The Ocean Blue, Denison Whitmer, Innocence Mission and Sufjan Stevens

Having just discovered The Ocean Blue and Denison Whitmer, I've also been interested to find out about their connections to the very wonderful Innocence Mission, connections which for Whitmer and Innocence Mission have also led to links with Sufjan Stevens.

Getting their start as teenagers in the late ‘80s in Hershey, PA, The Ocean Blue released their self-titled debut on the famed Sire Records label that launched many of their most beloved bands in the U.S., including the Smiths, Echo & the Bunnymen, and the Pretenders. Embraced by alternative radio and MTV, the band quickly made their mark with early singles “Between Something And Nothing,” “Drifting, Falling” and “Ballerina Out of Control,” each Top Ten hits on U.S. college and Billboard’s Modern Rock Radio charts. Early success set in motion a run of four major label albums— The Ocean Blue (1989 Sire), Cerulean (1991 Sire), Beneath the Rhythm and Sound (1993 Sire), and See The Ocean Blue (1996 Mercury). The band continued with string of independent releases in the 2000s, including Davy Jones Locker (2000 March), Waterworks (2003 W.A.R.), Ultramarine (2013 Korda) and Kings and Queens/Knaves and Thieves (2019 Korda). With eight albums and several EPs under their belt, the band continues to perform and record around the world, with work underway on a new album, and shows in cities throughout the U.S. in 2025.

Denison Witmer is an American singer-songwriter who has been crafting introspective folk music for over two decades. Born and raised in Lancaster, Pennsylvania, he began his journey in recorded music at the age of 19 with his first album, My Luck, My Love - recorded originally as a high school English project and released on 250 cassettes. His official debut album, Safe Away, followed in 1998, setting the foundation for a prolific career. Over the years, Witmer has released a series of acclaimed albums, including Of Joy and Sorrow (2001), Philadelphia Songs (2002), and Are You a Dreamer? (2005), with the latter, produced by Don Peris and featuring Sufjan Stevens, earning critical praise from outlets such as Pitchfork and Entertainment Weekly. Witmer's discography continued to expand with Carry the Weight in 2008, followed by his first release on Sufjan Stevens' Asthmatic Kitty Records, The Ones Who Wait (2012). His subsequent albums, the self-titled Denison Witmer (2013) and American Foursquare (2020), also released on Asthmatic Kitty, continued to showcase his evolving artistry.

For listeners of the innocence mission, the Lancaster, Pennsylvania trio are beyond a favourite band, more like a beloved companion, such is their intensity and fragility of their sound and vision, spearheaded by Karen Peris’ heartbreaking, breathtaking voice. Those fans include Sufjan Stevens and Sam Beam (Iron & Wine), who have both covered innocence mission songs, and in whose company the trio deserve to be bracketed.1999’s Birds Of My Neighborhood kickstarted the innocence mission as we know them today, following three albums as a quartet that drew comparisons to The Sundays and 10,000 Maniacs. But when drummer Steve Brown left to become a chef, Karen Peris (guitars, piano, pump organ, accordion, voice), husband Don (guitars, drums, voice) and Mike Bitts (upright bass) forged ahead with an orchestral, at times cinematic, folk pop sound which they felt was truer to their real nature in any case, a sound rich in atmosphere, innately sad, but ultimately hopeful. 

Sufjan Stevens is a singer, songwriter and composer currently living in New York. His preoccupation with epic concepts has motivated two state records (Michigan and Illinois), a collection of sacred and biblical songs (Seven Swans), an electronic album for the animals of the Chinese zodiac (Enjoy Your Rabbit), a full length partly inspired by the outsider artist Royal Robertson (The Age of Adz), a masterwork memorializing and investigating his relationship with his late mother (Carrie & Lowell), and two Christmas box sets (Songs for Christmas, vol. 1-5 and Silver & Gold, vol. 6-10). In 2020 he shared Aporia, a collaborative new age album made with his stepfather Lowell Brams, and his eighth studio album The Ascension, a reflection on the state of humanity in freefall and a call for total transformation of consciousness. In early 2021 he released Convocations, a five-volume, two and a half hour requiem mass for present times, and then A Beginner’s Mind, a collaboration with singer-songwriter Angelo De Augustine featuring songs inspired in part by popular films. In October 2023, Stevens released his tenth solo studio project, Javelin, which pairs musical sweep with emotional breadth in a way only Stevens can, weaving an entire lifetime of feeling into 42-minutes. 

