Easter Praise Songs of Praise


Easter Praise

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Hello and happy Easter from St Mary's in Portsmouth.

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You know, long before the custom of giving eggs came about,

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early Christians lit fires at Easter to symbolise the Resurrection.

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This church, along with many others,

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holds an Easter vigil with a bonfire

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as a reminder of Christ's light overcoming the darkness

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with the promise of eternal life.

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Well, our Easter celebration is about to get under way,

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we are going to be joined by congregations and choirs

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from across the Portsmouth area and some very special guests.

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On this Easter Day, glorious hymns and Easter readings,

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plus performances by West End star Ramin Karimloo,

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Manfred Mann front man and local lad Paul Jones

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and classical chart-topper Laura Wright.

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Early on the first day of the week, while it was still dark,

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Mary Magdalene went to the tomb

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and saw that the stone had been removed from the entrance

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so she came running to Simon Peter and the other disciple,

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the one Jesus loved, and said,

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"They have taken the Lord out of the tomb

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"and we don't know where they have put him."

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So Peter and the other disciple started for the tomb.

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Both were running, but the other disciple outran Peter

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and reached the tomb first.

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He bent over and looked in at the strips of linen lying there

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but did not go in.

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Then Simon Peter came along behind him and went straight into the tomb.

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He saw the strips of linen lying there

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as well as the cloth that had been wrapped around Jesus' head.

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The cloth was still lying in its place, separate from the linen.

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Finally, the other disciple, who had reached the tomb first,

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also went inside.

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He saw and believed.

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A big thank you to all our 700 singers here at St Mary's

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for that wonderful alleluya and to Laura Wright,

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who we'll be hearing more from a little bit later.

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Now it's time for another seasonal favourite.

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I hope you'll be singing along with us for The Day of Resurrection.

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Next we hear from the most popular choral work of all time,

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Handel's Messiah.

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And to sing a beautiful aria from the Easter section,

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I Know That My Redeemer Liveth,

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we welcome back soprano Laura Wright.

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# I know that my Redeemer liveth

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# And that he shall stand

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# At the latter day upon the earth

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# I know that my Redeemer liveth

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# And though worms destroy this body

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# Yet in my flesh shall I see God

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# Yet in my flesh shall I see God

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# Shall I see God

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# I know that my Redeemer liveth

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# For now is Christ risen From the dead

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# The first fruits of them that sleep

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# Of them that sleep

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# The first fruits of them that sleep

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# For now is Christ risen For now is Christ risen

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# From the dead

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# The first fruits

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# Of them that sleep. #

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Well, wasn't that wonderful?

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There'll be more from Laura a little bit later.

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Well, you might have seen our next guest as the Phantom of the Opera

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or more recently in the lead role of Jean Valjean in Les Miserables

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but now he's moving in a new direction.

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# God on high... #

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'I've been very blessed with being part of the two biggest shows'

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at two important times of their timelines.

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You know, the 25th anniversary of Les Mis and Phantom

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have been very successful for the show as well as for me.

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How do you feel when you're playing a character like Jean Valjean?

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Oh, blessed, you know?

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With that role I was something I didn't think I'd ever want to play

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or ever would play.

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Sir Cameron Mackintosh had great faith in me -

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more so than I had in myself.

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So, I said to him, "OK, I'll give it a shot."

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What I thought would be a nightmare turned out to be a dream role.

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-Is it a spiritual experience when you're up on that stage?

-Absolutely.

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Playing a character like Jean Valjean?

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Especially that character. But, for me, singing is spiritual

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cos it's, you're sharing something of yourself.

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Especially if you write your own music or...

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you know, if you're a recording artist

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but even with a role you tap into something that's spiritual

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and for me it's why I love to sing.

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And it's through music that Ramin has discovered his faith.

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A CD of Christian music inspired him to find out more.

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I was listening to it on the way home and I thought,

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"I wonder if there's something going on here?"

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Then when I got home there was a pamphlet to come to my local church,

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discussing debt of all things.

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And I was not great with money so I thought,

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"Well, I'll go and check it out."

