrictions. The results of that for our nations health will be seen in the weeks ahead.

As for churches. We have no need to put on any pressure. Church is alive and well, maybe much more open for business in these days when the buildings are closed. I am looking forward so much to being back in a Fitzroy filled to capacity some day soon. BUT there is time and the fruit of the spirit is love, joy, peace, forbearance, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control. Let us take our opening up decisions in the light of that!