21/08/2016 Songs of Praise


21/08/2016

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Every August bank holiday for the past 50 years, the streets of

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W11 in London have been filled with the sound of steel drums,

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the smell of Caribbean cooking and the sight of colourful costumes.

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This time next week,

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these streets will be full of people enjoying the Notting Hill Carnival.

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I'm Professor Robert Beckford and I've always been fascinated

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by the theology behind the celebration,

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so I've come here to find out about the origins of the event

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and to meet the people who put their faith into the festival.

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# What have you done today to make you feel proud? #

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Also on today's show, former M People lead singer Heather Small

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talks about her music and faith as well as performing for us.

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I used to read a passage from the Bible and then come back

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and be asked questions about it and you'd get a little prize,

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which was a sweet, and that was always an incentive for me.

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So Bible studies and sweets, it went well for me.

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And we're in Batley, West Yorkshire, for another of our unsung

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-rugby heroes.

-Thanks very much. Keep smiling, go on.

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Jim McVeigh will be joining the rest of the Songs Of Praise choir

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chosen to sing Abide With Me at the Rugby League Challenge Cup Final

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at Wembley next weekend.

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Today's programme will have music both traditional and modern

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from the capital and across the country.

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And we start south of the river from here in Brixton at Ruach Church

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with an enthusiastic hymn of praise.

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RHYTHMIC CLAPPING

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STEEL DRUM MUSIC

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Carnivals in this area of London date back to the late 1950s

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at a time when racial integration was a real issue.

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Michael King's father, Sam, was a local pastor

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and one of the founders of the first carnival.

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It wasn't a radical political statement,

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it was a statement of unity.

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It was something that needed to be done at the time to exhibit

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Caribbean culture,

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bring a positive light to Caribbean culture,

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bring a bit of racial harmony.

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It was a way of getting the information over of,

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"These are us from the colonies, here's an experience,

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"an example of how we live

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"and let us live together in harmony and peace."

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Carnival, according to the dictionary,

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means an annual festival,

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typically during the week before Lent in Roman Catholic countries,

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involving processions, music, dancing and the use of masquerade.

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The carnival arose out of the backdrop of the race riots in the late 1950s.

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I just wondered if you could tell me whether you think it's lost

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its connection to Christianity.

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That's a very good question.

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Some would say yes but I think things evolve in a way

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because it's all-encompassing.

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They have fun together at carnival, people enjoy one another's

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presence, they enjoy the whole experience, that is an expression

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of love, which is the fundamental tenet of Christianity.

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It's the foundation of knowing God.

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Police have arrested over 100 alleged gang members ahead of

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the weekend's Notting Hill Carnival.

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We've had violence, we've had robberies,

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we've had tragic deaths and all sorts of things happening.

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I believe that there is always evil and I think sometimes it rears

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its ugly head and unfortunately it becomes very newsworthy.

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What I'd like to see is newsworthiness of the good things

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that are happening. Let's celebrate the good more.

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So, in some ways, it's evolved and changed but it's up to us to bring

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it back to the core root, which is that God is love and every time

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you're enjoying yourself and loving somebody, he's in the midst of it.

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Even though Michael was raised a Christian,

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it wasn't until later in life that he found faith.

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I had clothing shops when I was younger and it happened in

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Brixton when a friend came, he was evangelising at Brixton station,

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he was driving everybody crazy,

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they actually wanted to attack him and we took him into the shop

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to protect him and he spoke to us and he evangelised and he said,

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"Look, Christ is real. Everything else doesn't count.

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"What counts is your relationship."

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And within two weeks,

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I was receiving Christ tearfully into my life again.

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And for someone like me to be called, I was like,

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"God, are you sure you've got it right? I think you've got it wrong."

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But because of life experiences,

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and because I know where I've come from and the past that I've had

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and haven't been in church all my life,

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I'm honoured and privileged to serve him.

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Are you still involved in the carnival?

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We're looking at setting up carnival pastors and this year,

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some of us will be there, we'll be walking round there to support,

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help, love and answer questions because you find when you're

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in clergy collar, people ask you, "Is God real? Why do you love him?

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"Why is there pain and suffering in the world?"

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I blame that on the devil instantly.

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You know, this is the kind of thing that happens when you make

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yourself available to answer God's call.

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Next week, 32 rugby-league-mad fans will walk out onto the centre

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of the Wembley pitch and sing Abide With Me.

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It will be the culmination of a long search by Songs Of Praise

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to find a choir of superfans of the sport to sing this meaningful

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and powerful hymn.

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At the age of 84, Jim McVeigh will be the oldest member of our choir.

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# Abide with me... #

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I've been going to Wembley for many, many, many years.

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And I used to see the choirs

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and I used to sing Abide With Me and cry...

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You're asking for God to come down,

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steer me through the stormy waters,

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help me through stressful times.

