SOUL SURMISE

A RAINBOW OVER THE SKERRIES - REMEMBERING HEATHER BAXTER & A PRAYER FOR MARTIN AND THEIR GIRLS

Last night our friend Heather Baxter came into my mind. Heather has been ill for some time, battling cancer for even longer. For some reason I was acutely aware of her and deeply concerned. This morning I woke up and the first email to arrive was from Heather's husband Martin telling me that Heather had said her goodbyes and left us for the next life. 

The Stockies are heartbroken. Back in 2005 Martin and Heather were like our "dorm parents" when we did a sabbatical at Regent College, Vancouver. Oh they were so much younger but wiser to the Canadian ways and so caring of all of us. Caitlin and Jasmine were young and they loved the Baxters. Heather was a gem. Beautiful inside and out. She was a gentle light of Jesus. She helped give our family the best three months of our lives! We are ever grateful...

... and therefore, this morning, heartbroken. Heather is too young to have left Martin and her two young daughters. The fallen world can be horribly cruel. Even our wonderful hope of Heather "falling into the loving arms of our Lord and Saviour", as Martin described her passing, doesn't erase the sense of sadness for us and empty void for Martin and his girls.

I do my wrestling in rhyme. I had begun this poem a few weeks ago when I saw a rainbow over Harryville, where I grew up. I was reading Marie Monville's book One Light Still Shines at the time. It is about how faith saw her through, after her husband became the Amish School House Shooter in 2006. The title of her book and something one of her children said about God making the bad a little less bad gets a line too.

So, I finished it, or at least this draft of it, today fondly remembering Heather and thinking of Martin and the girls. This goes out as a tough prayer for you all. 

 

There’s a rainbow over The Skerries

Like a promise from long ago

Clouds of black and gray a-swirl

Like the sky just doesn’t know

The weather moves unpredictable

How dangerously the wind blows

There’s a rainbow over The Skerries

Like a promise from long ago

 

When the pillar of familiar

Gives way beneath your lean

You are paying the heart-robbed cost

Of everything that love means

Your heart’s been lacerated

By the exploding force of sad

Believe one light still shines

To make the bad a little less bad

 

There’s a rainbow over The Skerries

Like a whisper from on high

Comfort comfort my people

When you hear them cry

Bereft of the final goodnight kiss

The empty side of the bed sighs

There’s a rainbow over The Skerries

Like a whisper from on high.

SNOW PATROL - REWORKED

Ah! Snow Patrol Reworked. I have dreamt of such a thing since they did a show in the Royal Albert Hall in 2011 that rearranged their hits. I love that kind of thing and as my mates Iain and Miriam were drawn into the band for that gig I was all over that creative venture.

For their 25th Anniversary Snow Patrol went back to that project. Any other band would have released an ordinary Greatest Hits with perhaps that Royal Albert Hall concert as extra CD (the DVD was an extra with the deluxe edition of Fallen Empires) but no; nothing as lazy for Snow Patrol.

Following 2018’s Wildness, perhaps their best record, Reworked reveals a band in a rich vein of creativity. It seems that after 7 years of inactivity they haven’t been able to stop, starting these recordings in hotel rooms as they toured Wildness.

The songs are so reworked and so carefully sequenced that it is hard to know whether to put it in the “new albums” or “reissues” magazine reviews sections or Best Of The Year Awards categories.

It is a quality record. It is as if they had stripped out the inside of a house and remodelled the interior with a different ambience.

Reworked is gentler in spirit. You’re All I Have for is a fine example. Pumping out of the Eyes Open album as the lead off single in 2005 it is transformed in this incarnation to something so delicate.

Two things jump out from Reworked. 

Firstly, how good a songwriter that Gary Lightbody is. Take out the bluster and many a song can lose its soul or lack of it. These re-imagining reveal a robust core in their new tender skin. The lyrics are poetic. The melodies intoxicating and these haunting arrangements utterly beautiful.

