Episodes
The Port St Mary Beach Mission is a firm fixture on the Manx calendar - those two weeks of fun and faith-sharing, in August each year, began in 1901 - and the outreach has only ever been completely stopped by the two World Wars.
It attracts around 400 children and teenagers, and a team of adult volunteer leaders give up their own holiday time, to help with the mission. Even last year, when border restrictions meant that the UK leaders couldn't travel to the Island, the Beach Mission went ahead - on line - with videos, games, music, and resources to use at home.
But what makes the Beach...
Laxey resident Sheila Sutton is no stranger to suffering, having recently undergone major surgery to remove a cancerous tumour - yet she remains happy - and hugely hopeful! On today's programme, she explains where her hope really lies, with a reflection, a favourite poem and a few moments of prayer.
Rev'd Nicky Gumbel is an Anglican priest based in Holy Trinity Church, Brompton, London, and is known as the developer of the Alpha Course - an 11-session programme which gives a basic introduction to Christianity, and which is supported by churches of many different Christian traditions. Al...
Manxman Brendan O'Friel spent his entire working life in seven different penal institutions, including Strangeways Prison in Manchester before and during the riots of 1990. He's just published a fascinatingly detailed and informative book which has already been acclaimed as essential reading for anyone considering a career in the prison system, and joins us on the programme to explore how his Catholic faith has informed his choices, value systems and general approach to his working life.
Brendan's book - Prison Governor's Journal - is available from Lexicon Bookshop, 63, Strand Street, ...
WELCOME to an AT YOUR SERVICE special podcast-only programme.
This is the full service to celebrate the Centenary of the Royal British Legion, recorded in St George's Church, Douglas, the Civic Church of the Isle of Man's Capital Town, on Sunday 16 May 2021. The service is led by the Archdeacon of Mann, The Venerable Andi Brown, in the presence of His Excellency the Lieutenant Governor, Sir Richard Gozney, and Lady Gozney.
The Lord Bishop, the Rt Reverend Peter Eagles, preaches the sermon, and there are musical items from a piper from the Ellan Vannin Pipes and Drums, Women in Song Co...
For the past sixteen years, Praying the Keeills Week has offered eight days of varied walks, talks, coach tours and times of fellowship - all in the glorious Manx countryside - exploring, with the help of well-informed guides - our Island's ancient keeill sites. Keeills are Christian chapels built on the Isle of Man between the 8th and 12th centuries. The earliest ones were small, and built of earth. Later they were made of stone, and were larger. It's believed that there were around 200 keeills, of which visible remains of only about 35 can be seen today. They had a variety of uses - ...
Whereas our western 'wealth' affords us at least some certainty in difficult times, a combination of the pandemic and the effects of climate change have widened the gap between us, and our poorest global neighbours.
This year’s Christian Aid project will help young unemployed people in Burundi - still one of the world’s most poverty-stricken countries, with over 70% of the population who have no work at all, and as she launches the NO SMALL CHANGE appeal, Christian Aid’s local representative Louise Whitelegg wonders if she’s a lover? Or a fighter?
This year’s project will be life-chan...
Lockdown is easing, Spring has sprung and today is the final day of National Gardening Week!
Run annually by the Royal Horticultural Society, the focus this year has been on encouraging people to keep growing things and enjoying green spaces for their proven benefits to health and general wellbeing.
This morning we hear three stories of how churches are using gardens to serve their local communities.
And we meet Maggie - one of a number of people who took part in The Bible Society's quest to find our favourite Bible verse - but for Maggie, the words of the 23rd Psalm really did become ...
Do you remember the KB Krew?
If the answer is 'yes' you'll love today's programme - and if you've never heard of them, you'll enjoy meeting them for the first time.
On At Your Service this week, we're delving into the archives to listen to a service recorded in Kirk Braddan in 2007, entirely prepared and presented by members of the KB Krew - the parish youth group who met every Sunday night under the guidance of Lloyd and Carolyn Shipstone, and with the support of the Vicar of Kirk Braddan at that time, Canon Philip Frear.
The KB Krew enjoyed sports challenges, picnics, and BBQ's, a...
We begin this week's programme with edited highlights from the ceremonial funeral for His Royal Highness The Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh, held yesterday in St George's Chapel, Windsor Castle, under strict Covid restrictions.
Every detail of the service was planned in advance by the Duke himself, to reflect personal elements of his life and his close military ties. There was no eulogy singing his praises, no sermon, and no family readings. Instead, the Duke chose Bible passages, prayers and sacred music which reflected his deep Christian faith.
In death, there is no rank or seniori...
Following the death of His Royal Highness The Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh, we reflect in words, music and prayers on 'a life well lived' for the benefit of others - and including not only the late Duke, but all who have died recently.
We also recall an exceptional man who, at the age of 90, died in March - Reverend Canon Dr John Polkinghorne - a distinguished academic, an expert in quantum physics, and an Anglican priest who was awarded the £1 million Templeton Prize for his use of science to explore life's deepest questions.
In this programme, we listen again to an interview he...
