Virtual Methodist

All over the world on this day or the Sunday nearest to it you would normally, pandemic permitting, hear sung the hymn known as “St. Patrick’s breastplate” versified by Irish hymnwriter Cecil Francis Alexander in the 19th century. But her version is only one of many going back to fragments from the 9th century. The word “breastplate” is a translation of the Latin “lorica” which was the word for the body armour worn by legionaries, which didn’t just cover the front of the body like a breastplate , but encompassed it. Legend tells us that St. Patrick allegedly, composed this hymn to protect him and his monks against deadly enemies that lay in wait for them. As such it is an all-encompassing corslet of faith for the protection of body and soul against the devil, earthly enemies and temptations. It is also known as the Deer’s Cry’ from its title "Faeth Fiada" in the 11th-century Liber Hymnorum that first records the fuller version of the text. The legend here is that when Patrick...

Here's this morning's Thought for the Day on Good Morning Ulster , prompted by last week's superb BBC NI documentary about Alec Reid's role in the dramatic events of 25 years ago and how this prompted his ongoing efforts at peacemaking. As noted in the comment below the image to the left apparently originated from the camera of Sam Knox. Check out his other work on   www.shotbysam.com . Apologies to the artist for the previously unauthorised use... Although yesterday was St. Patrick’s Day, it was a mixed weekend for Irish rugby fans – The women won their first ever grand slam, but their male counterparts slumped to ignominious defeat. Yet despite the Celtic gloom that enveloped me I reminded myself that it’s only a game… and, that no-one had died. Because all through Saturday my mind kept going back 25 years. I was studying in Edinburgh then, having deliberately left behind a Northern Ireland riven by hatred and violence. That year, like this, Ireland had...

No Saturday Supplement this morning, largely because there wasn't a whole lot that caught my eye on t'internet this week... But also because this is St. Patrick's Day... and I couldn't let it go without dipping my toe in the emerald-tinted water... I could have gone down the Celtic spirituality route... but one item that I did come across yesterday on the net thanks to my colleague Robin, was this wonderful rendition of "Danny Boy..." That's certainly my favourite version of the song... as it treats it with the lack of respect it deserves... It's a dreadful piece of sentimental oirishness origninally written by an English lawyer... The tune at least is authentically Irish, supposedly being one of many folk tunes collected by Jane Ross from Limavady in County Londonderry in the mid 19th century, although she never recorded the title leading to its ascription as A Londonderry or Derry Air - only in Northern Ireland could the name ...

Not every preacher follows the church year slavishly in their sermons… but those who do and are preparing for this coming Sunday may well be considering picking an easier subject, or as Colin Morris used to suggest, feel themselves developing psychosomatic sore throats… It’s known as Trinity Sunday and has stretched more than a few preachers’ abilities to reflect theological truth to breaking point… As someone once said, “Trying to explain the Trinity is like trying to describe the sound of three hands clapping." Three persons in one? It’s the single doctrine that unifies Jews and Muslims in opposition to the Christian understanding of God… and even some strands of Christianity don’t buy it fully… Yet no matter what some revisionist theologians and populist writers of recent years may say, the Trinity was not dreamed up by a church council a few centuries after Christ, it is woven in and out of the whole of the New Testament, including the words of Jesus in the Gospels, and it doe...

It was a strange Holy Week this year… I suppose it had crept up on me unawares to a certain extent because I had been off ill in the run up to it... But the fact that it was as early as it can possibly be (and will be for the next 134 years or something like that according to someone I was talking to) also put a slightly different slant on it, as all the Easter allusions to new life and spring were a little out of sync. It began as ever with Palm Sunday and reflections about that cheering crowd waving palm leaves on the road into Jerusalem, but then the next day, there were yet more cheering crowds... this time with Shamrocks rather than palm leaves, because it was St. Patrick's Day. This sent the liturgically literate into a bit of a tailspin... Should it be a feast or a fast? But the rest of the world celebrated regardless... Actually, to paraphrase the words of Caiaphas about Jesus on Palm Sunday, and apply them to our own St. Pat, it seemed as if the whole world has gone over t...