De La Mennais Brothers: Making Jesus Christ better known and loved by young people

For my fellow school Chaplains, teachers, all those involved in education in Britain and N. Ireland. Today is a day unlike any other we have experienced or will (hopefully) ever experience again. Our students, especially those in Yr. 6, Yr. 11 and Yr. 13, will be feeling a complex mixture of emotions and many will be upset at not having the chance to properly celebrate the end of this particular educational cycle. They are going to need our ongoing support and prayers over these coming weeks and months through whatever communication/distance learning system your school has in place (Google Drive/Classroom, for example).  We need to also support and lift up each other. Keep in regular contact, share the good stuff, but also find those with whom you can share the bad stuff, because we are all going to need to offload at some point. Be there for others as you would want them to be there for you. I have a gut feeling that in the midst of all that is happening right now, the seeds of s...

Last night, the school Worship Band (pupil lineup) performed with me a version of the We Are Messengers Christmas song from a couple of years ago “God With Us”. Our boys did a cracking job, (vocalist, 2 guitars, keyboard, bass guitar, drummer + percussionist) some of whom are not very experienced at performing in public. It’s a song that mixes the idea of Jesus being “God-with-us”/Emmanuel with the idea that we are called to recognise and depend on his presence at all times, and that Christmas is a reminder of this most reassuring of realities. “He is with us always, in our joys and in our pain. In the lonely midnight keep looking up. Love has come, God with us." The following is another great song by N. Irish band We Are Messengers (“Maybe It’s Ok”). This, their new single, was written in the aftermath of being involved in a fatal accident when their tour bus ploughed into the back of an unlit car that had broken down on an interstate road in Georgia, USA in Match 2017...

When I listen to so much music (mainly Christian songs… for myself and for use in school) and end up with 3 iTunes playlists of favourite songs of the year, containing about 110 songs in total, it’s hard to choose my favourites, but here I go.... Lyric Of The Year and Song Of the Year: “I Won’t Let You Go” - Switchfoot "When your fear is currency And you feel that urgency You want peace but there's war in your head Maybe that's where life is born When our façades are torn Pain gives birth to the promise ahead" See previous posts about Switchfoot. They take me from darkness to light... Bridge Section Of The Year + Pre-Chorus Of The Year: “Hypnotised” - Coldplay This band is my guilty pleasure. Their first album, “Parachutes”, won me over, and although they have at times frustrated me over the years, they’ve always been capable of songs that somehow defy cynicism and touch the heart in a way that very few “secular” bands manage to do to me nowadays. When such songs do t...