SOUL SURMISE

FITZROY SUNDAY NIGHT PROGRAMME 2019-20 - A Heads Up!

For the first time in ten years Fitzroy has our Sunday evening programme sorted for the entire year. Though we say it ourselves, it is quite the programme.  We are hoping eventually to have it in printed programme form but let me give you a quick overview.

Our How To Read The Bible Series was a popular hit last year. In Northern Ireland we have been very good at reading the Bible but very bad at how we have been reading it. We ignore context and take out lonely verses to pontificate how “Biblical” we are. This series has taken us back into he original context of each book, given us an overview of its meaning and where it fits in to the overall salvation story of the Scriptures.

We intend to do the entire Bible in 3 years and so need to cram the rest of the Old Testament in this year. We are delighted to have some Fitzroy folk who have studied different books in depth but we add to their insight some guest speakers - Dr. Mark Braverman, Tony Davidson, Mark Gray and Fr Ciarán O Callaghan - and our delighted to Dr Cindy Bennet and Dr James McKeown return.

From this Biblical foundation Fitzroy has a reputation for thoughtful faith. We believe Abraham Kuyper’s theology that there is not one inch of the entire Universe that Jesus doesn’t claim to be Lord over. 

So, we are excited to welcome Drs David Livingstone and Stephen Williams for a short series called Global Challenges. They will look at Scientism, Artificial Intelligence, Bioethics and the Environment.

Chris Fry will also do two evenings on psychotherapy and faith.

Fitzroy is also renowned for its engagement with the arts. We are also planning The Gospel According To… Joni Mitchell with live performances and Andrew Cunning guesting in thoughts. Then we are spending another evening looking at The Gospel According To… Female Pop Stars with our younger vocal talent performing the songs of Katy Perry, Jesse J, Lady Gaga, Lauren Daigle and more… 

There will also be Worship nights, Passion, led by our younger members. Vibrant worship and relevant teaching.

There is more but that is enough to give a flavour. With this space for more information about dates etc…

TOMORROW IN FITZROY - 30.6.19

Tomorrow morning in Fitzroy (11am) we will be asking who those people are that we think are so wrong that God should zap them with some righteous anger!!! Go on… think! I usually find that it doesn’t take long. James and John wanted a bit of thunderous judgement going through Samaria… BUT Jesus rebuked them. So he still rebukes my inverted bigotries!

We will be asking how to hold faith confidently but how to hold it gently.

We will be seeing how holiness is supposed to feed the world and NOT our own self righteousness.

We will be trying to make sure the plank in our eye doesn't blind us to some good self critique.

Guitar edged worship too…

We have no more evening events until September.

 

JONNY FITCH - AFRICA (WAVING AT YOU) - Single Launched

This morning in Fitzroy we launched a single. Africa (Waving At You) by Jonny Fitch. It's a co write between myself and the very talented Jonny and is now available on Bandcamp!

I wrote the lyric on the 12 hour bus journey from Arua to Kampala on our first trip to Uganda in 2015. The waving was my way in, as on that journey every mile or two Ugandan children were waving at us, waving at them.

More serious is my prayer. It is basically that hope that, as Uganda and Africa develops, it doesn't get the bad habits of our wealth. Unaccountable wealth is over rated. Africans have riches in many more important things that I hope don't get squeezed out with decadence and greed.

The last lines might not be the best I have ever written but, when I shared them with my brothers and sisters in Onialeku Primary School at its opening in August 2015, they became my favourite!

Jonny has turned it into the catchiest of songs and added the "My name is not Muzungu" line. He has added that African sound of exuberance and the children you hear are the children of Onialeku Primary School in Arua, West Nile, Uganda. 

All proceeds from the sale of the song go towards a new building for the Nursery School in Onialeku. Feel free to donate more than the pound you are asked for!

 

buy the Africa (Waving At You) at jonnyfitch.bandcamp.com

 

Africa, I am waving at you

And you always wave back and smile

Roads teeming with fascination

Red dust mile after red dust mile.

 

Africa, I am staring at you

All the wildlife through the trees

Elephants under the mangos

The smell of your welcoming breeze.

 

Africa, I am singing with you

Your joyful songs of being free

Ubuntu, what a great refrain

Without you, I can’t be me.

 

Africa, I am praying for you

Water and education and health

That you don’t get all our poverty

With justice, peace and wealth. 

 

My name is not muzungu

We may have a different skin

But all of our blood is red

The same grace colour

That Jesus bled.