The members of the Ocean Blue first met in junior high school. They cut a series of demos while in high school, with Scott Stouffer sitting in on drums. They managed to get two of these earliest recordings, "On Growing Up" and "Wounds of a Friend", included on a local radio station compilation in late 1986. The compilation also included very early work from noted local artists the Innocence Mission, who were friends and mentors of the Ocean Blue.

"Do You Still Remember" on Davy Jones' Locker (1999) by The Ocean Blue (song recorded by Don Peris; entire album mastered by Don). Don was credited as the mastering engineer for two EPs released by The Ocean Blue: Denmark (2000) and Ayn (2001).

Korda Records is a Minneapolis based record label cooperative launched in late 2012 by a number of artists including David Schelzel of The Ocean Blue. The label say of The Innocence Mission: "We are proud to have our friends The Innocence Mission a part of Korda and their 2015 release Hello I Feel the Same (Korda 014) on the label. The guys in The Ocean Blue have a long and deep friendship with Don & Karen of The Innocence Mission that goes back to some of each band’s first shows in Pennsylvania and their major label debut records on Sire and A&M."

Don Peris has worked extensively with Lancaster-based singer-songwriter Denison Witmer, and was first credited as an engineer on his debut release, 1995's My Luck, My Love. After buying his first guitar, Denison sought the teachings of Don Peris. Peris, however, ended up playing a much bigger role in Witmer's career later in life. Peris has gone on to produce several of Witmer's albums, including Safe Away (1998) and Are You a Dreamer? (2005), 'Carry The Weight' (2008), as well as the 1999 EP River Bends. He also engineered the LPs Of Sorrow and Joy (2001) and Recovered (2003), and mixed The '80s EP (2000) and Philadelphia Songs (2004). The latter album additionally features background vocals from Karen, on the song "Rock Run". Karen also assisted with production of Are You A Dreamer? The album also featured Sufjan Stevens.

2011's 'The Ones Who Wait' was originally released under the Mono vs Stereo label but was re-released in 2012 by Asthmatic Kitty, the label owned by renowned singer/songwriter Sufjan Stevens. Denison's 10th album was self-titled and was again released under the Asthmatic Kitty banner (2013). It was produced by Don and Karen Peris, who also feature on the album. American Foursquare (2020) included “Birds of Virginia” which features Karen and Don Peris. Witmer’s latest album, Anything At All, was released on Asthmatic Kitty Records on February 14 2025 and showcases his enduring collaboration with Sufjan Stevens, who produced the record.

Speaking of his cover of The Innocence Mission's "Lakes of Canada", Stevens said:“I’m in awe of big songs, national anthems, rock opera, the Broadway musical, but what I always come back to, after the din and drum roll, is the small song that makes careful observations about everyday life. This is what makes the music by The Innocence Mission so moving and profound. ‘Lakes of Canada’ creates an environment both terrifying and familiar using sensory language: incandescent bulbs and rowboats are made palpable by careful rhythms, unobtrusive rhyme schemes, and specificity of language.”

When speaking of Karen Peris, it’s clear to see the admiration Stevens holds for her: “What is so remarkable about Karen Peris’ lyrics are the economy of words, concrete nouns - fish, flashlight, laughing man - which come to life with melodies that dance around the scale like sea creatures. Panic and joy, a terrible sense of awe, the dark indentations of memory all come together at once, accompanied by the joyful strum of an acoustic guitar. This is a song in which everyday objects begin to have tremendous meaning.”

For more on music and faith see my co-authored book 'The Secret Chord'.

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Denison Whitmer - Birds Of Virginia.

Church Times - Art review: Mainie Jellett and Evie Hone. The Art of Friendship (National Gallery of Ireland, Dublin)

My latest exhibition review for Church Times is on “Mainie Jellett and Evie Hone. The Art of Friendship” at the National Gallery of Ireland:

'Jellett and Hone are significant as pioneering Irish modernists, as women artists undertaking that mission at that time, and as artists allowing their understanding of the ways in which faith and art intertwine to shape the work they produced. As a result, they are important counterpoints to the narrative that treats modernism as a primarily secular endeavour, and abstraction, through its lack of content, as a primary example of art that was principally for art’s sake alone.'

For more on Jellett and Hone see here, here, here, here, and here.

Other of my pieces for Church Times can be found here. My writing for ArtWay can be found here. My pieces for Artlyst are here, those for Seen & Unseen are here, and those for Art+Christianity are here.