Secondly, what a voice Gary Lightbody has; light and shade, gentle touch and earthy fulness. On the piano foundation of Take Back The City he is strong, rebuilding his wounded and wonderful home city. Then we have the falsetto of Empress and the fragility of Heal Me. 

Not that everything is easy with the gentleness. Run, with a distorted vocal treatment might be the most menacing moment. Who’d have thought! Yet, somehow Iain Archer doesn’t lose the anthemic chorus in the midst.

Everything sounds new but there are three actual new songs. I Think Of Home was originally part of a project that Lightbody did at the Seamus Heaney Homeplace. I have already described it as Lightbody’s In My Life. A celebration of his beloved Ireland - north, south, east and west!

Time Won’t Go Slowly, to the sound of a fairground carousel waltzer, ruminates on the relationship between love and time; a forty year old pondering mortality. It’s a suggestion that Lightbody’s best songwriting days are still to come.

Made Of Something Different Now is another such hint. Regretful heartache with the most hypnotic of melodies.

25 years in Snow Patrol are sounding like they are just hitting their stride. What they do in the first years of their next quarter century could be very creatively tasty indeed. Reworked is a band standing at the crossroads, looking back and forward, nowhere near the end of the road.

BEING WITH THE TROUBLES - TOMORROW IN FITZROY 17.10.19

In Fitzroy tomorrow morning (11am) we will be delving deep into the new book Considering Grace; Presbyterians and the Troubles. Co-written by our own Gladys Ganiel it is a crucial contribution to the question of how we deal with our past in Northern Ireland. Covering the stories of 120 people from victims to ministers to first responders to critical friends, it is an eclectic mix of subjective stories and objective insights.

I will be unpacking it all in our series BEING WITH. How can we BE WITH The Troubles? How can we BE WITH victims? How can we BE WITH the consequences that the past has on the now? How can we build a better future? How can we hold sensitivity towards those who still suffer from the Troubles while looking at forgiveness and a compromising of justice that all conflicts have to deal with to move forward?

I will wrap this all around 2 Chronicles 7:14. We quoted this a lot during The Troubles as a call to prayer but seemed to miss the deep repentance being asked for. As followers of Jesus how do we navigate 35 years of bloody violence and what it did to us all? 

Gladys Ganiel will answer of a few questions about the book too!

In the evening (7pm) we will be hearing performances and pondering the Gospel According To... Young Female Pop Stars. If you are an old fogey like me, then this is an opportunity to hear the issues that our younger generation are singing about. We might launch a few pop careers too!

STOCKI'S REM RARITIES PLAYLIST

(My REM Rarities Playlist includes b-sides, live versions, covers, soundtracks, a couple of Stipe solo things and even an Iain Archer song that Peter Buck plays on... just because that would have been unbelievable when we dreamed Iain into a music career back when Monster was released in 1994) 

9 DREAM 

(from Instant Karma: The Campaign To Save Darfur)

 

LOSING MY RELIGION (Chris Martin Feat Michael Stipe)

(from 12-12-12 The Concert For Sandy Relief)

 

MAN ON THE MOON (live)

(from What’s The Frequency Kenneth single)

 

WICHITA LINEMAN (live in Houston)

(from the Bittersweet Me single)

 

ALL THE RIGHT FRIENDS  

(from Vanilla Sky soundtrack)

 

AT MY MOST BEAUTIFUL (live at the BBC)

(from the Japanese mini single)

 

TO THE ONE I LOVE (live from Glastonbury)

(from The Great Beyond single)

 

WALL OF DEATH  

(from Beat The Retreat: Songs By Richard Thompson)

 

NEW TEST LEPER (acoustic/Seattle Studio)

(from Bittersweet Me single)

 

EVERYBODY HURTS (live from Glastonbury)

(from The Great Beyond single)

 

IN THE SUN (Joseph Arthur cover - Michael Stipe and Chris Martin)

(from Gulf Coast Relief EP)

 