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Since then I've become really close with the pastor,

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we try and meet once a week and, you know, I don't,

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for me it's a spiritual thing.

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I don't see it as religion, I don't see it as rules,

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I think God is all-forgiving.

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At least my God, the way I see it, you know?

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Ramin's now enjoying expressing his Christian faith in his music

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as a solo recording artist.

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# Constant angel... #

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-Tell me about Constant Angel.

-That's a gift.

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You know, it's got some of the most beautiful lyrics I ever heard

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but there's a lyric in there that sold it right away.

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It says - and it kind of explains my, sort of, ongoing journey

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and struggle with my faith -

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"There will be times you won't believe in much of anything,

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"that's when you'll find the grace of God in just surrendering."

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And I remembered, the one thing I keep trying to tell myself,

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"Stop controlling your destiny, stop controlling how to fix things.

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"Just, sometimes you've just got to take that leap of faith

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"and let it be. Surrender."

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# I have watched you fall

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# Through those tender years

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# And every time I thought there must be more that I could do

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# You found a light

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# A different way out there in front of you

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# I am in your eyes

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# Just that close to you

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# And now I see your innocence against a troubled sky

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# Everything you once believed is now a question why

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# It's OK

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# Don't lose your faith

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# Don't turn away

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# Everything that makes you who you are will not lead you astray

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# When it gets cold

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# Too dark to see

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# Reach in your soul and find me there, I'll always be

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# Your constant angel

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# Your constant angel

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# Who could ask the years

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# To keep its truth from you?

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# There will be times you won't believe in much of anything

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# That's when you'll find the grace of God in just surrendering

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# It's OK

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# Don't lose your faith

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# Don't turn away

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# Everything that makes you who you are will not lead you astray

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# When it gets cold

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# Too dark to see

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# Reach in your soul and find me there, I'll always be

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# Your constant angel

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# In every prayer I am constantly there with you

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# Don't lose your faith

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# Don't turn away

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# Everything that makes you who you are will not lead you astray

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# When it gets cold

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# Too dark to see

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# Reach in your soul and find me there, I'll always be

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# Your constant angel

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# Your constant angel

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# Your constant angel. #

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The Easter story continues to inspire modern hymn writers,

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among them Stuart Townend and Keith Getty.

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They wrote our next piece of music.

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It's a contemporary Resurrection hymn

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that's become popular in many churches.

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With our eyes we see The beauty of Easter

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As the earth awakens once more

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With our ears we hear The birds sing sweetly

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To tell us Spring again is here

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With our hands we pick The golden daffodils

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And the fragrant hyacinths

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But only with our hearts Can we feel the miracle of God's love

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Which redeems all men

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And only with our soul Can we make our pilgrimage to God

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And inherit his Easter gift of eternal life.

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# Love is come again

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# Like wheat that springs up green. #

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Our next guest is no stranger to singing in church.

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Like me, he was a chorister,

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he sang just down the road at Portsmouth Cathedral.

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But he moved away from choral music

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and found fame and fortune as a '60s rock star.

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# There she was just-a walking down the street

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# Singing doo-wah diddy diddy dum diddy doo... #

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Paul Jones topped the charts as the lead singer of Manfred Mann.

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What's it like, you know, being that rock 'n' roll idol, if you like?

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Which you were in the '60s.

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Well, it was exciting. Some things about it were VERY exciting

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and a lot of things about it were exceedingly boring.

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And that mixture of excitement and boredom

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is what sends people off the rails a lot of the time.

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# And tonight you would hear the saddest song of the year... #

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'I didn't go as bad as some people but I went off the rails somewhat.'

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I rebelled big-time. I mean, I just said, "Right, that's it!",

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you know, "Never catch me in a church again as long as I live.

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-"What's that other thing? Atheist, I'll be that!"

-Right.

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It didn't know what it was, you know, but I decided to, erm...

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Basically, I decided to live a life of, sort of, hostility to Christians

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and I did exactly that.

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Paul became well-known as a staunch atheist.

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In 1967 they asked me if I, cos they said, "You're a famous atheist,

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"we'd like you to come on television and argue with a famous Christian."