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Van Morrison - Into The Mystic.

Start:Stop - None are excluded from Jesus’ friendship

Bible Reading

As Jesus was walking along, he saw a man called Matthew sitting at the tax booth; and he said to him, “Follow me.” And he got up and followed him. And as he sat at dinner in the house, many tax collectors and sinners came and were sitting with him and his disciples. When the Pharisees saw this, they said to his disciples, “Why does your teacher eat with tax collectors and sinners?” But when he heard this, he said, “Those who are well have no need of a physician, but those who are sick. Go and learn what this means, ‘I desire mercy, not sacrifice.’ For I have come to call not the righteous but sinners.” (Mathew 9. 9-13)

Meditation

This week we have at St Stephen Walbrook the Diocesan icon of hospitality. Commissioned in 2007 by the Bishop of London, Revd Regan O’Callaghan depicts three smiling women from the congregation of St John on Bethnal Green Church, seated around a table. The triptych was a commission on the theme of welcome and 3 Mothers was blessed by the Bishop and installed in the reception of Diocesan House, London where they resided for a few years. After this they have been on the move and have been installed in different places, now coming to St Stephen Walbrook.

The women reflect the diverse nature of the congregation at St John’s as well as the local East End community. Each woman is a wife, mother, and grandmother, a person of faith and a committed hard working member of their church, something the artist wanted to celebrate. The three women also symbolise in part the important role of women – particularly older women – in the Church of England. The opened hand of Mother Pearl is held out to greet the viewer to the table, a place of fellowship and hospitality while Mother Becky and Mother Miriam look on.

This icon has relevance to our reading today because in his homily based this reading Pope Francis says that none are excluded from Jesus’ friendship. Pope Francis notes that in this reading Jesus welcomes into the group of his close friends a man who, according to the concepts in vogue in Israel at that time, was regarded as a public sinner.

Matthew, in fact, not only handled money deemed impure because of its provenance from people foreign to the People of God, but he also collaborated with an alien and despicably greedy authority whose tributes moreover, could be arbitrarily determined. This is why the Gospels several times link "tax collectors and sinners" (Mt 9: 10; Lk 15: 1), as well as "tax collectors and prostitutes" (Mt 21: 31).

A first fact strikes one based on these references: Jesus does not exclude anyone from his friendship. Indeed, precisely while he is at table in the home of Matthew-Levi, in response to those who expressed shock at the fact that he associated with people who had so little to recommend them, he made the important statement: "Those who are well have no need of a physician, but those who are sick; I came not to call the righteous, but sinners" (Mk 2: 17).

The good news of the Gospel consists precisely in this: offering God's grace to the sinner! Elsewhere, with the famous words of the Pharisee and the publican who went up to the Temple to pray, Jesus actually indicates an anonymous tax collector as an appreciated example of humble trust in divine mercy: while the Pharisee is boasting of his own moral perfection, the "tax collector... would not even lift up his eyes to heaven, but beat his breast, saying, "God, be merciful to me a sinner!'". And Jesus comments: "I tell you, this man went down to his house justified rather than the other; for every one who exalts himself will be humbled, but he who humbles himself will be exalted" (Lk 18: 13-14).

Thus, in the figure of Matthew, the Gospels present to us a true and proper paradox: those who seem to be the farthest from holiness can even become a model of the acceptance of God's mercy and offer
a glimpse of its marvellous effects in their own lives.

Intercessions

We pray for the Church throughout the world that she may be a living example of a loving community, and a voice for those who are hungry for justice. Enable St Stephen Walbrook to achieve its mission of providing, without prejudice or expectation, a safe and welcoming place where people of all religious faiths or none can find spiritual inspiration, guidance, encouragement & support. Lord in your mercy, hear our prayer.

God of hope, in Jesus you made heaven visible to earth and earth visible to heaven: make St Stephen Walbrook a community at the heart of your kingdom alongside those on the edge of society that each day we may seek your glory, and embody your grace. Lord in your mercy, hear our prayer.

We pray for the world’s leaders, that they may work to overcome the barriers between peoples and foster a spirit of global community. We pray for our own local community here in the City of London, praying for any who may feel excluded through poverty, disability, illness, discrimination or prejudice. Lord in your mercy, hear our prayer.

The Blessing

God our Father, in love you sent your Son that the world may have life: lead us to seek him among the outcast and to find him in those in need, and the blessing of God almighty, the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, be among you and remain with you always. Amen.

