In this new video, Helen speaks about how intimidating it was to be questioned by police officers for over an hour. The officers told them they were near to committing a hate crime which carries a seven year prison sentence.

Joe says Wyre Borough Council kept talking about ‘diversity’ but the council’s brand of diversity didn’t seem to allow him and his wife to express their religious beliefs on sexual ethics.

He says he never thought he would see the day when British police officers would be interrogating citizens because they had expressed a point of view in a telephone call.

A year after the events, following a legal action supported by The Christian Institute, the police and the council admitted they had acted wrongly towards the Roberts and changed their policies to avoid it happening again.

Last year Parliament passed a free speech protection making it clear that criticising homosexual conduct is not, in itself, a crime. But the Government is trying to repeal it. We expect a vote in Parliament sometime in July.

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I’m a bit rusty after all this time but with some practice I may yet get some runs and wickets. Mind you, I need to actually finish a game. In my debut against Templepatrick a couple of weeks ago I got hit in the head very hard with a cricket ball and had to go to hospital to get 3 stitches. What a memorable debut!!

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“Selah (Hebrew: סלה‎) may be the most difficult word in the Hebrew Bible to translate. Selah is probably either a liturgico-musical mark or an instruction on the reading of the text, something like “stop and listen”. The Psalms were sung accompanied by musical instruments and there are references to this in many chapters. Thirty-one of the thirty-nine psalms with the caption “To the choir-master” include “Selah” so the musical context of selah is obvious. Selah notes a break in the song and as such is similar in purpose to Amen in that it stresses the importance of the preceding passage. Alternatively, Selah may mean “forever”, as it does in some places in the liturgy (notably the second to last blessing of the Amidah). Another interpretation claims that Selah comes from the primary Hebrew root word [calah] which means “to hang”, and by implication to measure (weigh)……It is translated into today’s general language with the meaning: ‘think about it’ or ‘praise [the Lord]‘”

Please have a listen and leave your comments. I’d appreciate any constructive feedback about the actual music, recording and mixing quality etc.

Listen:

Buy It:
File size = 1.16 mb.Format = ZIP file. Audio quality = 144kbs. Format = MP3.

Cost = £0.60 (approx. $0.90)

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Hope you like it too.

Apryl Lynn “Shadow Of Your Wings” from sarahlongnecker on Vimeo.

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It’s a traditional Irish Christian hymn, but is now sung in English-speaking churches around the world. In fact it is the world’s most popular Irish hymn.

According to Wikipedia it was written by Dallan Forgaill in the 8th century; although the text had been a part of Irish monastic tradition for centuries before the hymn itself was written. It was translated from Old Irish Gaelic into English by Mary E. Byrne in “Eriú”, Journal of the School of Irish Learning, in 1905.

I came across a unique version by Andy Rogers from the Causeway Coast of Ireland recently. He did a contemporary guitar driven recording and is giving it away free.

He talks about the amazing responses he has had to the song in such diverse venues as churches, orphanages and even night clubs and bars.

Check out his ‘Ethno-Celt’ version here:

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I live in a rural area of Northern Ireland and took on the PAYG 3 Broadband because the house I was renting at the time didn’t have a landline phone in it, and so no chance of getting a normal wired broadband service. So initially I thought this was broadband heaven - go and sit in a cow field or up the top of a mountain and watch stuff on YouTube. No, no. Sorry. Wrong! You might as well forget it. At peak times as I got LESS THAN dial up 56K speeds.

On the positive side though I would say that:

1. it IS better than having to go and book an hour on a computer at the local library;
2. if you’re a night time person like me you can get good enough speeds at 1am (that’s the time I’m writing this now!);
3. if you do manage to get a good signal you can get out and use it without having to be stuck at home.

I think that like all new ideas it will improve as the technology improves and more competition in the Mobile Broadband market forces companies to improve their service or lose customers rapidly. This whole area is rapidly expanding and can only get better.

All I can say is thanks to Three for at least allowing me to get online in a situation where it was not possible at all at all and without a long contract.

Thanks for listening.

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“Charles Darwin, 200 years from your birth [in 1809], the Church of England owes you an apology for misunderstanding you and, by getting our first reaction wrong, encouraging others to misunderstand you still,” says the statement. “But the struggle for your reputation is not over yet, and the problem is not just your religious opponents but those who falsely claim you in support of their own interests.”

What is there to misunderstand? Evolution is a godless ideology that opposes the biblical account of creation. Yes, I do believe that science can help us understand some of God’s wonderful creation as so much scientific evidence is now confirming what the Bible says in Genesis 1 vs. 26 and 27:

‘Then God said, “Let us make man in our image, in our likeness, and let them rule over the fish of the sea and the birds of the air, over the livestock, over all the earth, [b] and over all the creatures that move along the ground.”  So God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him; male and female he created them. ‘

Notice it does not say in the image of a monkey he created them.

Ironically, Andrew Darwin, a great-great grandson of the eminent scientist, said he was “bemused” by the apology, which seemed “pointless.” “Why bother?” he said. “When an apology is made after 200 years, it’s not so much to right a wrong, but to make the person or organization making the apology feel better.”

Come on C of E. Start providing some leadership to the nation. In such a time of uncertainty and despair it should be speaking truth and providing moral absolutes which can bring stability and security. The world must be laughing at it.

Nuff said.

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The emphasis was very much on practical hands on training. I found this very helpful as I really went wanting to improve my technique. There were 3 strands:

1. Drum kit course
2. Percussion
3. Children’s course

The quality of the facilitators was top notch with such people as Ed Freitas, Bono Hodge, Calum Rees, raul D’Oliveira, Stew Smith (ex Delirious) and others.

I was on the Percussion course, which was led by Mike Simpson of Inspire Works. This was awesome especially the session on using percussion for effect (as opposed to laying down a groove), ie. using instruments such as cymbals, shakers, tambourines, etc.

At the end of this Mike read out Psalm 23 line by line and we had to respond by playing in a way that reflects that line. It was quite remarkable that this sounded good as with about 10-15 people there it’s likely that each will have a different interpretation of each line. What I liked was that it was possible to have different instruments playing at different volumes and strengths and it didn’t sound a mess.

For example, verse 4 says:

“Even though I walk
through the valley of the shadow of death,
I will fear no evil,
for you are with me;
your rod and your staff,
they comfort me.”

Some people were banging a frame drum with increasing volume, symbolizing a victorious proclamation, while others were gently playing a shaker seemingly displaying a quiet confidence in God’s promise. Awesome creative stuff!!

Ed Freitas’ session on warm ups, sticks and heads was very welcome as not being a kit drummer I confess I haven’t a clue about how to even hold a drum stick! I didn’t realise that you needed to do warm ups before playing. You can even apply that to percussion instruments so that’s something practical to take away.

One of the highlights was the Strike the Drum Celebration in St George’s Chapel, Windsor Castle. Around 50 drummers gathered to play along dancers from Movement in Worship. Suffice to say that something like that has never happened there before! I could physically feel the ground shake and rumble as we played. No idea what all the tourists thought of this. It’s a shame we were not allowed to record anything there (apparently it is illegal to film the tomb of a dead Monarch). From there we played in procession from the Castle through the town.

Well I could say much more but if you are reading this I would recommend that if you get the chance you go along next year and see for yourself and learn from some top class drummers!!

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To qualify for the record he had to play recognisable tunes and not repeat any song with 4 hours. It wasn’t quite non-stop as he was allowed a 5 minute break for every hour he played. (Well, I guess he’d need the odd widdle or 2).

See his website for more.

(Photo courtesy of www.lisburntoday.co.uk)

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