The Easter Halleluia is here! At Your Service on this most important day, comes from St German's Cathedral in Peel, and includes a welcome from the Dean, the Very Reverend Nigel Godfrey, a challenging message from Bishop Peter, and Reverend Ruth Walker, curate at the Cathedral, shares a very vivid Easter memory. The St German's Cathedral choristers also play a major part in today's programme, as we premier their brand new recording of the Easter Halleluia - words by Kelley Mooney to a very familiar tune! The Easter Halleluia music video has been produced to mark the 40th Anniversary of...
Today is PALM SUNDAY, the first day of a week that the Christian church calls HOLY - today we recall Jesus - riding into Jerusalem on a humble donkey - yet greeted like a king by the huge crowds cheering and shouting his praises So - how could a week that begins with so much joy and excitement - end with a sordid and painful death? But it did - and yet still we call it ‘Holy Week’ - and the worst day of all - we call it Good Friday.
But it IS a Holy Week
And Friday IS Good
And the events we’re reflecting on this morning still have the power to change lives today - if we let the story of ...
We now know that for the second year, our celebration of Easter will be different - with none of the special church services, walks of witness and other ways that we mark the feast that’s at the very heart of the Christian faith.
And although this might at first seem disappointing, it COULD also make the Easter message even more meaningful.
Because the message of Easter - the absolute core of the Christian faith - is that God sent his son Jesus Christ to live a fully human life, experiencing and understanding all the things that make up OUR lives - even to accepting an unjust and degra...
On this - Mothering Sunday - the programme looks at women - at loving relationships, and how they shape our lives.
For Margaret Tooth, Mothers Day has a double significance, and Reverend Jo Dudley, vicar of Christ Church in Laxey, speaks movingly of a truly life-changing relationship.
We also delve into the archives to hear from women who visited the Island some 15 years ago, and in so doing, made a bit of Methodist Church history at St John's. Remarkably, the organisation they represented then is still going strong - working in 71 countries and involving over three and a half millio...
Once again, we're AT YOUR SERVICE with words, thoughts and music to lift you up, whilst we're locked down. This week, we feature another Gareth Moore recording, as he sings and plays a fine male voice choir arrangement - by John Tudor Davies - of 'I hear thy welcome voice'.
We know the top priority now is to bring the Covid-19 situation under control,
but I think all of us are feeling some limitations of life at the moment.
There’s a lot we can’t do, people we can’t see, places we can’t visit.
We have time that perhaps we’re not used to,
but fewer choices as to what to do with it...
We're constantly told that "it's OK to be not OK" - yet why is there so often still a stigma attached to mental health? Why do we feel it's a sign of weakness? That we should be able to "snap out of it" .... That we don't need anyone's help .... And could going to church make things even worse, when we're told in our hymns and prayers to "rejoice in the Lord at all times" ?
On At Your Service this week, Rev'd Steve Ingrouille, Methodist Minister in the East of the Island, shares a moving account of his own experience of breakdown, and Caroline Salmon, a Methodist Local Preacher based in R...
Lent started last week, with pancakes on Shrove Tuesday followed by Ash Wednesday - and now we have 6 weeks to prepare for the great celebration of Easter. We start this week's programme by asking how we might make best use of this time - should we be be 'giving up something' and just be grumpy for the whole of Lent? - or would it be better to look on these weeks as a chance to 'spring clean' our life - to ask God's forgiveness for the things we know we could have done better - to look again at our values and attitudes, and to think more deeply about our world, and our place in it.
The...
Good morning - and happy Valentine’s Day!
Louise Whitelegg is the Island’s Christian Aid representative - she’s also a Methodist Local Preacher, and deeply committed to caring for our planet - which is why she’s calling us to a greener way of life - and on this Valentine’s Day - when so many tokens of romantic love will be exchanged - Louise is asking us to ‘go green’ and show another kind of love - love for the planet - love for our world.
She’s invited friends to join her on the programme, each of them answering her question - how do YOU share a greener kind of love?
So, alongside...
If you've ever wondered why the Mariners Services are so popular - attracting full churches wherever they are on the Island, then today's edition of At Your Service might provide some answers.
We're going back in time - some 20 years - to listen to extracts from a Mariners Service recorded in July 2000 in Trinity Methodist Church at Rosemount in Douglas - You’ll hear familiar voices of faith-filled friends who have now passed into everlasting life in God’s kingdom, and there are other voices who are perhaps not so actively involved with the Mariners nowadays - but I’m sure you’ll catch t...
This week, the Christian church celebrates the Presentation of Jesus in the Temple - also known as Candlemas - marking the day on which Mary and Joseph took the 40-day-old baby Jesus to the Temple, as required by Jewish Law. In many churches, candles are blessed on this day - symbols of the light of Christ driving out the darkness of the world - hence the name of Candlemas Day.
But what does all this say to us - 2,000 years later?
When Mary and Joseph took Jesus - their firstborn - to the Temple, they were greeted by two deeply faith-filled people - Simeon and Anna - who recognised t...