DRIVE (live)

(from Strange Currencies single)

 

SUSPICION (live from Ealing Studios)

(from the Japanese mini single)

 

FIRST WE TAKE MANHATTAN 

(from I Am Your Fan; The Songs Of Leonard Cohen)

 

PHOTOGRAPH (feat Natalie Merchant) 

(from Born To Choose)

 

SO, CENTRAL RAIN (Performed on BBC’s ‘Later’ With Jools Holland)

(from At My Most Beautiful Japanese mini single)

 

WAKE UP (live version) (Atlanta)

(from Electrolite single)

 

INJURED BIRD (Michael Stipe & Vic Chestnutt)

(from The End Of Violence soundtrack)

 

MUNICH

(from Radio 1’s Live Lounge Volume 3)

 

E-BOW THE LETTER (Seattle Studio)

(from E-Bow The Letter single)

 

PERFECT CIRCLE (Performed on BBC’s ‘Later’ With Jools Holland)

(from Suspicion Japanese mini single)

 

I AM A LANDSLIDE (Tired Pony - including Peter Buck)

(from The Place We Ran From)

WHAT THE STOCKIES DID ON THEIR US MID-WEST TOUR 2019

photo (and hospitality): Lisa Ho

 

Fly to Chicago. Sixteen years after I started these trips, Janice is beside me for the very first time. 

She watches 4 movies and crochets for 8 hours! I read most of Considering Grace, a new book by Ganiel and Yohannis about Presbyterians and The Troubles. Tough. Sad. Insightful. Correcting. Riveting.

Janice needed to see O’Hare Airport! She does without the transit train. We had to take a bus between Terminals 5 and 3. Her first smell of the mid west is her least favourite… fish. A passenger with a cool box full of it. Only in America!

Late flight to a midnight arrival in Columbus, Ohio. Into the very open arms of Lisa Ho, dear friend, collaborator and tour manager! Courtney from one of Lisa’s Ohio Wesleyan University (OWU) Irish trips happens to be coming off an LA flight. Lovely surprise reunion… and on to 407 N Washington St. Lung is away, hunting deer, and the twins are in bed. Sneak in. Sleep, 23 hours after the last time!

Lazy morning. Lunch at Lisa’s with students and staff of OWU who have been in or will be in Ireland. Stormont. Brexit. Falling birth rates in north west Ohio. 60’s music… and amazing food!

The evening is a beautiful thing. In the gorgeous ambience of Gathering in Delaware, Ohio, Julie, BJ and Philip play The Head and The Heart, Maggie Rogers, Mumford & Sons and Matthew Perryman Jones/Neilson Hubbard… and I preach-jockey. 

Psalm 46 draws itself in. A man stands and tells us that his artist mother, sitting beside him, made him a “Be still and no I am God’ piece of art and when he opened it his very young son started singing The Head and The Heart’s Let’s Be Still… from the mouths of babes!

Sunday morning I find myself, in a gift of God’s good grace, preaching in Delaware City Vineyard. I have grown to so appreciate time with their lead pastors Robb Morgan and his wife Julie. Last night’s band turn to worship and include their own composition Emmanuel that fits my Being With (best of my last two months in Fitzroy) sermons. Sermon is template not blue print as the second service takes a different angle. Sensitive leading out by Robb, informal DIY communion and beautiful appreciation. Thankful Angela Pancella and Glenna drove the 4 hour round trip from Cincinnati. 

Lunch with Shane and Kristie Tucker, former colleagues from NI. Crazy that they are now in Delaware and got to collaborate on the music evening.

After a stop at the Veterans Day Parade, we were off on an afternoon drive with Lisa and, (the returned deer-less) Lung through Ohio and Indiana… Janice loved seeing this real America, particularly the porches… to my favourite ice cream bar - Ivanhoes. First time I drove Redding, California to this ice cream heaven. Tonight it was Cherry and Almond Shake. Oh my!

