SOUL SURMISE

THE BLESSING OF FR. GERRY REYNOLDS IN MY LIFE

There are those people in your life who simply bless you by sharing your space. Fr Gerry Reynolds was one of those. He was simply a human being full of the grace of Jesus. He had that gentle fruit of the Spirit in everything he did. His love for his Saviour and desire to live for him, share him with others and offer himself to bring God’s Kingdom on earth as it was in heaven were inspirational. He was always reaching across divides, always keen to love neighbour and potential enemy. Dorothy Day once wrote, "I really only love God as much as I love the person I love the least.” If that is our judge then Fr Gerry Reynolds loved God more than any other human being I ever met.

I remember the very first time I shook his hand. It was in Fitzroy maybe a decade before I became the minister there. He approached me with that gentle grace. I was immediately drawn in. I was brought up to be suspicious of Catholicism and kept my spiritual distance. His Christlikeness simply eroded that gap that I had set up. 

When I became minister of Fitzroy Sandra Rutherford, a continuing force in the Clonard Fitzroy Fellowship, took me for lunch with Fr Gerry in Clonard Monastery. It was the birth of a wonderful friendship and experience of spiritual enriching. Ever since, every time Fr Gerry walked into a room and we hugged I was simply blessed. 

I have sat with him at the bed of the terminally ill, I have walked with him in the garden at Clonard while he recited a Psalm, I have prayed with him in the Clonard Fitzroy Fellowship, we have shared in baptism, weddings and funerals, we met President Michael D Higgins together and just two weeks ago I had the privilege of him sharing at the Opening of the new Fitzroy Halls. Every one was a privilege that I thank God that I had. I cannot even imagine not hearing those grace filled tones of his voice and that sense that here is someone who loves me unconditionally. People like that are few and far between. 

I loved his deep desire for the unity of Christ’s Church, even though as a contrary wee Presbyterian from Ballymena it was not on my priority list! I loved his passion for the Eucharist but, even though I saw the hurt in his face that he couldn’t give me the elements, Janice and I were happier with the blessing; for us, rightly or wrongly, the word was central! I learned from his reverence for Mary but at times my Presbyterian sensibilities were a little uncomfortable.

Those differences were always accepted. We chatted about them in ways that I had never discussed difference before. There was a careful listening. That listening never felt prejudiced, as if he was just listening to come back at me to tell me where I was wrong. He respected my thoughts. He was willing to learn from my opinions. In all of this he taught me how I should deal difference. 

All of that of course is what made him one of Northern Ireland’s leading Peacemakers. When Fr Alec Reid, who many would say was the architect of our current peace, left Clonard Fr Gerry took over the mantle. One of his first questions after coming to Belfast in 1983 was, “How can we stop the killing?” That gentle grace was a real resource in that question being answered. 

Very quickly in arriving in Belfast he came across my predecessor in Fitzroy, Rev Ken Newell. The two men formed friendship that led towards peace. They not only brought a Catholic community off the Falls Road into fellowship with a Presbyterian community in South Belfast, a prophetic relationship in just its very existence, but they also gave a space for the peace talks that we now reap the benefit of. Fr Gerry and Ken’s contribution to our present day well-being should never be underestimated.

Yet, as my phone rang far too early this morning with this devastating news it was not that big work across society that I immediately grieved. It was the small work, in that smile, that quiet voice, that brotherly embrace. Goodness I will miss his presence. I am thankful for the six years when I have had the privilege of those moments and I am so glad that every time it happened I made the very most of it. Brother Father thank you. We will attempt to stand on your giant shoulders. We will carry your love and grace with us as we continue the Kingdom work you were so passionate and compassionate for. To God be the glory for a faithful life. 

FOR GOD'S SAKE GIVE US SOME REALITY - Advent in a World at War

Seamlessly sown creedal conclusions

Safe and sanitised solutions

Out of context texts for every question

All lamenting Psalms put beyond use

In suits and ties and hats and Sunday smiles

FOR GOD’S SAKE GIVE US SOME REALITY.