 

TOMORROW IN FITZROY - 23.6.19

Tomorrow morning (11am) in Fitzroy is a Family Service and will be an amazing Church experience.... Worship will be led by the extraordinary Sounds Good Orchestra ( a Fitzroy collaboration all ages)... we will also welcome Trinity Presbyterian, Atlanta, Georgia who will lead us in a song... and Jonny Fitch will launch his brand new single (co-written by yours truly) that features the Children of Onialeku Primary School... after all of that I will be haring in 5 minutes what we will be teaching the children of Onialku in Uganda in 5 days in two weeks time. Then all our summer missioners will be commissioned by Paul Bowman.

There will be a Third World lunch afterwards for Tear Fund. Join us for a community gathering that will also change the world!

EPIC WEEKEND - TOMORROW IN FITZROY 16.6.19

This weekend is different in Fitzroy. On Friday night we had a hilarious evening of wit and laughter that could have taken the Never Mind The Buzzcocks TV title and changed it to  Never Mind The Westminster Confession. It was literally side splitting at times. Well done Dave and Lorraine Thompson for being the curators and all who took their turn.

Today (Saturday) we are all off to Castlewellan Castle for a bit of a walk and some aul craic! It'll be 90.

Tomorrow morning at the much earlier time of 9,3o we will have our EPIC Service. Starting with coffee we will break into some worship and then out into break out groups. There will be no sermon but 8 little discussion groups on a range of relevant subjects. There will also be Messy Church. At 12 we will all gather back for communion we learned from Church Of The Servant in Grand Rapids, Michigan and we will be coming for the bread and wine to the sound of Damien Rice's Trusty and True sung by a choir. It will be EPIC. All Welcome!

At 7pm we will gather for some youth fuelled worship for all the family.

MARY GAUTHIER and MARTYN JOSEPH in FITZROY

Fitzroy are delighted in November to host two Real Music Club gigs in one week!

MARY GAUTHIER

NOVEMBER 2nd @ 8pm

FITZROY CHURCH, 77 University Street, BT7 1HL

Tickets: https://www.ticketsource.co.uk/whats-on/belfast?q=Mary%20Gauthier

MARTYN JOSEPH

NOVEMBER 7th @ 8pm

FITZROY CHURCH, 77 University Street, BT7 1HL

Tickets: https://www.ticketsource.co.uk/whats-on/belfast?q=Martyn%20Joseph#

 

before that...

ROMANTICA

JUNE 17th @ 7.30

FITZROY CHURCH, 77 University Street, BT7 1HL

No ticket needed... donation at the door

 

 

 

 

 

TOMORROW IN FITZROY - 9.6.19

Tomorrow morning (11am) we will be celebrating Pentecost, the gift of the Spirit, the birth of the Church. We will look at how against the odds frightened men cowering in a room burst out the door and started a mission that would change the history of the world and be the cause of us actually being in a Church in south Belfast to hear all about it! What was Pentecost and what does the Spirit do... and the Church do? What language do we need to have to speak to our place in our time? 

In the evening (7am) Stephen McIlwaine will bring the first session of our Bible Literacy Course to a close by taking us into the life and times of 1 & 2 Kings. This has been a stimulating and informative series and will continue from September. Come and get this last opportunity before the summer break!

ROMANTICA CONCERT IN FITZROY - JUNE 17, 2019... all the info

 

 

ROMANTICA

in Concert

FITZROY  (77 University Street, Belfast BT9 6LQ)

MONDAY, JUNE 17th 2019 @ 7.30pm 

Donations at the door

 

If you are unaware of Ben Kyle and his brilliant band Romantica then here are some clips from other blogs of mine:

 

"National Side is intoxicatingly infectious, pure unadulterated catchiness with great lyrics, laced with humour and a family’s past and future.”

read my review of Romantica's America album here

 

As soon as I press play on Shadowlands, and Let The Light Go Through You begins, I sink into something like a hot soul bath and my entire being relaxes into refreshment. Ben Kyle’s voice has a sacred connection. With the rest of his Romantica mates on board, there are these sweet harmonies and the gentlest instrumentation. The pedal steel - oh my! It is like heading off into a Minnesota forest and retreat with God.

read my review of Romantica's Shadowlands album here

 

Ben Kyle? Well this young man is something else. He is effortless on every level. The guitar playing, the voice, the melodies, the lyrics. With all this easing out of every pore of his body Kyle adds heart and soul. Nothing he sang tonight was throwaway or crowd pulling. There was a depth to all he does that touches emotionally and spiritually.

read my review of Ben Kyle's solo gig in Fitzroy in 2015

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

ROMANTICA

in Concert

FITZROY  (77 University Street, Belfast BT9 6LQ)

MONDAY, JUNE 17th 2019 @ 7.30pm 

Donations at the door

 

