At Your Service

Today is Palm Sunday - the start of the week that the Christian church calls HOLY.  It's a week that starts with rejoicing and celebrating, as Jesus rides into Jerusalem - just days later, those same crowds who greeted him so warmly, are shouting for his death - and this Holy Week ends with a sordid, agonising death by crucifixion. So is this the end - or is it maybe just the beginning?&n...

MICHAEL HARDIE is the new Community Partnerships Manager for The Leprosy Mission, and when he visited the Island recently, to meet supporters of the Manx-registered charity Leprosy Mission Isle of Man, we chatted about Michael's childhood - some of which was spent living in a leprosy colony in Africa - and about the Leprosy Mission's work with the tea pickers of Bangladesh, where leprosy i...

By pure coincidence, two Archbishops are visiting the Isle of Man this weekend! The Most Reverend and Rt Honourable Stephen Cottrell is the Archbishop of York - second only to the Archbishop of Canterbury in seniority in the Church of England.  He's also the Bishop of the Province of York which gives him care of all the Anglican Churches in the North of England - including the Isle of Man...

Every 2 minutes, someone in the world is diagnosed with leprosy - if they don't get treatment, the results are devastating - paralysis, nerve damage  and loss of limbs eventually mean that someone with leprosy becomes unable to work.  This is a disease of poverty - thriving where there is malnutrition and poor sanitation, in communities where there is no support for those unable to s...

David Dorricott is - by any standards - a successful businessman - yet he and his wife Alison - Directors of Ramsey-based postcode software specialists AFD Software, choose to live simply, and  regularly give away a huge proportion of the Company profits to local and global charities - benefitting people they don't know and will never meet.   They acknowledge that it's their staf...

Today's programme features three very different journeys -  a journey of sadness, as we reflect in words and music on the massive cost of 12 months of war in Ukraine; a journey to a place where many of us may find ourselves at some stage in life - in the wilderness; and finally - a journey of discovery - new places, new friendships and maybe a new view on life ..... Phil Craine and Rosema...

This week, it's Shrove Tuesday, Ash Wednesday and the start of the six weeks of Lent, leading up to the great celebration of Easter - the feast at the very heart of the Christian faith ..... but what do these days, which have their origin in ancient times, have to say to us today? We'll offer some answers on the programme today. And just how deeply do we love? Amazing things have been achi...

Valentine's Day is just around the corner - and for some it will be a celebration of love, while others will reject it as materialistic and commercialised.   But who started it? Today we explore some of the stories .... we'll see where Chaucer (of Canterbury Tales fame) fits into the picture, and reflect on whether Valentine's Day really has anything to do with long-lasting, lovin...

Reverend Professor David Wilkinson is our special guest today, talking about his life, his work, and why we don't have to choose between science and religion -  we need them both! David is ordained in the Methodist Church, he's also a theologian and an astrophysicist.  He's the current Principal of St John's College, Durham and a professor in the Department of Theology an...

Friday 27 January was Holocaust Memorial Day - a day to specially remember the six million Jews murdered during the Holocaust, alongside the millions killed under Nazi persecution of other groups like  Roma, Sinti, gay people and people with disabilities. It is also a day to remember all those killed in the  more recent genocides in Cambodia, Rwanda, Bosnia and Darfur. Our world often fe...

Many churches see science as the enemy - a challenge to belief in God.   But what if science and religion were not opposites at all? Instead - what if they needed each other?  The man who asked THOSE questions is Revd Professor David Wilkinson - Theologian, Physicist and current Principal of St John's College, Durham, and he's coming to the Island next weekend. In this programme,...

Manx Language Development Officer Ruth Keggin Gell will be at our Retreat House, Thie Dy Vea (House of Life) in Peel next weekend to lead two events that are very different, but bonded together by the use of Manx Language.   On Friday 20 January,  Ruth will lead  GOW ARRANE - SING! an evening to learn and enjoy prayerful, peaceful chants from the Taize monastic community, translated...