 

Paris hit by shock waves of bombs and bullets

Brussels on lock down in fear and turmoil

Turkey blowing Russians planes into World War 3

Parliament debating air raids on Syria

From where refugees risk their lives escaping hell  

FOR GOD’S SAKE GIVE US SOME REALITY.

 

A seasonally well decorated stable

Freshly showered cattle and perfumed straw

A carpenter with extra mural skills in midwifery

Westminster Confession signing stargazing mystics

A perfect little baby “no crying he makes”

FOR GOD’S SAKE GIVE US SOME REALITY.

 

A teenage girl’s screams pierce a silent night

A baby laid in an infested animal stall

God, vulnerable and homeless

Death squads descending in the dawn’s first light

From where refugees risk their lives escaping hell

FOR GOD’S SAKE, BORN INTO THE MIDST OF REALITY.

TOMORROW IN FITZROY 29.11.15

In the morning (11am) we will be excitedly kicking off the Advent Season by making sure that Advent influences the Holiday Season and not the other way around. So we will set our sights on the manger in the midst of the Paris Terror Attacks, the threats of war across Europe and refugees fleeing war in Syria. We will find all kinds of reasons to doubt...but there is a light... don't let it go out! Wrapped in Advent songs!

In the evening (7pm) we start a new series on apologetics...

Atheism has had a golden age of literature and media exposure over the last decade. Names like Richard Dawkins and the late Christopher Hitchens are almost household, at least middle class household names. They have written the Gospel and Creeds of new atheism and have gone on evangelical crusades to preach that Gospel.

This Atheism mission has created a fresh need for Christian apologetics. David Glass is one of the sharp minds who has given himself to such a task. His book Atheism’s New Clothes has been critically acclaimed. John Lennox, Professor of Mathematics at Oxford University writes, ‘With consummate analytical skill and scrupulous fairness, David Glass demonstrates that the emperors of the New Atheism have no clothes … a must read addition to the growing literature on the science–religion debate and the intellectual defence of Christianity.’

David is a speaker who can bring the intellectual thoughts down to a level for the common person. This two part series in Fitzroy will be really helpful for Christians who wish to think through their own faith and be able to debate their faith with others. It will also be an interesting series for those who have an interest in Dawkins et al and want to hear the other side of the story.

The next TWO Sunday nights David Glass will speak in Fitzroy.

Sunday 29 Nov @ 7pm: New Atheism Part 1: Science, Faith and Evidence

Sunday 6 Dec @ 7pm: New Atheism Part 2: Jesus, the Gospels and the Virgin Birth

 

 

JACQUELINE (I Pray Today Your Daily Water)

JACQUELINE ( I Pray Today Your Daily Water)

Sometimes I close my eyes

Reach across red dusty miles

Find you in your father’s shambo

And delight in your smile

That smile that lights my heart

That lifts my soul above

All the injustices between us

And your forgiving love.

 

I pray today your daily water

And I pray that water is clean 

I pray today your daily water

My beloved daughter.

 

I often let my mind drift

To find you in the playground

The school behind you shining

And that children playing sound

There you are in your pink mac

Against the equatorial rains 

You see me ‘neath the mango tree

And Jacqueline you’re smiling again

 

 

I pray today your daily water

And I pray that water is clean 

I pray today your daily water

My beloved daughter.

 

You know I have a dream

Oh my how you have grown

Not tied to that half acre

You’re making it on your own

The nation is transforming

By the blessing you are bringing

Fired by hope inside your soul

Through the Sunday songs you’re singing.

 

I pray today your daily water

And I pray that water is clean 

I pray today your daily water

My beloved daughter.

