Gill writes:

This is such a powerful song. The music captures a sense of anger and impending doom somehow. The lyrics are a heartfelt expression of frustration and despair about an apocalypse that seems to be looming.

“The ice age is coming, the sun is zooming in
Meltdown expected, the wheat is growin’ thin
Engines stop running, but I have no fear
‘Cause London is drowning, and I, I live by the river”

These are words written 40 years ago at a time when the world was living under a cloud of fear – Cold War tension, nuclear reactor accidents, the discovery of the ozone hole and worries of the Thames flooding. Those of us who grew up in the 70’s & 80’s were a generation who wondered whether we would make it to adulthood – and if we did, would there actually be employment for us.

Well we’re still here but these words resonate even more for me today. Today it is not just London that’s drowning. It’s the world that’s drowning and our response seems to be that it will work it’s way out of the problem somehow – without any of us making changes. We seem to carry on as though someone is going to come along and sort it all out for us.

“London calling and I don’t want to shout but while we were talking I saw you noddin’ out,” 

Strummer captures the apathy perfectly in that line.

Last Friday & Saturday, I had the privilege of hearing some people who really know something about climate change. People like Professor Elisabeth Holland who is a co-recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize for her work with the IPCC (Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change) and Al Gore on climate change; Archbishop Emeritus Winston Halapua who talked about how oceans connect us; Professor Mark Macklin who reminded us of the Maori proverb that ‘I am the river and the river is me’.

But the people who moved me the most were young adults from Polynesia who talked about their ongoing relationship with the ocean and weather. Of how Tropical Cyclone Winston devastated Fiji (just like Hurricane Dorian has battered The Bahamas this week) and of how they (as a group of young people) have pushed for their churches to start moving on climate change. Time is of the essence.

Dr Emily Colgan from Trinity Methodist Theological College in New Zealand reminded us using Genesis 2 & Jeremiah 31 that an ecological crisis is a religious crisis. Creation does not exist for human interests. Creation can exist without us. Creation is not dependent on us but we are dependent on creation. God made us mutual custodians of our world. We need to take care of this planet that gives us life – we really, really do.

If you want to know more about The Clash, follow this link https://www.theclash.com/landing

Jane writes:

After a very late watching of the annual Jools Holland Hootenanny (I think August is probably a bit after the fact for a New Year celebration!)  I came across this song by Yola.  Not a song or artist I was familiar with in any way. 

It has a very retro 60’s feeling to it and put me in mind of the greats like Dusty, Pet Clarke and all those other bouffant-haired divas. 

Aside from its familiar feeling it held within it a clear statement that we are often not always present in the things we do, mundane or otherwise and that maybe others see in us a need for something beyond what is current. 

What, I wondered to myself, does my faraway look consist of if I have one.  Is it about sun-kissed beaches?  Un-seen bands?  Un-discovered films?  A plea to be anywhere but here? A longing for something better to come? 

It seems to me that in general life is about being v. present in any given moment (I’ve said as much in the FF) but God also has given us the opportunity to gaze into their preferred future, to seek out a new way and maybe sometimes dream of faraway places and ideals yet unseen. 

Lord 

When we are looking beyond what is current help us to look for you 

Let us be thankful for all our wondering and pondering 

Let us search for justice and peace rather than self-gratification 

Let us recognise all we are blessed with 

Let us search for new ideas and approaches rather than simply live in the known 

Let us be willing to capitalise on that “faraway look” rather than keeping it in our dreams 

For you are an expansive God found in all things 

Amen 

To find out more about Yola take a look at https://www.iamyola.com/

David reflects:

On Guy Garvey’s Birthday in 2017, Elbow were playing the Eventim Apollo, London.  After the opening couple of songs, the onstage screen proclaimed the message ‘Happy Birthday Guy’ and the audience performed an impromptu chorus of ‘Happy Birthday’ to the lead singer! Birthday gifts were then passed from the audience. There was a party atmosphere in the venue and an extra connection made between audience and band.  

Towards the end of the concert the band played ‘One Day Like This’.  I noticed a woman to the left of me, plastic cup raised in one hand, the other tattooed arm aloft pointing to the roof, head tipped slightly back singing every word to Guy Garvey.  

She is swaying and moving, sideways, through the packed crowd. Still with eyes fixed firmly on Garvey she bumped into me and bounced off me into the person in front! Her drink spills over that person, my plastic cup is sent flying out of my hand in the direction of the stranger to my right! Taking her eyes off the stage for the first time, she turned to me and smiled an apology and hugged me, while still singing along with the band. I hugged her back and for a line of the song we stood, total strangers, arm in arm singing ‘throw those curtains wide’ – as if we have been friends for years! 