In April 2003, Ruth and Chris Baker went to Romania, to spend a couple of weeks helping at an orphanage. They believed that it would be a one-off trip - but -  in their own words, God had other plans for them - and those plans involved Ruth and Chris buying a home in North East Romania and devoting their lives to Hands of Hope - a charity registered in the Isle of Man and in Romania, where th...

Blein vie noa!  Happy New Year! Welcome to a specially extended New Years Day edition of At Your Service - looking back at some of the guests, stories and music that featured on the programme during 2022. Philip Longworth has never let his sight problems be an obstacle to serving others - and now he's living and working on the Island - with a mission that's church-based but aiming to...

Celebrating the reason for the season - the birth of Jesus Christ - in words and music. In this Christmas Day specially-extended programme, I'm joined by Richard Littledale - a recently-retired Baptist pastor, who is also a published author, and regular broadcaster on BBC Radio 2 and Radio 4.        Richard shares stories from his ministry, his family life, and his work as...

This is a special weekend in the life of a much-loved church in the North of the Island, as the Old Church in Ballaugh opens its doors once more.  Caroline Devlin is the driving force - looking to find new ways for this historic church to serve the local community. Author and broadcaster Richard Littledale is back, with something else from his collection of over 70 nativity sets from around t...

Why are so many young people - from primary school age children to late teenagers - keen to join church and cathedral choirs?  What is the important anniversary being marked later this week in Malew? When you want to buy something a little different for a special friend or relative, where do you look? And which of his 50 nativity sets has Richard Littledale brought with him today?? On today&#...

Welcome to AT YOUR SERVICE EXTRA - an occasional podcast that - as the name suggests - brings you interviews and stories that I just haven't had enough time to include in our regular weekly edition of AT YOUR SERVICE This week I've been to QEII High School in Peel, to talk to four Year 12 students who have set themselves a real challenge!  Listen as they tell you who they are and what...

Christmas is going 'live' again - at the request of the Douglas Town Centre Management, who have invited churches of all denominations to work together to present an outdoor re-telling of the Christmas story.  It's going to be on one of the late night shopping nights - Thursday December 15th at 6.30pm and it's completely free - but to keep everyone safe and comfortable, we nee...

This is the first Sunday of Advent - four weeks to prepare ourselves for the great celebration of Christmas. A chance to reach beyond the vague outline of the Christmas story, and ask ourselves 'What is really happening here?"  If we don't think carefully about our answer to that question, then we risk missing the greatest love-gift of all - which is God, in human form. Author, b...

Manx-born Ruth Rice founded the charity Renew Wellbeing following the breakdown of her own mental health, some 12 years ago.  Renew Wellbeing helps churches to create safe spaces where basically it's OK to not be OK - all are welcome, no one is judged or labelled - but everyone is gently encouraged to find their own pathway to mental and emotional health - through hobbies and interests, r...

On this day of Remembrance, we use words and music for a time of reflection on the high price that others paid during two World Wars, for the freedom we enjoy today. And - in conversation with Very Rev'd John Mann - we consider that we can learn from more recent conflicts.   John (who is married to Manx-born Helen and now lives in retirement in Laxey) has spent most of his adult life, &nb...

On 22nd October, Mrs Olive Dobson died peacefully, after a short stay in hospital.  Olive was 92 and is probably one of the longest-serving church organists the Island has ever known.  Olive was the organist at Abbeylands Chapel for 81 unbroken years, and for 47 of those years she was also organist at the Methodist Church on the Main Road in Onchan.   This programme is a celebration...

John Boles had a good job, a steady girlfriend and a love of travel.  But it was his deep Christian faith - and the unshakeable belief that God was calling him to some greater service - that changed the course of his life forever. Today, Father John Boles is a Roman Catholic priest  and the Director in Britain of the Columban Missionaries - an international order of missionary priests wh...

If the name of today's special guest is familiar to you, it may well be that you have heard him sharing a Thought for the Day on BBC Radio 2 ore leading Sunday Service and Prayer for the Day on BBC Radio 4 He's Rev'd Richard Littledale and - to use his own description - he's been making good use of words for the past 35 years! Richard has just retired as Pastor of Newbury Baptist C...