 

Song For Thanksgiving Day - Thank You by Ben Kyle

Thank you for the way you make your light to shine

In between the shadows in the back of my mind

Thank you for the children and the love I've found

Thank you from my heart, thank you from my heart



Thank you for the way you make the music play

In between the quiet on a beautiful day

Thank you for the meaning in the things we say

Thank you from my heart, thank you from my heart



Let there be light, let there be love, let there be space

Let all the water flow together through the ether and gather in a beautiful place

Let there be earth, let there be sea, let there be sky

Let all the water flow together through the ether and gather over you and I

       - from Thank You by Ben Kyle

What a great song for an Irish boy to send my American
friends this Thanksgiving; the song of a Belfast boy now based in Minneapolis. Ben Kyle’s eponymous first solo record is a gem (please please take time to read my review by clicking here)

Thank You is one of the highlights. Gratitude in our society gets little
priority and on this one the spirituality of Kyle’s work comes through in his counting his many blessings. Kyle’s work reveals that those blessings for him start at home with wife, children, parents, siblings before they work out into everything else that God has lavished on his western life. The music in this lyric is also something I give thanks for and on the Thanksgiving, very appropriately the record that is currently causing me to give thanks is Ben Kyle’s.

ATHEISM'S NEW CLOTHES - DAVID GLASS SPEAKS IN FITZROY

Atheism has had a golden age of literature and media exposure over the last decade. Names like Richard Dawkins and the late Christopher Hitchens are almost household, at least middle class household names. They have written the Gospel and Creeds of new atheism and have gone on evangelical crusades to preach that Gospel.

This Atheism mission has created a fresh need for Christian apologetics. David Glass is one of the sharp minds who has given himself to such a task. His book Atheism’s New Clothes has been critically acclaimed. John Lennox, Professor of Mathematics at Oxford University writes, ‘With consummate analytical skill and scrupulous fairness, David Glass demonstrates that the emperors of the New Atheism have no clothes … a must read addition to the growing literature on the science–religion debate and the intellectual defence of Christianity.’

David is a speaker who can bring the intellectual thoughts down to a level for the common person. This two part series in Fitzroy will be really helpful for Christians who wish to think through their own faith and be able to debate their faith with others. It will also be an interesting series for those who have an interest in Dawkins et al and want to hear the other side of the story.

The next TWO Sunday nights David Glass will speak in Fitzroy.

Sunday 29 Nov @ 7pm: New Atheism Part 1: Science, Faith and Evidence

Sunday 6 Dec @ 7pm: New Atheism Part 2: Jesus, the Gospels and the Virgin Birth

 

ALL WELCOME!

 

STOCKI SURMISES THE BAN ON THE LORD'S PRAYER ADVERT

I do this thing at weddings. I don’t feel the guests should get out of it without a little work. I mean they get the free meal and the excuse for a new outfit! So at the end of the ceremony, before my own blessing upon the newly weds, I ask the congregation to imagine a firework rocket in a bottle. I ask them to write a prayer, tie it to the rocket, light the fuse and watch it soar in the air over the couple heads. I think I heard that Bono and his New Year Party guests do it over Killiney Bay. Anyway, I add that if you are not the praying kind then send a wish. Nobody has ever cornered me at a reception and said they were offended at wishing the couple all the best in the testing journey of a marriage. 

The Lord’s Prayer could be seen as Jesus wish for life in all its fulness for humanity. Let us ask, in the midst of the Church Of England’s Lord’s Prayer advert being banned from cinemas across secular Britain, what is so offensive in such a wish. 

Jesus asks us to pray or wish for world where everyone gets their daily bread. Is that something we find repulsive? Actually the wish is deeper as it is all about people settling for enough for the day and not greedily gathering more while others have little. That might actually be offensive to a world whose religion is the acquiring of things… but that everybody has daily bread seems inoffensive to me.

Is it offensive to wish for a world where people forgive each other? In a world of conflict in the home, on the street, across the city and the world could we not wish that people could reconcile and live at peace. 

What about wishing that people are protected from evil? In a world of recent terrorist attacks in Nigeria, Paris and Mali is it not good to wish that people don’t get bombed, shot or held hostage but are delivered from such atrocities?

Of course it is not called Jesus Wish, it is called The Lord’s Prayer but like in my wedding ceremony I am not offended if those without a belief in God just say a wish! If they think my praying is just wishful thinking, then I can believe their wish might be a prayer!