If you are unaware of Ben Kyle and his brilliant band Romantica then here are some clips from other blogs of mine:

 

"National Side is intoxicatingly infectious, pure unadulterated catchiness with great lyrics, laced with humour and a family’s past and future.”

read my review of Romantica's America album here

 

As soon as I press play on Shadowlands, and Let The Light Go Through You begins, I sink into something like a hot soul bath and my entire being relaxes into refreshment. Ben Kyle’s voice has a sacred connection. With the rest of his Romantica mates on board, there are these sweet harmonies and the gentlest instrumentation. The pedal steel - oh my! It is like heading off into a Minnesota forest and retreat with God.

read my review of Romantica's Shadowlands album here

 

Ben Kyle? Well this young man is something else. He is effortless on every level. The guitar playing, the voice, the melodies, the lyrics. With all this easing out of every pore of his body Kyle adds heart and soul. Nothing he sang tonight was throwaway or crowd pulling. There was a depth to all he does that touches emotionally and spiritually.

read my review of Ben Kyle's solo gig in Fitzroy in 2015

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

ROMANTICA

in Concert

FITZROY  (77 University Street, Belfast BT9 6LQ)

MONDAY, JUNE 17th 2019 @ 7.30pm 

Donations at the door

 

If you are unaware of Ben Kyle and his brilliant band Romantica then here are some clips from other blogs of mine:

 

"National Side is intoxicatingly infectious, pure unadulterated catchiness with great lyrics, laced with humour and a family’s past and future.”

read my review of Romantica's America album here

 

As soon as I press play on Shadowlands, and Let The Light Go Through You begins, I sink into something like a hot soul bath and my entire being relaxes into refreshment. Ben Kyle’s voice has a sacred connection. With the rest of his Romantica mates on board, there are these sweet harmonies and the gentlest instrumentation. The pedal steel - oh my! It is like heading off into a Minnesota forest and retreat with God.

read my review of Romantica's Shadowlands album here

 

Ben Kyle? Well this young man is something else. He is effortless on every level. The guitar playing, the voice, the melodies, the lyrics. With all this easing out of every pore of his body Kyle adds heart and soul. Nothing he sang tonight was throwaway or crowd pulling. There was a depth to all he does that touches emotionally and spiritually.

read my review of Ben Kyle's solo gig in Fitzroy in 2015

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

GLADYS GANIEL IN CONVERSATION ABOUT FR GERRY REYNOLDS

UNITY PILGRIM: THE LIFE OF GERRY REYNOLDS CSsR

 GLADYS GANIEL (Gerry's biographer) IN CONVERSATION

SUNDAY, JUNE 2nd 2019 @ 7pm

FITZROY (77 University Street BT7 1HL)

Gladys Ganiel's book on the late Fr Gerry Reynolds is selling fast. As would be expected from a respected academic, Unity Pilgrim is a thoroughly searched biography. 

Sadly Gladys only got a few interviews with Gerry himself before he passed away. However with access to Fr Gerry's papers and the help of family and colleagues closest to him she has shaped a book that leads you through every phase of his life, making places vivid and people come to life. 

In it all, Gladys eeks out all of Fr Gerry's formative influences, right down to kairos moments of awaking and change.

The journey leads us to Belfast, to the heart of the Troubles and to Fr Gerry doing crazy or courageous things in the name of peace and Church unity.

It is a gripping read, full of wisdom and insight on Church relations and peacemaking.

On Sunday night I will be asking Gladys about Fr Gerry's spirituality, who and what drove him in the direction his ministry took and his relationship with Rev Dr Ian Paisley, Rev Dr Ken Newell, Rev Sam Burch and more.

TOMORROW IN FITZROY - 26.5.19

Tomorrow morning (11am) in Fitzroy we will be continuing with the Lectionary in Jesus farewell discourses with his disciples in John. Jesus speaks a lot abut the Holy Spirit, the Paraclete. Who is that and what does the Paraclete do? How much is the continued wrk down to the Spirit and how much is it down to the disciples. I will suggest that a good bit of the answer is that pop tune of exegesis Stand By Me that will be performed in the middle of a vibrant array of worship. 

In the evening (7am) we are delighted to welcome the Corrymeela Community for an event that will see Pádraig Ó Tuama interview Episcopalian priest, theologian and author Barbara Brown Taylor. In 2014 TIME magazine named her as one of its 100 most influential people in the world. Her best–selling guides to the spiritual life include An Altar on the World and Learning to Walk in the Dark. Her new book is Holy Envy: Finding God in the Faith of Others (Canterbury Press 2019).