In so many other scenarios a drunken person barging their way through a crowd, spilling their own and other’s alcohol, would create anger and aggression but in the heart of this Elbow crowd we find a connection. 

A fleeting connection. I could have sat next to her on the tube every day for the next month and not recognised her. Yet, a lasting connection. It is the moment of that gig I remember most clearly, and I experienced most deeply.  

It was the anthemic nature of the song. It was the mutual experience of being immersed in a live performance. It was being part of the same audience on the same night and in the same place. Yet more than that, the song was reaching deep into our souls as the band played. When we were thrown together and the connection was made in spirit.  

I know nothing about her and never will but as we threw the curtains wide, arms around each other, we were 2 human beings of 1 spirit.  

You can find out more about Elbow here: https://elbow.co.uk/

Splash 2024

Nigel writes:

The video version of the song – which I would probably give a 15 Certificate – has had a staggering 860+million views on youtube. It portrays these life contrasts vividly and graphically. 

To be honest, I have to be in the mood for dance/club music, but when I am, I love it. One of my all-time favourite tracks is We Found Love in a Hopeless place by Rhianna and featuring the master of contemporary music production, Calvin Harris. It’s a thumping track, with profound missiology at its core; missiology that has helped me grasp a little of how God is, and how God works. 

Life is so often a mix of love, hope, possibility, but also despair, dysfunctionality and an ongoing wrestling with some of the obvious, and often less obvious, demons which invade our space. 

For a long time in my faith journey, I was seduced into thinking that if things were not hunky dory and a bed of roses then I must be doing something wrong. Whilst I’m still open to the possibility that this might be the case, the evidence of my experience is that this is a way too simplistic theological stance. 

Over the years, I have found ‘love in a hopeless place’. In the work I used to do in prisons. Time and time again, I would enter the prison nervous, anxious and uncertain about the reception I and my fellow volunteers would get. Every time, without fail, we discovered God had gone ahead of us and before us and was already there – casting a shadow of love and acceptance across the lives of those most in need. Being and working in what was a very hopeless place. 

Yellow diamonds in the light 
And we’re standing side by side 
As your shadow crosses mine 
What it takes to come alive 

It’s the way I’m feeling I just can’t deny 
But I’ve gotta let it go 

We found love in a hopeless place 
We found love in a hopeless place 
We found love in a hopeless place 
We found love in a hopeless place 

In more recent ventures as a volunteer working with the refugees stranded in Calais, I found the same; a living God at work in the most hopeless of situations with the most desperate and marginalised of people. Amidst violence and oppression from the authorities, love is to be found amongst the refugees and those who seek to support them. The situation is hopeless, but the love easily found. 

Divorce, cancer, bereavement, living in a rural setting which is very hard work church-wise have all given me a personal glimpse of hopelessness, and indeed, at times helplessness. Throughout I have found it helpful to make a distinction between circumstance and situation, and the God who ‘is’ – that great ‘I am’. Rhianna talks about a division between ‘love’ and ‘life’ – I get that and find it really helpful. However hopeless things are naturally speaking – and I don’t glibly and naively proclaim this – God is still love, still there, still being; still ‘I am’. 

Shine a light through an open door 
Love and life I will divide 

 Turn away ’cause I need you more 
Feel the heartbeat in my mind 

It’s the way I’m feeling I just can’t deny 
But I’ve gotta let it go 

We found love in a hopeless place 
We found love in a hopeless place 
We found love in a hopeless place 
We found love in a hopeless place 

So a cracking, pump up the air, touch the emotions, grab you by the short and curlies dance track full of missiology and, for me, helpful theology –who would have guessed? So if you are going through some tough times, I hope this reflection might add to your understanding that God works in all and many different ways. Even when it is hopeless, God is there – even if things don’t become immediately – or even ever, hopeful – we might still discover that 

We found love in a hopeless place 
We found love in a hopeless place 
We found love in a hopeless place 
We found love in a hopeless place 

Rihanna’s website is http://www.rihannanow.com/

You can follow Calvin Harris at http://calvinharris.com/

Fidge writes:

Lucy Spraggan first appeared on our screens in X Factor 2012. She pulled out fairly early in the series due to illness, but she still managed to sign a record deal. 

