Freedom Flotilla, 2018 – the account of Dr Swee Chai Ang
Events from 29 July when the Israeli Navy stormed the Freedom Flotilla al-Awda hijacked and diverted it from its intended course to Gaza to Israel.
By Dr Swee Ang, medical doctor on board the al-Awda, 4 August 2018
Amos Trust at 30 years
It’s been a thirty year pilgrimage with Amos Trust, initially enabling me to visit situations around the world where I was invited, and then go back writing songs and telling stories – and that continues.
But it has been a pilgrimage of evolution for Amos – the next significant step was saying we will support partners around the world, and we found this meant that we learned even more from those partners. Read more…
Peace at Christmas
Let peace come down this Christmas
Upon a broken land
Let peace come down this Christmas time –
And lets all take a stand
Angel voices singing
On that Holy night
To lead us out of darkness
Into the path of light – the path of light
Garth Hewitt
MP Mhairi Black, posting on Twitter on the night when UK MPs voted for war in Syria – “Very dark night in parliament. Will never forget the noise of some Labour and Tory cheering together at the idea of bombs falling.”
This will not be our finest hour: the dangerous rhetoric of war
Jill Segger December 7, 2015 – original article in Ekklesia Daily Bulletin here
We have to hope that committing a country’s armed forces to acts of war is one of the hardest decisions a politician ever has to make and one which makes the greatest demand on conscience. But observation makes it hard to rid oneself of a suspicion that many senior politicians have a not-so-secret desire to play the role of war leader.
Remember Margaret Thatcher in headscarf and goggles posing in the turret of a tank during the Falklands war? Tony Blair striving to look blokish and casual against a backdrop of bored-looking soldiers in Iraq? George Bush on the flightdeck of an aircraft carrier, sporting a USAF bomber jacket? And on Saturday (5 December), we saw the Defence Secretary, Michael Fallon at RAF Akrotiri with a fighter plane in soft-focus behind him, unable to suppress a smirk as he proclaimed: “We will hit them harder”. Read more…
Garth’s music – a view on Garth’s journey in music, song and justice
Forty years ago Garth’s music and song lyrics challenged what had become the established way of doing things within the Christian church in the UK. Firstly, he was a part of the movement within Christian music away from a particularly “sacred” sound, not afraid to bring Christian lyrics towards the mainstream popular style of music. This bridged the culture gap for his own and following generations between the church and the world in which they lived, and helped many within those generations find a way to explore their spirituality without the need to deny their inherent culture. It did also bring condemnation from some within the established Christian churches who felt that these musicians were endangering the purity of the church by in some way secularising it, so it was not always an easy road but there was growing support for this new attitude within the church so it was not entirely lonely.
Interview with Kevin Mayhew publishers
By Sarah Sibley
Following on from Garth’s visit to the KM office last week, we decided an interview for our Blog was a must! Below he discusses his latest album ‘Justice like a river’, working with Cliff Richard, singing in Spanish and much more!
‘Justice like a river’ is your 47th album!…will you be making a 48th, 49th, 50th?
“Yes, I’m already thinking about the next two albums so I will keep you in the picture on this!”
Talk at the Foreign and Commonwealth Office Carol Service, 14th December 2010
I love the words of our reading from Isaiah chapter 9: “The people who walked in darkness have seen a great light, those who lived in a land of deep darkness, on them light has shined.“
Then the words go on to talk about joy being increased because “the yoke of their burden… and the rod of the oppressor you have broken. All the boots of the tramping warriors, all the garments rolled in blood should be burned as fuel for the fire.”