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I said, "Who's that?", they said, "Cliff Richard."

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I said, "Lead me to him," I said. ALED LAUGHS

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That's... When your hobby was arguing with Christians, you know,

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you don't turn down Cliff Richard. So, I just jumped at it.

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And I was horrible on that television programme,

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and it pains me to think about it now...

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but Cliff was great.

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I asked him years later, after I'd become a Christian,

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I said, "Well, you must have wanted to retaliate?

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"Come on, I was nasty. I was obnoxious. What did you want to do?"

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And he said, "It didn't matter what I wanted to do,"

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he said, "I had two friends with me and we prayed for you."

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-# Luck be a lady

-Luck be a lady... #

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Cliff's prayers were eventually answered when Paul met his wife Fiona

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in a National Theatre production of Guys And Dolls.

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# ..tonight! #

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She thought she was a Christian, I knew I wasn't

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and we, sort of, wanted to meet somewhere in the middle and...

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Came out of BBC Broadcasting House

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and, having some time to kill before going to the theatre where we were,

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she went into this building opposite, which is All Souls, Langham Place.

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And she flipped open a Bible and it fell open at Gospel of John,

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chapter 3 and verse 16. It just jumped out!

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And she came to the theatre that night and she said to me...

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to cut a long story short, "I'm going to that church on Sunday."

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And I said, "I'm coming with you."

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How did you change as a person when you then became a Christian?

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I think the main thing is...

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whatever I do now is not for me.

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Everything I did was for me.

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Everything I did was to build up my career, my fame, my fortune

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and so on and so forth, and that's rubbish!

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It's dangerous rubbish.

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It's just lovely to know that, erm, God loves us.

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That's the extraordinary, wonderful thing. God loves us.

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And to know that, you just want to love him back.

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# I woke up this morning with my mind

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# Restin' on Jesus

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# Woke up this morning with my mind

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# Restin' on Jesus

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# Woke up this morning with my mind

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# Restin' on Jesus

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# Hallelu, Hallelu

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# Hallelujah

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# There's no better way to live than with your mind

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# Restin' on Jesus

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# No better way to live than with your mind

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# Restin' on Jesus

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# There's no better way to live than with your mind

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# Restin' on Jesus

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# Hallelu, Hallelu

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# Hallelujah

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# You see, you can't hate your neighbour with your mind

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# Restin' on Jesus

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# Can't hate your neighbour with your mind

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# Restin' on Jesus

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# You can't be prejudiced against him with your mind

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# Restin' on Jesus

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# Hallelu, Hallelu

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# Hallelujah

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# There's perfect peace when your mind is

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# Restin' on Jesus

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# Perfect peace when your mind is

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# Restin' on Jesus The Bible says it

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# Perfect peace when your mind is

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# Restin' on Jesus

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# Hallelu, Hallelu

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# Hallelujah

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# Hallelujah! Hallelujah! Hallelujah! #

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Risen Lord Jesus, as Mary Magdalene met you in the garden

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on the morning of your resurrection

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so may we meet you today and every day.

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Speak to us as you spoke to her.

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Reveal yourself as the living Lord.

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Renew our hope and kindle our joy

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and send us to share the good news with others.

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Amen.

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And may the peace and the joy of the risen Christ

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be yours this Eastertide and always.

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And the blessing of God Almighty, the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit

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be with you and all whom you love, this day and always.

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Amen.

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Well, we're nearing the end of our Easter celebrations here in Portsmouth.

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A big thank you to Laura, Ramin and Paul Jones

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and let's not forget our organist Brian Moles...

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and our conductor Paul Leddington Wright.

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We're finishing with a hymn that combines powerful words

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with a tune by Handel that's instantly recognisable, you'll enjoy it.

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It's Thine Be The Glory.

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# Alleluia

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# Amen. #

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Next week it's the School Choir Of The Year competition.

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This'll be the 10th.

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In the first of three programmes from the Lowry Theatre in Salford

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six of the very best junior school choirs

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sing to win a place in the final.

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Subtitles by Red Bee Media Ltd

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