What amazes me most about the whole sad Lord’s Prayer tale is that an entire nation seems to be ignorant towards religion and ignorant about what religion is. That a cinema would not show an advert about prayer for a better world but show adverts about the purchasing product after product and not see that as having any religious or political connotation amazes me. The profit as the bottom line is the god of the age. It rules us. It shapes our living, desires and hopes of fulfilment.

Atheism, humanism and secularism are religions. Indeed the humanists are keen to have University Chaplains these days. To not believe in God is a belief. Richard Dawkins has written apologetics and evangelistic books about it. Books that are believed with fervour and passion. 

That secularism should think it is neutral is an astounding thing particularly when it censors ads in cinemas. I am the first to confess the failings of Christianity down 2000 years. We have been self righteous, we have been legalistic, we have been exclusive and narrow-minded. Forgive us. Many of us have repented and now seek to live by the spirit of the Lord’s Prayer. Secularism should refrain from doing the kind of things that they rejected Christianity for in the first place.

My final surmise… and can I ask the anti-religious to stop reading now. In the early 90s a sex shop opened in Dublin. At that time no newspaper, radio or television station would take an advert for a sex shop. So the shop owners phoned the Free Presbyterian Church in Belfast. Within days there was a picket outside and the sex shop was on the front page of newspapers and on every radio and tv station across Ireland! I am writing this blog and social media is going crazy about The Lord’s Prayer because of this ban. Job done Archbishop!

U2 IN BELFAST SSE 18.11.15 - STOCKI'S REVIEW

(photos by Lydia Coates)

In Belfast, their first gig after the Paris Terror Attacks, that caused two of their concerts to be cancelled. This has the makings of an emotional night. Not that this Tour needs any more emotion than this band and their remarkable creative, staging, visual and lighting team came up with in the plotting, way back in the early part of the year. 

I remember being bamboozled by all the Televisions on the Zoo TV Tour at Earls Court in 1992 and thinking they can’t top that. Then Popmart - top that. Then… and here we are over twenty years later and they are still making it better and better. The staging means that everyone is close to the action at some moment. There are two stages, or three stages if you count the walk way between the two, or four if you count the one raised up into the screens. They use all four, throughout. There are different perspective going on depending where you are standing or sitting and even if you are in the same seat then the bombardment of stimuli means that on the way home you can find you saw a different gig as you share your highlights with your wife. 

U2 visuals simply evolve, from those TVs, to the biggest screen in the world, to now the band actually walking into the screens. Bono walks down Cedarwood Road, we fly over a devastated Syrian city, the Berlin wall breaks up to let us see the band and then we are touring the murals of Northern Ireland. A bomb blasts. This is not just a rock n roll concert. It is cinema. It is theatre. 

On that multimedia canvas the storyline is jam packed with Innocence and Experience. The first half takes us right into the early days of the band and their teen forming lives. The centre piece of Songs Of Innocence, Iris, Raised By Wolves, Cedarwood Road and Song For Someone are the emotional, spiritual and political core. The streets that shaped the band is the basic premise though of course only Bono lived there. Yet, it was here he lost his mother, fell in love with Alison Stewart, joined a band, found God and was playing in the street when his friend came back from experiencing the Dublin bombs in May 1974. We experience it all tonight

There are very few bands who could dare to put that kind of power into the first half of a show and keep any kind of attention beyond it. U2 have the songs that can maintain the tension and always have more to say. A neat acoustic slot with Bono playing piano on Sweetest Thing and then he and Edge giving that stripped down version of Every Breaking Wave, surely their most perfect song before a haunting October, post Paris, “kingdoms rise and kingdoms fall but you go on…” 

The strength of a catalogue comes through, She Moves In Mysterious Ways, Where The Streets Have No Name, Beautiful Day, With or Without You, Bullet the Blue Sky, One… And on top of those sounds the Refugee crisis, the near to ending babies receiving HIV from their mothers and Belfast’s peacemakers are all given space and weight. The intro to Streets particularly grabbed me... 