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John Tavener - Apolytikion of Our Holy Father Nicholas.

Movement for change

Here is my sermon from today's Eucharist at St Stephen Walbrook:

Only one in 10 of the lepers who were healed came back to thank Jesus for his healing and, as a result, many sermons have been preached from this passage (Luke 17. 11 - 19) on a perceived lack of thankfulness in our lives.

There is, however, a simple reason why only one came back and that is that their healing didn't happen instantly but only as they did what Jesus had told them to do and went to see the priest who could confirm that their leprosy was healed and readmit them to the community.

All 10 did as Jesus said, all 10 were healed as they did so, nine continued to see the priest as they had been told to do, while one returned to thank Jesus before then continuing to see the priest. Like Jesus, we can certainly celebrate the thankfulness of the one who returned but there are also significant lessons to learn from the fact that the healing of the 10 occurred as they were obedient and as they were travelling.

As human beings we often find security in sameness, in repetition, and in things remaining the same. The result can be that we also remain the same and do not change. Change inevitably involves disruption and movement; something different needs to happen in order that we change. That is what Jesus calls these 10 lepers to experience. Having been ostracised by society because of their condition they have understandably banded together to support each other on the edge of society. We find a similar experience repeated today, for example, among those who are homeless in Central London.

In Jesus' time, to make the journey back from the edge of society people had to be examined by a priest who had to confirm that their condition had been healed before they could be readmitted to society. That is what Jesus tells them to go and do but it is significant that they have not been healed yet at the point that he tells them to go. He tells them to go, to move, to make a change but they are not healed until they have begun to make the change and are on their way to see the priest. This is why they don't all thank Jesus; they are not with Jesus when the healing comes.

As well as being willing to make a move, to change, they have also had to trust in Jesus and in his instructions. It would have been easy to say, 'I'm no different, I'm not healed, therefore there's no point in going to see the priest.' They could have stayed where they were in what had become familiar and safe for them. Instead they all set out on what was risky undertaking where they could have been exposed to ridicule, as if their healing had not occurred on the way, they could have gone to the priest and have been turned away in disgrace as delusional lepers.

There will be points in all our lives where our experience will be similar. We will have been in one place or one role or one way of doing and being for too long and we will be stagnating as a result. Something has to change in order that we grow and develop on new ways and in different aspects of our lives. Sometimes we recognise the situation and choose to change, sometimes the change is forced on us. However it begins and however resentful we might sometimes feel, the only way for us to experience growth and develop in this situation is to make the move and accept the change. While we may not be thankful at the time, often, with hindsight we can see that change was actually good for us.

Having support in making that change - here the encouragement of Jesus to make the move and the benefit of being part of a group as they do so - is clearly very significant. I mentioned earlier the experience of rough sleepers in London and there is a specific way of supporting that group of people as they make the journey back into the heart of community. Home for Good matches a former rough sleeper moving into accommodation with a volunteer in that person's new community who can befriend and integrate the person where they now live. Those who sleep on the streets find community there and often find the experience of moving into accommodation one that is isolating. Having someone to befriend them and overcome that sense of isolation can be vital in making the change. The Passage, the charity which runs Home for Good, is specifically looking for volunteers from City to become befrienders in their local areas.

Whether we are those needing to make a change or those able to support others in doing so, the key is recognise that movement and change needs to occur if growth, development and healing is also to come.

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The Parable of the Dishonest Manager

Here is my sermon from today's Eucharist at St Stephen Walbrook:

Often working people (usually rightly) say that work barely gets a mention in Church but that is actually surprising because, when you look at the stories Jesus told, large numbers of them are to do with work. This is one of those stories and it may well be the one that it is most difficult to understand (Luke 16. 1 - 13). The story and the teaching based on it seem contradictory and it doesn’t seem to fit with other things that Jesus said and taught.

A manager is wasting his employer’s money. He is found out and fired. The beginning of the story makes sense to us. It’s what happens next that causes a problem. The manager then reduces the debts that various people owe to his employer in order to get on good terms with them before he leaves his master’s employment. Although he is again wasting his master’s money, this time the master praises what he has done.

Jesus goes on to say that we should use our money to make friends and that this will help us to be welcomed into eternity. That seems almost the reverse of his saying to store up treasures in heaven rather than treasures on earth. Then to compound all the complications he commends faithfulness after having told a story in which the dishonest manager is praised for his dishonesty.