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I never thought I'd be out there singing it

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and that is a dream come true.

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# Abide with me. #

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It's very quiet yet, you see,

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it'll liven up in about half an hour.

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Jim grew up supporting Batley Bulldogs and remembers his

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father bringing him here in the 1930s.

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And he'd a long, black overcoat and when it was bad weather,

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he used to put me between his legs and pull me up

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and I used to peep out through the gap.

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Jim is a keen volunteer and at every home game,

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he can be found running the car park.

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Keep smiling, go on.

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Over the years,

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he's done a tremendous amount of work for our club,

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so we made him an honorary member

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on his 80th birthday.

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He's a treasure, isn't he?

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They talk about national treasures, Jim's a Batley treasure.

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Jim was nominated to sing in the choir by his eldest son, Andrew,

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not only for his love of the game but also for his work in

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the wider community.

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Two years ago, Jim fell seriously ill.

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I was a patient on Ward 8 at the hospital with pneumonia.

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And I could have died on that ward.

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And I came through and I can sing

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and I can shout off at the Bulldogs.

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-Morning, everybody.

-Morning.

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To show his gratitude, the former club singer helps run a choir

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session in the hospital chapel for others with respiratory illnesses.

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A lot of us have bad chests and asthma and one thing and another

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so my little nickname for the choir is the Cough Mixtures.

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One, two, three... Ah!

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Again. Ah!

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Ah!

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Don't think that we're the best singers in the world

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but it does open our lungs up and gets us going, so...

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# Fly me to the moon and let me play among the stars... #

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He does a great job.

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We all suffer from the same sort of things and it's such an uplift.

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Really, you walk out of here, you feel ten feet high.

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# Hold my hand... #

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And next week, when Jim sings at Wembley, he'll be flying high too.

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I'll do my family proud,

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I'll do Batley Bulldogs proud, and I'll do myself proud.

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# Wish me luck as you wave me goodbye

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# Cheerio, here I go, on my way... #

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In the meantime,

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Jim has chosen our next hymn for the strength it gives him.

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My favourite hymn is How Great Thou Art

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and it means such a lot to me. I've sung it in the choirs,

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it's registered with me and that's my favourite hymn.

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This area of West London has produced some great musical talent

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including Rita Ora, Mark Ronson and Heather Small.

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Heather was born and raised in this neighbourhood and went to

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the Good News Club on this street.

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We caught up with her to find out more about her life,

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faith and music.

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# One night in heaven One night in heaven... #

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Heather Small made her name when her band, M People,

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made it big in the '90s.

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But a lot of her fans may not know about her religious roots.

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# One night in heaven One night in heaven... #

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I grew up with music from hymns, from gospel and also from secular.

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We heard Aretha's rock-steady,

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we had some ska

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and reggae and pop.

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For me, to sing a religious song is not unfamiliar to me.

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I think that if it's good music and it's about how you feel

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and what you want to say, then it makes sense.

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# You're my masterpiece... #

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My mother's father used to preach and she grew up in

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a household that was ultra-religious.

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No TV, no radio, all the songs that they could sing and all

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the entertainment was through church.

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She sent us to Sunday school.

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They used to always read a passage from the Bible and come back

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and be asked questions about it and you'd get a little prize,

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which was a sweet, and that was always an incentive for me,

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so Bible studies and sweets, it went well for me.

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I encountered the Good News Club when I was about 11

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and I heard this singing.

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It was so uplifting, I thought,

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"I'm going to just go and see what that's about."

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And I've always been curious about faith, about God.

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And I went in, it was very welcoming, very welcoming,

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and they had Bible studies that engaged and they liked to sing.

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They sang modern hymns.

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# That is why I can sing

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# That is why I can shout... #

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I'm very old-school when it comes to the gospel.

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My favourite definitely has to be Mahalia Jackson.

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She has that power, she's just regal and when she sings,

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and she sings with that faith in her heart.

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# Come on, children, let's sing

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# Come on, children, let's shout... #

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If you're a believer or not, you listen to Mahalia Jackson -

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even if it's for three minutes - you're a believer.

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And when somebody's got that kind of power, you know...

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I bow down.

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# What have you done today to make you feel proud? #

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Something like Proud, you know, Search For The Hero,

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I feel that those songs are based in faith, are based in love.

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So I think my faith has helped me make choices, that's what it is.

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Not just about song choices but life choices and whether something

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is morally right for me.

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And whether it's something I should be doing,

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whether it's something that I could be proud of.

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# What have you done today to make you feel proud? #

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People Get Ready is an African-American gospel-sounding song

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but some of the greats have done it like Curtis Mayfield,

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who does it with such ease and beauty, but this is my rendition.

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It's about gathering people together, it's about empathy,

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and that faith should bring a oneness and not a division.

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And faith is the key and those words resonate.