 

What do you want

A Europe With Its heart open but its borders closed to mercy

What do you want?

I’ll tell you what I want

A place called home

Somewhere safe

A place of hope

Where we refuse to hate because we know love will do a better job”

 

One of Bono’s greatest personal gifts is to encourage. Maybe the Lypton Villagers should have called him Barnabus instead of Bono Vox, though Barney might not have been so cool! He is always making the crowd believe in themselves, that they can change something. The fact they are pumping Patti Smith’s People Have The Power as they walk on stage lays out the plan of attack.

Tonight that is all about Belfast and peacemaking. 

 

“You are heroes to us” 

 

“We came to bow down to you

Because we look up to you

Look what you have done”

 

Before With Or Without You…

 

“A song about letting go of the past

And giving the future a big kiss

whatever you have weighing you

Whatever monkey on your back talking to you

Let it go”

 

Before Pride… 

 

“Sing for the peacemakers wherever they are in the world tonight. Sing for the peacemakers in this city. I guess that means all of you… sing for the ones who had the courage to compromise… then who value people over ideas…”

 

The bomb carnage of Raised By Wolves and the “how long must we sing this song” of Sunday Bloody Sunday has the arena awash with the divided slogans of Northern Ireland. The worst atrocities are listed from Enniskillen to Dublin, from Miami Showband to Kingsmills, from Loughinisland to Omagh. A call to remember the victims with ALL very much to the fore. 

The confetti/debris that falls after Until The End Of The World still included Dante’s Inferno, Alice In Wonderland and Eugene Peterson’s paraphrase of The Psalms but added tonight was Justice For The Victims. It was particularly prophetic a day or two after the latest Fresh Start Agreement had left out legacy issues and did nothing for the victims of the past.

The finale was One and this is where it really made the mark. As the band break in Bono lets the crowd sing but for longer than normal. Suddenly we are into a communal healing, both sides of our conflict singing back and forth to each other, 

 

“We're one, but we're not the same

We get to 

Carry each other

Carry each other

One…”

 

Sunday Bloody Sunday’s long held opinion that “we can be as one, tonight” is made singalong. If you watch the Youtube footage you will see that Bono is emotionally moved by the moment.

Let me end with the moment that most caught my soul. During Song For Someone I heard a lyric tweak. This is just a few days after Paris. Another evil act in the name of religion. It would be easy to give up on any idea of God and chant the “I don’t believe anymore” of Raised By Wolves but Bono throws out another morsel to hold onto…

 

"I know there's so many reasons to doubt

But there is a light 

Don't let it go out”

 

I took that back out into a Belfast night, my soul buzzing with imaginings, hope and a whole lot of belief.

FITZROY'S EVENT - U2'S BELFAST CONCERTS; PERFORMED AND UNPACKED - THE SONGS AND PERFORMERS

Sunday November 22nd 2015 Fitzroy Church in Belfast held and event U2’s BELFAST CONCERTS; PERFORMED AND UNPACKED. With acoustic arrangements of songs from the Belfast setlists, visuals and reflections by U2 experts Steve Stockman (author of Walk On; The Spiritual Journey of U2) and Angela Pancella (contributor to atu2.com). 

The event went world wide on Periscope and many asked for a set list and the name of the artists. Here you go… Thank you ro taking the time.

 

U2’s most perfect song still hangs a little ambiguous with gorgeous haunting female vocal…

 

“And every shipwrecked soul knows what it is

To live without intimacy”

 

EVERY BREAKING WAVE - SHANNON CLEMENTS (vocals) & PETER GREER (piano)

 

U2 never imagined an acoustic near Sun Kil Moon version like this one…

 

“We're still building and burning down love

Burning down love.

And when I go there

I go there with you

(It's all I can do)”

 

WHERE THE STREETS HAVE NO NAME - CHRIS FRY

 

U2 got Belfast singing it across the divisions of Belfast… a powerful moment explained by Mark McCleary. Andy (our guest singer tonight) gives it the Belfast accent in a soulful acoustic version.

