Housing Crisis Songs of Praise


Housing Crisis

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'Built in 12 weeks, for less than £1,000 each,

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'these houses seem one answer to the housing drive.

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'With a living room, dining annexe and kitchen downstairs...'

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Sound familiar? Well, that was in 1952, when Britain was in the grip

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of a housing crisis, following the devastation of the Second World War.

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Well, today we face a different battle.

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A housing shortage deepened by spiralling rent

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and house prices beyond the reach of many people.

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I'm in the Lake District to find out how churches can help and hear how

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a Good Samaritan made a difference for one family in Bristol.

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She named this figure and I was just like...

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They knew how much this house was worth,

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but they chose to be really generous.

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Also in the programme, Claire meets

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The Man With the Golden Flute, Sir James Galway,

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who performs a beautiful arrangement of The Lord's My Shepherd.

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And, with Lent underway, the Archbishop of York Dr John Sentamu

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tackles the subject of forgiveness

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in a powerful interview with Maureen Greaves, whose husband was murdered.

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I had no room for anger.

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The two men that killed Alan, I put them into God's hands.

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There's an Irish flavour to our music today,

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with celebrations for St Patrick's Day happening on Friday.

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But first, a joyful worship song reflecting the wonder of God

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and his sacrifice for us.

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Throughout the history of Britain,

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the church has been at the forefront of social change.

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More recently, campaigning against modern-day slavery,

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poverty and setting up food banks.

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So how are some church communities

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choosing to respond to the housing crisis?

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The Faith in Affordable Housing project works with churches

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of all denominations, advising them on the sale of land and property

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for the benefit of local people.

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Churches are centres of the local community

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and quite often the church building or church land

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can be quite an emotive subject for many.

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But actually, I think if we work to bring congregations with us

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in the developments that happen,

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it can be a really positive contribution,

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not just to the local community

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but to the role of the church in that community.

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Here in Ambleside, Faith in Affordable Housing advised on

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the conversion of an old Methodist chapel

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into 15 flats for local people.

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I think there we've got an example

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of keeping the tradition associated with the building, but giving it

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a new use and making sure it's still at the heart of the community.

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Eight miles from Ambleside is the pretty village of Coniston.

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Here, the sale of church land has made a difference to Leanne

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and her family who found themselves in desperate circumstances.

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I love that!

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Tell me about the house you used to live in, your old house.

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Well, it was old and the walls, they were crumbling.

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There was only the wallpaper that was holding it together.

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-I had to share a room with Sam when he came along.

-Aw...

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Leanne, listening to your children talk about the old house,

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what does that make you feel like?

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The house that we did live in was actually a very nice house,

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but it was very old.

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Our last winter there was 2010,

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which was the coldest winter on record.

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We used to put the children to bed with their dressing gowns on.

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Sam's getting cold thinking about it!

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It was. It was very cold.

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Before you knew you got the chance to move, what was the situation?

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Desperate. Absolutely desperate.

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Why was there nowhere for you to move to?

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There's just not enough housing.

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Coniston is tourist-based and there are a lot of second homes,

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a lot of holiday homes,

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which is great because we do need them for our income as well,

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but it's now put people, local people,

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out of the market to buy or even rent.

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So, that's not a nice situation to be in?

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No, we needed to find somewhere to live.

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At their lowest ebb,

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Leanne and her family were offered a new home in affordable accommodation

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for local people built on land sold by the Diocese of Carlisle.

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Over the years, I've seen so many friends leaving the village

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and there was nowhere here for them to live.

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With the church developing the land, I know there's somewhere for

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my children to stay in Coniston when it's their turn.

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Sam, what do you like about this house?

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-I like having my own bedroom.

-Aw, that must be nice.

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It is a beautiful close.

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What do you think about the fact that it's all happened

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because of something the church did?

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Well, it's actually a miracle of God's work

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that the church have chosen to give up their land for houses,

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so we can have a better life.

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And why is that important, that they did that?

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Well, it's Christianity.

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Jesus, well, he's given us a miracle and he's given us a home.

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And it's just really, really good.

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We're now in the second week of Lent,

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the period when Christians pause to reflect on their faith.