This year she brought out her 5th album Today was a Good Day and whilst I would never describe myself as a fan, this album is really rather good. 

I was first introduced to one of the songs from the album, Stick the Kettle On (featuring Scouting for Girls), while on retreat. Our retreat leader was talking about seeing Lucy in concert and how moved she was by the song.  

Stick the Kettle On was released for World Suicide Prevention Day and is written to support the charity CALM (Campaign against Living <iserably). Whilst it is a song reflecting the high rate of suicide amongst men under the age of 50, it is also a song for anyone who is feeling low – essentially an invitation to speak to your family, friends, anyone – and where better than over a cuppa!  

I’m currently doing some research with Germinate on rural isolation and loneliness. I think loneliness is one of the biggest diseases we have in our country, if not the world. And of course, it’s not just old people or rural people who get lonely, but loneliness is still something that we rarely talk about. It seems to still carry a huge stigma. So this song reminds me of the importance of just having some company and someone to talk to – even if it’s just once a week. 

Whilst on retreat, one of the things I reflected on was how important hospitality is to me as part of my faith.  

I’m reminded of Jesus saying: 

I was hungry and you gave me food 

I was thirsty and you gave me drink,  

I was a stranger and you welcomed me. (Matthew 25:35)  

Or the ancient rune of hospitality that is said weekly at Iona Abbey: 

We saw a stranger yesterday  

We put food in the eating place 

Drink in the drinking place 

Music in the listening space. 

And in the sacred name of the triune God 

He blessed us and our house 

Our cattle and our dear ones. 

As the lark says in her song, often, often, often goes Christ in the Stranger’s guise.  

For me, hospitality is not just about welcoming friends or strangers. Its more about how we make and create community. It’s about knowing who our neighbours are. It’s about picking the phone up for a chat – for no specific reason at all.  

We live in a world where there more barriers of exclusion, the higher the wall, the safer people feel. And yet as Christians we want to break down barriers and invite people in. So, who might you want to have a cuppa with this week? Who might be the lonely people amongst you and how might you connect with them?   

Just an offer of a cup of tea and chat might be a literal life saver for one and you never know, you may even find that you have ‘entertained angels unawares’. Hebrews 13:2.  

Lucy Spraggan will be performing at Greenbelt this year. 

CALM: https://www.thecalmzone.net 

Germinate Rural Loneliness and Isolation Toolkit: 

https://germinate.net/mission/rural-isolation-and-lonliness-toolkit/

David reflects:

Hidden away on my hard drive somewhere is a folder full of songs I’ve never written! One, yet to be completed masterpiece, is entitled ‘Clichéd Love Affair’. A song that seeks, tongue, very much in cheek, to use all the clichés that we hear in love songs and weave a story of the deepest love!

Hearing the opening lines of ‘Yours’ by Katie Doherty and the Navigators sent me searching into the deep recesses of my hard drive with the promise of a new verse for my incomplete song… ‘I’d give you the hills’

Yet the line continues… ‘but they are already yours’ the cliché is smashed, and my interest piqued.

She continues… ‘And I’d show you the stars, but they are brighter where you are!’ and through ears of faith I am conjuring up a love song to the almighty. ‘I’d give you the hills…’ of course they are already yours – you create them! What about the stars, silly me, they are brighter where you are in the heavens!

Yet, this is no deep hymn of devotion, no slow sweet melody – it is written to a sheep farmer, the hills and the stars all makes perfect sense now! (Shepherd? Insert your own theology!)

This beautiful and refreshingly honest song continues ‘you deserve more than my temporary smile, but it’s all I can give you for a while’

How honest do we need to be to admit that our worship is often the temporary smile (or as Paul Field describes it in ‘Make a Difference’… ‘a Sunday morning shine… a pill you take for holiness washed down by bread and wine’). A place we come to escape, where we make promises we don’t keep and where we behave very differently from the rest of our lives? A place that becomes a cliché of our love for God rather than a demonstration.

‘Yours’ concludes with the declaration of love ‘All I can say is I am yours today’. What if our worship concluded not with the grace but with the declaration ‘I am yours’?

Leading me from church into the world;

to turn the other cheek till both my cheeks ached,

to constantly walk the second mile,

to never judge,

to be more concerned with the log in my own eye than the spec in my neighbours,

to sell all I had to give everything to the poor,

to kneel at the feet of my friends while really praying for my enemies and actually put myself last all the time…

…then, I would be yours, O God.

You can find out more about Katie Doherty and the Navigators here https://www.katiedoherty.co.uk/