 

“We're one, but we're not the same

We get to 

Carry each other

Carry each other

One…"

 

ONE - ANDY PATTERSON

 

A beautifully crafted visual review of the Belfast shows to Until The End Of The World

 

VISUAL COLLAGE - LYDIA COATES (with JEREMY SKILLEN)

 

Steve interviews Angela to compere and contrast the American shows and the Belfast versions

 

INTERVIEW WITH ANGELA PANCELLA 

 

The raw emotional song of loss given a youthful version…

 

“Hold me close, the darkness just lets us see 

Who we are

I’ve got your light inside of me”

 

IRIS (HOLD ME CLOSE) - JONNY FITCH

 

A near acoustic jazz blues with beautiful heartbreak sax…

 

“The real battle just begun

To claim the victory Jesus won”

 

SUNDAY BLOODY SUNDAY - DAVE THOMPSON (vocals) & MICHAEL BLYTHMAN (Saxophone)

 

a song about Andy Rowen, the friend caught up in the Dublin bombings of 1974 must have shaped the teenagers of Cedarwood Road. The big voice that is Christopher Wilson gives this power.

 

“stronger than fear”

 

RAISED BY WOLVES - CHRISTOPHER WILSON

 

The street where Songs Of Innocence was shaped forty years before it became songs. The Rowen family are all over it. Bono finds resolution and redemption…

 

“A heart that is broken, is a heart that is open”

 

CEDARWOOD ROAD - CHRISTOPHER WILSON

 

the busking punk acoustic strum of Jonny Fitch captures beautifully the song that blends the finding of faith and lifetime vocation at a Ramones gig. 

 

“I woke up at the moment when the miracle occurred

I get so many things I don't deserve

 

…

 

I was young, not dumb

Just wishing to be blinded

By you, brand new

And we were pilgrims on our way”

 

THE MIRACLE (OF JOEY RAMONE) - JONNY FITCH

 

Finally, Christopher Wilson leads us out with a spine tingling version of Song For Someone. After Paris when the world went dark and evil again Bono tweaks the lines to encourage us to hold on…

 

“I know there's so many reasons to doubt

But there is a light 

Don't let it go out"

 

SONG FOR SOMEONE - CHRISTOPHER WILSON

 

If you enjoyed Dave Thompson (Newsprint Sky) and Christopher Wilson (The Fragile EP) you can pick them up on iTunes. 

TOMORROW IN FITZROY 22.11.15

Tomorrow morning (11am) in Fitzroy we will be asking about why send teams overseas. Some think it is better to just send the money. At one stage I thought my dream job would be resourcing teams to send teams overseas because I believed in the impact thats much teams make to individuals, sending Churches and communities. Tomorrow I will explain why and try to encourage the next team from Fitzroy to Onialeku in north west Uganda. Pumped with guitar strut worship the title comes from Bluetree's God Of The City "And greater things are still to be done in this city..."

In the evening (7pm) it is U2 NIGHT. 

The Belfast shows this week were spectacular in staging, visuals and raw emotion. Northern Ireland is all over it. Our political murals, the debris that falls during End Of The World was a pointed comment to our brand new agreement. Many of the atrocities of the Troubles were named in remembrance... What excited me most was that the heart of this show is a song cycle that we in Fitzroy had spotted a year ago and we will return to perform those core songs and reflect this Sunday night. 

Fitzroy players and singers will perform the songs and Steve Stockman will unpack what U2 with their songs. Fitzroy is renowned, across the world, for its evening on Leonard Cohen, Bruce Springteen, Bob Dylan, Christy Moore etc. They recently built their entire morning service around the hymns and songs of Van Morrison, the day before his Cyprus Avenue concerts. They have done U2 before but this evening will be a very specific look at these Belfast shows. New voices and new thoughts will be added to the mix. We are thrilled to have Angela Pancella contributor to @u2.com with us to compare and contrast the North American and Belfast shows!

All welcome... and it is on Periscope https://www.periscope.tv/fitzroypc