How can we find a way in to a set of teaching that seems contradictory and confused? It may be that the key is Jesus’ statement that we should make friends for ourselves. Although the dishonest manager remains dishonest there is a change that occurs in the story. And we can see that change most clearly if we think about the manager’s work-life balance.

At the beginning of the story, friendships and responsibility seem low on his list of priorities. He is managing his employer’s property but wasting his employer’s money. It is likely then that his life is focused around work and money. However, when his job comes under threat, he suddenly realises that relationships – friendships – are actually more important than work and money and figures out a quick way of building friendships. At the end of the story, if we return to his work-life balance, work will have decreased in importance to him while friendship and responsibility for his own future will have increased.

The teaching that follows the story makes it clear that Jesus does not condone dishonesty; if this manager is dishonest in small matters then he will also be dishonest in large ones. The manager’s fundamental dishonesty does not change but the priority he places on relationships does. In other teaching Jesus sometimes uses the formula; if someone who is bad can do X then how much more should you or how much more will God do X. He uses it, for example, when he talks about God giving the Holy Spirit: if father’s who are bad, he says, know how to give good gifts to their children, how much more will God give the Holy Spirit to those who ask him.

What Jesus does in this story is similar. He is saying that if shrewd, worldly people, like the dishonest manager, can come to see the importance of relationships, then how much more should we do the same. Not following the example of the manager in using dishonesty to build relationships but following his example of learning to prioritise relationships in life and in work.

The Relationships Foundation sounds like it is likely to be a dating agency but is actually an organisation founded and run by Christians that believes that a good society is built on good relationships, from family and community to public service and business. They study the effect that culture, business and government have on relationships, create new ideas for strengthening social connections, campaign on issues where relationships are being undermined and train and equip people to think relationally for themselves. They are one example of an organisation that is seeking to prioritise relationships in life and in work as Jesus encouraged us to do.

Why is this so important? Jesus throws out a hint when he says “make friends for yourself … so that … you will be welcomed in the eternal home.” Jesus seems to be hinting that the relationships we form now in some way continue into eternity. Paul says something similar in 1 Corinthians 13 when he writes that faith, hope and love remain using a word for ‘remain’ which suggests that acts of faith, hope and love continue into eternity. Building relationships Jesus and Paul suggest may not just be good for the here and now but may also have eternal implications. All the more reason then for us to learn from this story and, whether we are at home, at work, or in our community, to prioritise the building of good relationships with those around us.

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Blessid Union of Souls - My Friend.

How beautiful and simple God's plan for humankind is

"How beautiful and simple God's plan for humankind is! ... Friends, who love, who suffer, who search, who see God's joy, who live in the glory of God; and all around them, the world which does not understand that it too is Proverb, which does not find the Lord's joy, which seems to seek to self-destruct, which despairs of rising above material things. That wants to destroy itself in the fire, despairing that it can soar above material things."

Thomas Merton, writing to Jacques Maritain about Raïssa's Journal (The Courage for Truth: Letters to Writers)

The dishonest manager

Often working people (usually rightly) say that work barely gets a mention in Church yet when you look at the stories Jesus told large numbers of them are to do with work.

Luke 16. 1 - 13 is one of those stories and it may well be the one that it is most difficult to understand. The story and the teaching based on it seem contradictory and it doesn’t seem to fit with other things that Jesus said and taught.

A manager is wasting his employer’s money. He is found out and fired. The beginning of the story makes sense to us. It’s what happens next that causes a problem. The manager then reduces the debts that various people owe to his employer in order to get on good terms with them before he leaves his master’s employment. Although he is again wasting his master’s money, this time the master praises what he has done.

Jesus goes on to say that we should use our money to make friends and that this will help us to be welcomed into eternity. That seems almost the reverse of his saying store up treasures in heaven rather than treasures on earth. Then to compound all the complications he commends faithfulness after having told a story in which the dishonest manager is praised for his dishonesty.

How can we find a way in to a set of teaching that seems contradictory and confused? It may be that the key is Jesus’ statement that we should make friends for ourselves. Although the dishonest manager remains dishonest there is a change that occurs in the story. And we can see that change most clearly if we think about the manager’s work-life balance.