Current COVID-19 precautions on the Island mean that we cannot hold our usual National Holocaust Memorial Service - due to be held in St Mary’s Catholic Church, Douglas, this afternoon (24 January) so we begin this week’s programme by reflecting on the 2021 theme, which is ‘Be the light in the darkness’. It encourages everyone to reflect on the depths humanity can sink to, but also the ways individuals and communities resisted that darkness to ‘be the light’ before, during and after genocide. Our time of reflection includes powerful words from the late Rabbi Lord Jonathan Sacks, speaking o...
Welcome to the programme that I hope will lift us up whilst we’re locked down and not able to be together in our churches, chapels and community groups.
This week, I’ve a mix of old and new!
At the start of every new year, Methodists celebrate a covenant service. Established by the father of Methodism - John Wesley - it’s an important part of the Methodist Church calendar.
But many of this year’s covenant services have been affected by the closure of our churches during lockdown, so AT YOUR SERVICE this week goes back in time - to bring you extracts from a Covenant Service, recorded i...
Our thoughts, prayers and music today come from our archive of church services recorded around the Island over the past 20 years. This morning, we're going to St George's Church in Douglas, to hear extracts from two services - a celebration of the 225th Anniversary of the Church (October 2006) and a Service of Re-Dedication following a major programme of refurbishment of the inside of the church (December 2007)
The Warrington Male Voice Choir happened to be on the Island at the time of the Anniversary Service, and lent their voices to the celebration, with conductor Russell Patterson, an...
They only appear in St Matthew's gospel, and we're not entirely sure exactly who they were ...... but we do know why they're important!
In this first edition of At Your Service for 2021, we explore the coming of the three Kings, or Wise Men, who followed a star, which led them to the child Jesus, with his parents Mary and Joseph. Louise Whitelegg, a Methodist Local Preacher who is also our IOM Christian Aid rep, is well known for her down-to-earth, practical approach to her faith - she joins us to share some thoughts on what the events of that first Christmas have to say to us, today.
T...
In this final edition of At Your Service for 2020, Bishop Peter reflects on the unique challenges presented by the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic - how did we make those early decisions? and what have we learned in the months that followed? And with so much uncertainty still around us, is it truly possible to wish each other a happy New Year?
Clare Faulds has been on pilgrimage - during December she walked 45 miles from Rushen Abbey to Maughold. That's about half the distance which Mary and Joseph walked, from their home in Nazareth, to Bethlehem where the child Jesus was to be born. Bu...
Special guest author and broadcaster Pam Rhodes joins Judith for this Christmas Day edition of At Your Service. We reflect on the Christmas story, and what it offers to you today - with Bible readings by David Suchet, lots of favourite carols, and conversation with Pam Rhodes, talking about her work on Premier Christian Radio, her devotion to The Leprosy Mission where she is Vice President, as well as discussing Christmas stockings, family traditions and home made ginger beer!
The following carols are included in the programme :
Once in Royal David's City
The Angel Gabriel
The Coventry...
The Tynwald Carol Service has now become a popular fixture on the Manx calendar.
With a reputation for fine singing of popular carols, it attracts big audiences, and this year it was hosted by St George's Church in Douglas, where the Archdeacon, the Venerable Andie Brown, is not only the Vicar, but also Chaplain of the House of Keys. The Lord Bishop, the Rt Rev'd Peter Eagles, who is also a member of the Legislative Council, led a time of prayer and gave a blessing in Manx; the four Bible readings were given by the Chief Minister, the Hon Howard Quayle, the Speaker, the Hon Juan Watte...
Rev'd Sean Turner has had a long-delayed journey from his home in America, to his new home in Colby, where is has the care of nine Methodist churches around the south of the Island. But in many ways, the waiting has given him a greater awareness of what this season of Advent is all really about.
He tells his story on At Your Service this week - and alongside Monsignor John Devine, senior priest in the Roman Catholic Church on the Island, they reflect on some of the Bible verses being used during this time of preparation for Christmas.
And as usual, there's music too!
If you'd like to...
In this second week of Advent, Rev'd Alex Brown explores two Bible passages - one from the Old Testament, written by the prophet Isaiah, and one from the New Testament, from the start of Mark's gospel. They were written over 700 years apart - but what - or who - links them together?
And what might they mean for us - today?
And does that modern meaning have any connection with CHRISTMAS LIVE that's coming to Douglas on 17th December? Rev'd Alex Brown thinks it does - and he's got all the information to share in this week's programme.
Rev'd Ruth Walker is looking forward to her first...
This is the first Sunday of Advent - the four weeks which the Christian church encourages us to use to prepare for the great feast of Christmas - not in a frenzy of buying, but quietly reflecting on the birth of a baby, over two thousand years ago, who was God made man, and who died a hideous death, so that we might have everlasting life with God in Heaven. It's a free gift and it's offered to everyone.
On AT YOUR SERVICE today, Mgr John Devine, Parish Priest in Douglas, and senior Roman Catholic priest on the Island, explains why Advent is his favourite time of the year. And - because ...