Virtual Methodist

Getting near to the end of this meme, and out of thousands of songs of all styles that I like I am supposed to pick 2!?!?!  Well, here goes - I've mentioned both of these in a previous meme, and neither of them is a hymn or Christian song, but (observing my Thanksgiving discipline) I am particularly thankful to have encountered them at different times... They are both by Scottish female singers (I clearly have a thing for Scottish females)... 1) The Right Place, by Eddi Reader : which has come to me at a number of times as a song of uncomfortable assurance.. (this is a live audio version) 2) Sorry, by Karine Polwart : which wrestles with the whole difficult area of forgiveness, which is (due to the job and the province I work in), a constant theme... Cheers

Doh!  Just realised that I did actually buy a couple of CDs during the year... ie 2 (big spender me!): namely Karine Polwart's " Traces " which I wittered on about at length earlier in the year , and her old album " Scribbled in Chalk ". Also I was given Jools Holland's "Golden Age of Song" for Christmas, which has some cracking tracks on it. But the VM award for best CD of 2012 really does have to go to "Traces". It is also up for a real award on the Radio 2 Folk Awards , although it will probably have been steamrollered in the public vote by the behemoth that is the faux-folk "Bellowhead". Karine is also up for an individual award, and "The King of Birds" has been nominated as best song. So she might get a real prize rather than a virtual VM one... If you want to find out how brilliant she is check out her session on Mark Radcliffe's new folk show on Radio 2 next Wednesday at 7pm OK that is enough o...

OK... You've probably worked out by now that I love Karine Polwart's new album "Traces" . I'm with others who believe that she is one of Britain's finest songwriters , and in this album she has produced some of her very best work... It has taken a number of years gestation so I'm glad the wait was worth it. She weaves personal memories with political protest through powerful poetic lyrics delivered in her unashamedly Stirlingshire accent. The album begins with evocations of childhood games on the coastal dunes of Aberdeenshire, in "Cover Your Eyes", a protest against Donald Trump's redevelopment of the Aberdeenshire dunes of the Menie Estate to produce his International Golf Links . This has current local echoes in the controversy around the proposed Runkerry Golf Course on the Causeway coast, as does the poignant last song, "Half a Mile" that I referred to yesterday . It reflects on the abduction and murder in 1982 of Susan Maxwe...

The current news story concerning the abduction of April Jones from Machynlleth , in Wales is the nightmare of every right-thinking parent, and indeed upsetting to any right-thinking human being whether or not they have children. But the tsunami of emotions around this, and similar stories in the past, unsettles me almost as much as the event itself. In response to the murder of 8 year old Sarah Payne back in July 2000 her mother pressed for the introduction of "Sarah's Law" (a variation on the controversial "Megan's Laws" in the USA) backed by a name and shame campaign by that late unlamented arbiter of social rectitude "The News of the World", which seems to have contributed to a lynchmob mindset, resulting in innocent people being injured and a paediatrician's home being attacked . That same lynchmob mentality seems to be swinging into gear again. I've had friends on facebook calling for the man suspected of abducting and perhaps m...

My post in honour of national poetry day this year is actually a song from the album I mentioned yesterday, "Traces" by Karine Polwart . It is entitled "The King of Birds" and draws together allusions to the Celtic legend, the Battle of the Birds, the Occupy Movement camp at St. Paul's Cathedral in London, its architect Sir Christopher Wren, the Great fire of London that necessitated his great creation, the blitz, and the current economic crisis... all that encapsulated in a beautiful piece of poetry, set to a haunting melody... go buy... At Ludgate Hill On the cracked and blackened cobbles of the town the ashes fall to rest as the tiny King of Birds he flutters down to build a citadel to light glory in the dark and from hell to breathe hope in every heart At Ludgate Hill Through the siren screams the heavens burn again the city holds its breath as the tiny little king in slumber bed arises from the dust to light glory in the da...

I'm a fixer. So this song has resonated with me since I first heard it... But I post it as a slight counterbalance to the piece of doggerel I have written below. It is a bit ironic in the light of my previous post where I referred to hope in the here and now rather than hope deferred, but thinking about the actual shape of that hope in the light of experiences in the last couple of weeks and having Karine Polwart's new album "Traces" on in the background (beautiful but poignant - my review will follow in due course but here's one to go on with ) have produced this -  When the fixer cannot fix it When the coper cannot cope When the purveyor of hope Has nothing left for himself When every day brings more heartache When each night brings more despair When the world seems so unfair And darkness is triumphant When the storm sends you spiralling When the earth quakes beneath your feet When enemies plot your defeat And others sigh at ...

Oops... Missed International Women's Day yesterday... (Or Innernashnul Hen's Day as Prof. Billy McWilliams put it yesterday in his inimitable Ulster-Scots), so to make up for that I thought I would post a wee video by one of my favourite female artists, Karine Polwart... looking forward to a world where young women and men are not limited in their aspirations by man (or woman) made boundaries, in any sphere of life... particularly the church... Cheers

Just incase I didn't give you enough to read yesterday, here's a round-up of some of the interesting links I came across during the week that were too substantial to simply pass on via facebook... Carrying on a them from last week, there have been a number of lent-related posts, and many turning their backs on the "self-denial" discipline for various reasons. One of the more interesting reflections, was this piece by Mark Galli on "Giving up self-discipline for Lent."  But if you are still looking for resources to help you through this season you could do worse than check out Rachel Held Evans' "40 Ideas for Lent" . Meanwhile, a lot has been made recently of another attempt by Richard Dawkins and his atheist acolytes to demonstrate that the UK is not a Christian country, on the basis of a half-baked survey asking people basic Christian facts like "What is the first book of the New Testament?" Giles Fraser memorably derailed that...

I've written repeatedly on this blog and elsewhere about the nature and theology of forgiveness, including my belief that we are wrong to make forgiveness conditional on the repentance of the one to be forgiven. If that person is to experience the full benefits of forgiveness and for there to be any real possibility of reconciliation then they must repent, but to make repentance a condition of the offer of forgiveness is something alien to the classic Christian doctrine. But one thing I have not said in previous outings on this subject is that not only do we often have a deficient doctrine of forgiveness, we also have a deficient understanding of what repentance is. It is not, as the old joke puts it, asking forgiveness on a Sunday for what we have done on a Saturday and intend to do again on Monday. It must involve a real change of direction, a U-turn in our lives, which I am led to believe the Greek word "metanoia" infers. It is certainly not simply saying "Sorry.....