At the beginning of the story, friendships and responsibility seem low on his list of priorities. He is managing his employer’s property but wasting his employer’s money. It is likely then that his life is focused around work and money. However, when his job comes under threat, he suddenly realises that relationships – friendships – are actually more important than work and money and figures out a quick way of building friendships. At the end of the story, if we return to his work-life balance, work will have decreased in importance to him while friendship and responsibility for his own future will have increased.

The teaching that follows the story makes it clear that Jesus does not condone dishonesty; if this manager is dishonest in small matters then he will also be dishonest in large ones. The manager’s fundamental dishonesty does not change but the priority he places on relationships does. In other teaching Jesus sometimes uses the formula; if someone who is bad can do X then how much more should you or how much more will God do X. He uses it, for example, when he talks about God giving the Holy Spirit: if fathers who are bad, he says, know how to give good gifts to their children, how much more will God give the Holy Spirit to those who ask him.

What Jesus does in this story is similar. He is saying that if shrewd, worldly people, like the dishonest manager, can come to see the importance of relationships, then how much more should we do the same. Not following the example of the manager in using dishonesty to build relationships but following his example of learning to prioritise relationships in life and in work.

The Relationships Foundation sounds like it is likely to be a dating agency but is actually an organisation founded and run by Christians that believes that a good society is built on good relationships, from family and community to public service and business. They study the effect that culture, business and government have on relationships, create new ideas for strengthening social connections, campaign on issues where relationships are being undermined and train and equip people to think relationally for themselves. They are one example of an organisation that is seeking to prioritise relationships in life and in work as Jesus encouraged us to do. There are, of course, others, with the Mothers’ Union being among them, but the work that the Relationships Foundation attempts to do aims to encourage good relationships throughout society, not just within family life.

Why is this so important? Jesus throws out a hint when he says “make friends for yourself … so that … you will be welcomed in the eternal home.” Jesus seems to be hinting that the relationships we form now in some way continue into eternity. Paul says something similar in 1 Corinthians 13 when he writes that faith, hope and love remain using a word for ‘remain’ which suggests that acts of faith, hope and love continue into eternity. Building relationships Jesus and Paul suggest may not just be good for the here and now but may also have eternal implications. All the more reason then for us to learn from this story and, whether we are at home, at work, or in our community, to prioritise the building of good relationships with those around us.

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The Clash - Card Cheat.

Boundary Breaker I

Part 1 of my latest six-part poem entitled 'Boundary Breaker':

Our enemy, my friend.
Titus, dressed in your lorica plumata,
paludamentum flaring round you in the breeze
and fastened at your shoulder,
the very image of the professional officer;
vine-stick as symbol of your authority
to order this one to "Go" and that one to "Come".
"Go," "Come," "Do this," "Do that,"
and your servant, your slave, simply acts.
Yet this man that you order so and so
is dear to you, very dear, sharing your bed,
your own pais, ailing and sick,
for whom you will intercede.
Our enemy, their friend,
my elders testify to me; you love our people,
your built our synagogue, your love
radical in action crosses boundaries of race,
religion, sexuality and class.
Your love is faith in action.
If faith without deeds is dead,
your faith is alive, more so than any in Israel.

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Paul Simon - Love And Hard Times.

Prayer - Dedication

On Thursday I dedicated a bench at the Chigwell Row Guide Camp in memory of a former parishioner, Jean Cook.

We reflected that Jean was someone who was full of life and who filled her life with many interests and commitments including guiding, folk dancing, teaching, Townswomen's and Trefoil Guilds, and swimming. Her favourite hymn was ‘O Jesus I have promised to serve thee to the end’ and she found encouragement to do so in Jesus' words from Matthew 11. 28: “Come unto me all who are heavily laden and I will refresh you.” One of the main ways in which she was refreshed was through her friends. Found among her things after her death was a poem that we heard read at her funeral which says that we are all made up of the friends we have and that our lives are richer for the different ways in which others have touched and shaped our lives. That was Jean’s experience because of each of her many friends and it was also our experience because of the effect that Jean had on us. And so we prayed ...

God our Father, in loving care your hand has created us, and as the potter fashions the clay you have formed us in your image. Through the Holy Spirit you have breathed into us the gift of life. In the sharing of love you have enriched our knowledge of you and of one another. We claim your love today, as we remember Jean in this place where we dedicate this bench to her memory in the name of the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit.

