We all need prayers, benedictions and blessings in these challenging times. I have been writing special benedictions for our Fitzroy on-line worship services that I send out on social media every week. We have caught on as to how important the right song is as people watch our services.
We are also finding as the national surveys statistics tally that more people than usual are watching church services and googling "prayer". Check out Russell Brand's vlog on "Googling Prayer" or singer Tracey Thorn's beautiful piece of spiritual vulnerability in the New Statesman.
It seems the perfect time, therefore, for an Irish Blessing. There have been Irish blessings written, prayed and sung for centuries But what if we took one, Be Thou My Vision, and got the entire island involved in singing it. What if it was performed by local Churches as thank yous to the residential homes around us and then what if an island wide one was sent as a viral blessing on social media to the entire island and beyond.
Well, work is underway for such a musical blessing, going viral on Pentecost Sunday. A link to the details are below. My good friend Fr Martin Magill has been up to his eyes as part of the planning group. Here is his Belfast Telegraph piece about the project that was published yesterday in the Belfast Telegraph...
Over the past few weeks of the pandemic restrictions we have seen throughout the world an outburst of creativity or certainly more expressions of such creativity in social media. I’ve been particularly interested in the number of choirs who have been able to produce some amazing songs and hymns in virtual performances.
In some of the more recent developments choirs from various churches at national and local level have shared very impressive and indeed moving examples of a sung prayer blessing such as the recent highly acclaimed UK Churches blessing.
Following on from the incredible response to the UK Blessing, (which at the time of writing has had almost two and half million views on Youtube), a Dublin based Church of Ireland ordinand, Philip McKinley posted on Facebook about the possibility of doing something for Ireland, north and south.
He had a huge response to this post indicating the interest in doing so. A mutual friend then connected Philip and me and over the last week or so we have been meeting virtually each day to co ordinate a sung blessing for this land. We now have a dedicated website (https://theirishblessing.com/) as well as a social media presence.
During the week we put out a call to singers and musicians in churches across Ireland to join together to praise God by providing a “virtual” tribute/blessing for frontline workers in recognition of their dedicated service. The invitation is extended to all churches on the island of Ireland to support this unique opportunity. At a local level participants are asked to choose a facility which provides an essential service and to dedicate their rendition of a special arrangement of the hymn “Be Thou my Vision”.
Today on our website, the backing track with the hymn arrangement as well guidelines on recording and uploading will be available for singers and musicians.
The team delivering the project recognise it is a tight turn around (the deadline is Friday 22 May at 12 noon) for those who want to be part of the island-wide video. The time frame needs to be very tight in order to launch it on Pentecost Sunday, 31 May.
As I reflect on the experience of online worship and prayer, I have been surprised by how many people have found it to be helpful and supportive. As I was writing this article, I was listening to the UK Churches blessing. In terms of my parish online ministry, in a recent survey (online of course) parishioners commented especially on the importance of Compline (Night Prayer) at 9pm to help bring some form of peaceful and reassuring closure to another day during these times.
With the increase in the numbers tuning into online worship on a Sunday and with the opportunity to watch when it suits, it is my hope that the virtual choir and musicians taking part will be a blessing not only for those who are front line workers but also for the rest of us as we listen or sing along to the words of “Be Thou my Vision”.
The references in the prayer to armour and sword are thought to be inspired by some of the imagery in St Paul’s Letter to the Ephesians 6:16-17 such as ‘shield of faith’, ‘helmet of salvation’ and ‘the sword of the Spirit’:
Be Thou my breastplate, my sword for the fight
Be Thou my armour and be Thou my might
Thou my soul shelter, and Thy my high tower
Raise Thou me heavenwards, oh power of my power
Praying for protection and blessing is particularly apt during these times.