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# People get ready

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# There's a train a-coming

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# You don't need no baggage

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# You just get onboard

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# All you need is faith, yeah

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# To hear the diesels humming

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# You don't need no ticket

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# You just thank the Lord

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# People get ready

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# There's a train to Jordan

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# Picking up passengers

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# From coast to coast

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# Faith is the key, yeah

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# Open the doors and board them

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# You don't need no ticket

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# You just get onboard

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# Now there ain't no room, yeah

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# For the hopeless sinner

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# Who has hurt all mankind

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# Just to save his own

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# Have pity on those

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# Whose chances are thinner

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# Cos there's no hiding place

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# From the kingdom's throne

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# I said people get ready

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# There's a train a-coming

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# Picking up passengers

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# From coast to coast

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# All you need is faith

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# To hear the diesels humming

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# You don't need no ticket

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# You just thank the Lord

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# You don't need no ticket

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# Just thank the Lord

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# You don't need no ticket, no baggage, no guards

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# No

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# You just thank the Lord

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# This train is bound for Jordan

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# You just th-th-thank the Lord, yeah

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# People get ready

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# Yeah, get on, get on, get onboard

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# Thank the Lord

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# And get onboard. #

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The unmistakable voice of Heather Small recorded just down

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the road at the Hackney Empire.

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Our next piece of music comes from further afield.

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This is You Are Good from the New Community Church in Southampton.

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One of the most distinctive sights the Notting Hill Carnival is the costume parade.

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Giselle Carter is following in her father's footsteps,

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creating colourful outfits for the Kiddies' Carnival.

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Carnival is about masquerade.

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It's about having fun and dressing up and being free.

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Our costumes this year, we portray petals, so it's part of nature,

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nature's beauty. So we are celebrating the beauty of nature.

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I guess people really dress up because it's

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-a great way to have fun.

-What do you mean by masquerade?

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Well, I'm from Trinidad and Tobago

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and for us, the masquerade started as

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a result of the freed slaves back in 1833.

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And carnival in the Caribbean and certainly in Trinidad and

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Tobago was born out of oppression and into freedom

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so that's where the freedom of expression comes from.

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Hence the reason why you have fantastic costumes that you

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see from all the different carnivals around the world.

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One of the things that has intrigued me is the relationship

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between carnival and Christianity and I just wondered if you

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see carnival having Christian expression,

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or has it moved beyond that and away from any kind of religious meaning?

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No, I think there is still a lot of spirituality within the carnival.

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And there are lots of songs that reflect that as well.

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And a lot of the slaves, don't forget, were converted

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Christians so they did use their spirituality,

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they did use their religion in a creative way

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in that freedom of expression,

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so there is a direct correlation and link between the two.

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Is your creativity an expression of your faith and spirituality?

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Yes, it is. Yes, it is.

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'Our talents were given to us by the creator and once we use or if

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'we're able to use our talents then it is using something that

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'he gave us and even to glorify his name as well,

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'so I think being creative is godlike, if I would say,

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'because it's a God-given talent that has been given to us and when'

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we use it then we are then glorifying God

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by using what he's given us.

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'I recently lost my father a few months ago and when I create

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'these costumes, I feel him within me, you know,

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'I feel his creativity and his spirit helping me,'

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moving me along and even the whole creative process from

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thinking about the concept to actually making it physically

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with my hands because he was really, really creative.

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So it's really, really important for me

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to get involved in this because I really want to see it grow.

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I really want people to experience the joy that comes with

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carnival because when you are on the road for carnival,

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all you can think about is having fun.

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# Guide me, o thou great redeemer

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# Pilgrim through this barren land

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# I am weak but thou art mighty

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# Hold me with thy powerful hand

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# Bread of heaven Bread of heaven

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# Feed me till I want no more

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# Want no more

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# Feed me till I want no more

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# Oh, oh, oh, oh

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# Oh, oh, oh, oh

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# Open now the crystal fountain

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# Whence the healing stream doth flow

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# Let the fiery cloudy pillar

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# Lead me all my journey though

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# Strong deliverer Strong deliverer

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# Be thou still my strength and shield

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# Strength and shield

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# Be thou still my strength and shield

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# Oh, oh, oh, oh

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# Oh, oh, oh, oh

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# When I tread the verge of Jordan

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# Bid my fears subside

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# Death of death And hell's destruction

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# Land me safe on Canaan's side

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# Songs of praises

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# Songs of praises

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# I will ever give to thee

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# Give to thee

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# I will ever give to thee. #

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The origins of the carnival may be disputed and over the years,

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they may have become known for reasons other than purely celebration,

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but when it's at its best,

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the carnival can live up to the ideal of Sam King who said,

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"If you lift up the name of God, he will lift you."

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Sentiments that are expressed in the words and actions of our final hymn today.

0:30:220:30:26

Thanks for watching.

0:30:260:30:28

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