God our Father, we thank you that you have made each of us in your own image, and given us gifts and talents with which to serve you. We thank you for all those whom we love but see no longer, and thank you especially for Jean, the years we shared with her, the good we saw in her, the love we received from her.
Now surround us, Jean’s friends, with your love, that we may have confidence in your goodness, strength to meet the days to come, and a firm hope in your eternal love and purposes for us, in Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

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Megurine Luka - O Jesus I Have Promised.

Prayer - Thanksgiving

Three prayers collaging lines from the likes of Anselm, Karl Barth and William Temple, among others:

O Lord God our Father. You are the light that can never be put out; and now you give us a light that shall drive away all darkness. You are love without coldness, and you have given us such warmth in our hearts that we can love all when we meet. You are the life that defies death, and have opened up for us the way that leads to eternal life. Blessed are you, O Lord our God, in the light that shines in the darkness and which has never been extinguished. Blessed are you, O Lord our God, in the light that shines in the face of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ, and which reveals your glory. Blessed are you, O Lord our God, in the light of the Holy Spirit which inflames our hearts and inspires our worship. Blessed are you, O Lord our God, Now and for ever. Amen.

Thank you, Jesus, for a mother’s unfailing love, for her unstinting devotion and steadfastness, for her wisdom and support, and for always ‘being there’ in times of happiness and stress. Thank you for love and forbearance, for laughter enjoyed and sorrow shared. Thank you, Jesus, for the comfort of a close friend; for the sharing of life and our deepest selves along the Way. Thank you for peace given to each other sincerely, and received beautifully; for open arms in which the love of God shone. Help us remember your gifts and be glad to give you praise; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

O Lord our God, from whom neither life nor death can separate us from those who trust in your love, and whose love holds in its embrace your children in this world and in the next, so unite us to yourself, that in fellowship with you we may be always united to our loved ones whether here or there. So give us courage, constancy and hope. May we so know and love you that we rejoice in you and if we may not do so fully in this life, let us go steadily on to the day when we come to that fullness. None of us is a great Christian; we are all humble and ordinary. But your grace is enough for us. Let the knowledge of you increase in us here, and there let it come to its fullness. Let your love grow in us here, and there let it be fulfilled, so that here our joy may be in a great hope, and there in full reality. Amen.

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U2 - Magnificent.

Farewell my friends

It was beautiful as long as it lasted, the journey of my life, I have no regrets whatsoever, save the pain I'll leave behind.

Those dear hearts who love and care, and the heavy with sleep ever moist eyes, the smile in spite of a lump in the throat and the strings pulling at the heart and soul,

The strong arms that held me up when my own strength let me down, each morsel that I was fed with was full of love.

At every turning of my life I came across good friends, friends who stood by me, even when the time raced me by.

Farewell, farewell my friends, I smile and bid you goodbye.

No, shed no tears, for I need them not, all I need is your smile, If you feel sad, do think of me, for that's what I'll like, when you live in the hearts of those you love, remember then...... you never die.

This poem by Gitanjali Ghei says that at every turn of our lives there have been good friends who stand by us, holding us up when our own strength lets us down. One of the greatest gifts that God can give us is to know good friends and this may be a key to the words of Jesus found in Matthew 11. 28-30 and to the promise in Psalm 23 that God will go with us through the valley of the Shadow of Death.

How does God go with us through that valley and give us rest when we are heavy laden? Well, one of the ways in which he does is through other people; our friends, family and those that he brings specially into our lives at times of illness and loss such as doctors, nurses and chaplains. We are the hands and feet of God where we bring relief, support and encouragement to those who are in need. We can be the rod and staff that God uses to support others as they journey through the Valley of the Shadow of Death and we can be the means by which he gives rest to the heavy laden when we carry their burden for a time.

And God has shown us how this can be done by sending Jesus into the world to be our teacher and example. “Take my yoke upon you and learn of me”, says Jesus. In other words, Jesus is saying, imitate me, follow in my footsteps, if you want to be my friends and become the hands and feet of God in the world today. What is that we are to imitate? Jesus says to us, “My commandment is this: love one another, just as I love you. The greatest love a person can have for his friends is to give his life for them. And you are my friends if you do what I command.”

The poem reminds us of the importance of friendship. The greatest gift that God can give is his friendship, shown to us as Jesus gave up his life for each one of us. We are to learn from him, to love as he loved us, to give our lives for our friends, to be the hands and feet of God for others, to provide rest by lifting burdens from the heavy laden and to be the rod and staff on which others can lean as they journey through the valley of the Shadow of Death.

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Corinne Bailey Rae - I Would Like To Call It Beauty.