Lisa handed us over to Jennifer Moeschberger and  we find a lovely room in the Honours Guild House at Taylor University. 

Up early, we discover the utter wonders of The Jumping Bean coffee stop in Taylor. We have 5 of their beautifully flavoured coffees in 24 hours! On my first visit, when it was in another smaller spot, they had a Hot Nutty Irishman coffee. Racist… But tasty. Tali (short for Natalia) gets into creative mode… maybe it shall return!

Taylor Chapel. An honour. Full auditorium. Great listening and lovely when students, as the day goes on, come up and say how they were inspired. Two Chapel feedback sessions are relaxed and engaging. Then Chick-fil-A for lunch… and after a visit to the store… afternoon dose… waking up to a few inches of beautiful mid west snow!

In the evening a room full of students, gathered by my good friend Steve Austin, come to listen as I share about how we might listen to music. A little theo-musicology would be a good word in a University setting. Pretentious? Moi! 

We looked at a different Mumford song, U2’s Love Is All We Have Left and I read Carolyn Arends review of Kanye’s Jesus Is King record. Great conversation. Thank you Jennifer, Steve, Scott and Jeff for the privilege.

Tuesday morning and we are on the road again. After a last Tali served TU Segway at The Jumping Bean, our dearest former intern Hannah Miller (nee Warstler) and her husband Brad pick us up for the snowy drive to Grand Rapids, Michigan. We divert for lunch with Hannah’s parents Kerri and Nathan and little Mr Bingley the dog! An utter treat.

Road trip conversations range across theology, mission, pastoral care, politics, vocation and personal… all engaging until we find ourselves on Wealthy Street (only in America) Grand Rapids. Soon we find Ken and Gail Heffner’s house. 

These two are the reason I have had all these trips. Ken first brought me as Key Note speaker at the first Festival of Faith and Music at Calvin in 2003! Always amazing to be in their company. Thank you Hannah and Brad and delighted you got to hear Orphan Brigade on the way home!

We catch up on quite a year for the Heffners and I am off to a meeting of Cultural Discerners at Calvin University… whoever changed the name didn’t think branding… I couldn’t bring myself to the new t-shirts! 

At Cultural Discerners, I used The Head and The Heart’s Let’s Be Still, Snow Patrol’s If This Is All The Love You Ever Get and Carolyn’s review of Kanye. Lots of heated, opinionated and intelligent discerning. This is a precious and vital discipline!

Wednesday morning and I am in Calvin Chapel with less time BUT a few rehearsals, earlier in the trip. I never put much weight on it but Gabby’s “That was the best Chapel I ever heard” encouraged a weary insecure Irish soul. 

Then we were straight off to Church of the Servant where my long time friend and fellow PCI minister Karen Campbell is minister. We use their  creative communion choreography occasionally in Fitzroy. We had another engaging time with their staff talking art in worship, peacemaking, 4 Corners, U2 etc. Loved it!

Janice finally got a few hours shopping and I got to catch up on my steps count in an American mall! Presents bought and we were at dinner with Ken and Gail at Terra. Olive and mushroom pizza. Yum!

The final gig was a full Heffner house with last year’s and next year’s J-Term Study abroad group. This is an arts cohort and they use Fitzroy as their Belfast base. So enjoyed catch up and meet. More talk of no Stormont, Brexit, peace walls, 4 Corners, Fitzroy, Milkman, Fire Starters and The Derry Girls… 

Up in the morning to say hi to Daniel Heffner and his beautiful daughter Johanna. Then airport, delay, arriving in Chicago before we left Grand Rapids (go figure!), bus transfer and Aer Lingus takes us home. Considering Grace and a laugh at those Derry Girls.

7 days to the minute from waking up on the Friday before we walk through the door of the manse. Bodies exhausted, trying to slow our souls down, with hearts full of amazing friends and people and opportunities. Everything an honour. Lavish and ridiculous grace. This 10:10 life I get to live! This time with Janice too… more special for that!