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For the next few weeks, we're doing exactly that,

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with a special series of interviews

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presented by the Archbishop of York, Dr John Sentamu.

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One of my great joys as I travel around the country

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is the opportunity to meet people who inspire me.

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I hope that by hearing their stories and faith, you too will find

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your own lives enriched and your faith strengthened.

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Today, I'm meeting Maureen Greaves, whose forgiving spirit when faced

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with a shocking and traumatic event in her life is an example to us all.

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On Christmas Eve 2012,

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Maureen's husband Alan was walking to his church,

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St Saviour's in Sheffield, to play the organ for midnight mass.

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But Alan never made it to the service.

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He was brutally attacked on the way and died three days later.

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His two killers are currently serving jail sentences.

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My prayer is that Jonathan Bowling and Ashley Foster

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will come to understand and experience

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the love and kindness of the God who made them in his own image...

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Despite this devastating loss, Maureen has continued the project

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she started with Alan, to provide for her community.

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-Good morning, Maureen. Are you well?

-I am.

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-Are you?

-Not so bad.

-For food bank?

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Two years ago, Maureen was awarded the British Empire Medal

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for that work. She's a true example of faith in action.

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The events of that Christmas Eve five years ago

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must still be with you, really?

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How do you reflect on that event now?

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A number of people believe that

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God, in a sense, had deserted Alan and deserted me.

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I don't believe that.

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I believe that God was with Alan.

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He was with him as he was being attacked,

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and he was with him as he was dying.

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And I very much believe he was with me and enabled me to

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go through a very long journey, really, especially the first year.

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And I still miss Alan very, very much.

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We were a very ordinary couple,

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but it was a very extraordinary marriage too

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because we were truly in love when we married

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and we were still in love when he died.

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So the loss has been huge.

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And I live with his memories every day.

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Is it true that you have never expressed anger?

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It is, actually. I know it might sound quite strange.

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And I think I was so heartbroken and so full of grief

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that I had no room for anger.

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The two men that killed Alan, I put them into God's hands.

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I was able to leave them there. And so, no, I haven't felt anger.

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Some may say this is quite extraordinary.

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"Here is Maureen.

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"Husband has died.

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"Here are the two young men.

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"She's putting them into God's hands.

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"Isn't she crazy?"

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I just had a real, real desire to forgive them.

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And in fact when I thought of Jonathan and Ashley,

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it was always with a sense of, "Father, look after them

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"and bring them to a true knowledge of your forgiveness for them.

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"And a true awareness of how much you love them."

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-And I've never regretted doing that.

-OK.

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Don't get the impression that every single day was easy. It wasn't.

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You do have your questions sometimes and you do have your doubts,

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but I just clung onto God's hand almost,

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and just remembered who this God was

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I'd served and worshipped for 40 years.

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I have to walk past the place where Alan died nearly every day.

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And so I've turned it into a little prayer time.

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I pray for many people,

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but I especially pray for Ashley and Jonathan.

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Because no-one is beyond God's grace.

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Everyone can be forgiven, no matter what they've done.

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Ooh, look at that. There's hardly any weeds left in that.

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Maureen, you threw yourself into work in the community, work

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which you and Alan had set up.

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Now, did that help in the healing process?

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It has helped in the healing process.

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The community project that I run with St Saviour's Church

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is to try and meet people's needs.

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And so my hope is to continue the work to reach out to the lonely,

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the lost and those that have the least in our community.

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-Well, Maureen, it's been a real delight to talk to you...

-Thank you.

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..to share your understanding of forgiveness,

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of life and its traumas

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and yet still finding the life of faith holding you together.

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-So it's been a real pleasure.

-Thank you.

-Wonderful, wonderful.

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-Keep doing it!

-I will. I will indeed.

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This coming Friday, 17 March, is St Patrick's Day, so I'm here in

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Patterdale in the Lake District, once known as Saint Patrick's Dale.

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According to legend, Patrick spent time in this area,

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converting many local people to Christianity.

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The church is named after him,

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and here he is in one of its stained-glass windows.

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So, in celebration of the patron saint of Ireland,

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here are The Priests with the Irish hymn,

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Ag Criost an Siol - To Christ the Seed.

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We continue with the Irish theme now with our next guest,

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known the world over as The Man With the Golden Flute.

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Claire caught up with Sir James Galway

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on his recent trip back home to Northern Ireland.

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Let me take you back to your childhood. Growing up in Belfast.

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A very musical childhood.

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Yeah, it was. The street I grew up in, everybody played something.

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There were very few people who didn't play anything.

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Your father and your grandfather, they were steeped in music as well?

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My dad played the accordion. My grandad played the flute

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and I think he must have been quite a good flute player

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because I think he played in the opera now and again.

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Because my uncle Joe who taught me the flute said

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he used to go and listen to my grandad play.

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Take me back to whenever you started the flute.

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What age were you when you started to play?

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I think about nine, something like that.

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I was in a flute band to begin with,

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then I played in the Belfast Military,

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and then I joined the 39th Old Boys, which was a big flute band.

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I really enjoyed it and I always practised.

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And then I began to think that this is a gift from God

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and you should not refuse a gift.

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You should look after it.

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Do you ever tire of performing?

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No, it's great. I really like performance.

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I like to get out there.

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You know what's great about it,

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you practice something and it's a disaster.

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And then a week later, it begins to hang together.

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Two weeks later, you've really got it up and running.

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And three weeks later it's ready to go.

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And you get out there and play,

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and all the things that you practised come to fruition.

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Before you go on-stage, do you have a routine?

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You have things that you do right before you go on to perform?

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Yeah, I do.

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But generally the last thing I do is pray to bless the performance.

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Now, I always like to play at the end of a concert Danny Boy

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because I think this is like a prayer in music.

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And I make a joke with the audience. You know, I tell them,

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"Now, listen, you don't have to get down on your knees

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"or hold your hands together or close your eyes

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"because the master says, 'Watch and pray.' "

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MUSIC: Danny Boy

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The piece you're going to perform for us,

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The Lord's My Shepherd, what does that particular piece mean to you?

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Well, first of all, it's a beautiful psalm.

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And secondly I thought, you know, this is the Queen's favourite song.

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So, if she's looking in, I'm playing it for her too.

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And performing alongside your wife Jeanne - how special is that?

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Yeah, it's nice. Yeah, it's very special.

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The housing crisis is a UK-wide problem, involving

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a complex set of issues, affecting both rural and urban communities.

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But ultimately it's about people.

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Last year, Rachel and her family were told out of the blue

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that they had to leave their rented home in Bristol.

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Within two weeks, we went from,

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"It might be a possibility that your house will be sold,"

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to, "The house is sold.

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"We'll have to get somewhere else to live very quickly."

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A house would come on the market for rent

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and it would be snapped up straightaway.

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You know, the prices have just gone out of control.

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And so we started thinking,

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"We're just going to have to move somewhere else."

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Obviously people have to up and leave their homes

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in much, much worse situations than ours.

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You know, people have to flee warzones and cross borders.

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It wouldn't have been the end of the world if we'd had to do it,

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but, for us, we were so well established.

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The community that we were very involved with,

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the church that we were part of.

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All of this, all of a sudden, gone.

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Just before uprooting their family

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for a property they didn't really want,

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Rachel received a call from her church, with news of a house

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being offered for rent in Bristol by a member of the congregation.

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When I walked in to this very house, I thought, "This is it.

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"This is the house I want our family to live in."

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And I literally looked at every room

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with this huge smile on my face.

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The best thing was when I spoke to my now landlady and she said,

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"Look, this house has been such a blessing to us and our family

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"and we want it to be a blessing to someone else in turn.

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"So we want to let it out at..." And then she named this figure.

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And I was like...

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They knew how much this house was worth,

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but they chose to be really generous.

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I guess, for me, the ongoing challenge just in living in

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this house, living in this incredible answer to our prayer

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is that if we feel prompted to be generous, then we need to do it.

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We need to be generous in turn because you just never know

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when we might be the answer to someone else's prayer.

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Next week, with the NHS under pressure,

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Aled experiences the highs and lows of life at Southport Hospital.

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But we end today with an inspiring hymn that urges us to build a house,

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not in the literal sense,

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but as Christians to bear witness to our unity in Christ.

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