At Your Service

Celebrating the second day of Christmas in words, music and reflections.  The children of Marown Primary School, assisted by their teacher Mrs Jacqueline Shirtliff, share a selection of poems on different aspects of the Christmas story. Church leaders - Anglican Bishop Peter and senior priest in the Roman Catholic Church on the Island, Monsignor John Devine - both reflect on celebrating Chris...

Celebrating the birth of Jesus Christ, with an hour of carols, Christmas songs, Bible readings and reflections.  The music is : Angel Tidings (Rutter) Once in Royal David's City Mary Did You Know? (Peter Hollens version) Gabriel's Message (Matt Creer version) Away in a Manger (Kings College Cambridge Live Recording In the Stillness (Kings College Cambridge - composer Sally Beamish) Wh...

Two very different Carol Services held this week provide words and music to help us prepare to celebrate the deeper significance of Christmas - that lies beyond gifts and gatherings.   We have two carols - "Gabriel's Message" and "Jesus Christ, The Apple Tree" - sung by the Choir of King William's College, Castletown, conducted by their Director of Music, Mr Steve...

Welcome to Week 3 of Advent - the time which the Christian church uses to prepare for the great celebration of Christmas. The coming of Jesus Christ as a helpless baby - a human like us - sharing our earthly life, but leading us to an everlasting life - is often likened to the darkness of our world being driven out by the light of Christ.  So it's appropriate that, at this time, we celebr...

Pioneer Minister Reverend Alex Brown is constantly looking for ways to offer the powerful and life-changing Christian message in ways that will speak to the many people who don't feel drawn to formal, organised religion and attending church services.   He's also passionate about keeping Christ at the very centre of everything about Christmas - and once again he's leading a re-tell...

A nostalgia podcast to celebrate the start of the season of Advent - the four weeks of preparation for the great feast of Christmas.   We go back to the year 2006 when Oliver King and Nigel Pemberton led the music in the Cathedral in Peel - as Musical Director and Organist respectively, and Canon Brian Kelly was at the helm!   There's a lovely piece by the Manx Children's Choir,...

It's an Inter Faith Special on At Your Service this week, as we explore the Baha'i Faith in conversation with Dr Tim Anglin and David Joughin.   Deborah Taubman, of the First Church of Christ, Scientist, has  composed a prayer specially for Her Majesty the Queen, our Lord of Mann, and in our second feature today, I'm starting my Christmas shopping - in Churches Bookshop in it...

A special programme for this Remembrance Sunday - words and music for reflection and for hope - hope for better, peaceful world.  Singer/songwriter Ralph McTell (of Streets of London fame) has always been interested in the First World War but it was a visit to the Menin Gate that compelled him to write his latest song - Unknown Soldier.  On today's programme he not only sings the son...

On the programme this week ..... the similarities between Southwark Cathedral on the South Bank of the Thames and Cathedral Isle of Man in Peel might not seem instantly apparent - but they're there - and we explore them this morning in conversation with the Dean of Southwark Cathedral, the Very Reverend Andrew Nunn.   We'll also discover why he and two colleagues are here on the Islan...

Chine McDonald is Christian Aid's Head of Community Fundraising and Public Engagement.  Ahead of the COP26 Climate Conference in Glasgow, she spent a day on the Island, meeting Government officials and fulfilling speaking engagements - she also recorded today's conversation about her own faith journey that led from her home in Lagos, Nigeria to London in the UK - where she found inspi...

Author, broadcaster and Head of Community Fundraising and Public Engagement at Christian Aid, Chine McDonald will be visiting the Island on Tuesday 26 October to host an evening at the Manx Museum talking about COP26 and the impact of our changing climate, and after a networking break, an 'in conversation' session will explore Chine's own experiences of racial injustice and inequality....

Manx-born Baptist minister Ruth Rice knows at first-hand how it feels to completely burn out.   But from a personal crisis came a formula for wellbeing that's spread all over the UK.   On this week's AT YOUR SERVICE Ruth tells her inspirational and searingly honest story - including the birth of Renew Wellbeing - quiet shared spaces where its okay not to be okay.   There are...

Today is the start of Prisons Week - it's a call to pray for all those affected by crime and imprisonment - prisoners and their families, victims of crime, their families and their communities, those working in the criminal justice system, and the many people involved in caring for those affected by crime - inside and outside our prisons. Today's guest is Reverend Helen Dearnley, an Anglic...

Just a few weeks ago, Roman Catholic priest Canon Thomas Neylon was ordained bishop by Archbishop Malcolm McMahon, in the Metropolitan Cathedral of Christ the King in Liverpool.  Warrington-born  Bishop Tom is now an Auxiliary Bishop, ministering in the Archdiocese of Liverpool which covers a large area of the North West, and includes the Isle of Man.   Immediately after his episcop...

The Annual Isle of Man Charity Challenge - sponsored by AFD Software of Ramsey - invites teams of 6th form students from the Island's secondary schools to select a Manx-registered charity, then learn about it, raise funds for it, engage in advocacy work to present its message to others, and then prepare an original presentation summarising its aims, achievements and objectives in the most comp...

Songwriters Noel Robinson, Andy Flannagan and  Graham Hunter took a familiar hymn tune and added words to inspire us all to understand that, wherever we are, and whatever we're doing, we can see our daily tasks through God's eyes, and through our very presence bring His kingdom here on earth - as in Heaven.   Anne De Leyser believes we are all able to bless our community, our fam...

This year marks the 20th anniversary of 9/11 - a series of airline hijackings and suicide attacks on targets in the United States - over 3,000 people were killed in New York, when two planes were flown into the North and South Towers of the World Trade Centre; 184 people died when another plane hit the Pentagon, and a further 40 people died in Pennsylvania,  where another hijacked plane crash...

3Generate is the children's and youth assembly of the Methodist Church, and it aims to create an inclusive and diverse space for the voice of children and young people to emerge and be heard. It enables them to speak courageously, and listen to God and each other. Through 3Generate, children and young people are equipped to understand and handle change and growth,  and so have a posi...

Manx-born Reverend Dr Janet Corlett is the new leader of the Methodist Church on the Island.   We bring a flavour of her Service of Welcome held in Trinity Methodist Church at Rosemount, Douglas, on Saturday 28th August, as she becomes Chair of District, Superintendent of the Circuit and Minister of Trinity and Promenade Methodist Churches.   Artist Anne House has been inspired to create...

No one could fail to be moved by the pictures and reports coming from Afghanistan this week - but local Christian Aid representative Louise Whitelegg was determined to put the despair she felt, into positive action.   So in a matter of days, she had organised, and advertised Island-wide, a 4-hour Prayer Vigil - last Thursday evening in Trinity Methodist Church at Rosemount in Douglas -  ...

After an absence of two years due to the pandemic, Canon Philip Gillespie is back, spending summer on the Island, and taking care of the churches in Ramsey and Peel whilst resident Parish Priest Fr Brian O Mahony is on holiday.    Canon Philip will be warmly remembered for his time on the Isle of Man as Parish Priest of St Mary of the Isle in Douglas,  and as senior priest with over...

On this exact weekend 15 years ago, a group of German visitors were enjoying exploring our Island and building strong bonds of friendship with their Manx hosts.   I joined them for a service of Celtic Evening Prayer when they were in Maughold, and today's programme features that recording, and the story behind the visit. There's wonderful Manx music from Emma Christian, who entertaine...

Reverend Dr Janet Corlett is the new Chair of District - leader of the Methodist Church on the Island - and will take up her post at the end of August.    In an interview first broadcast in. 2018, when she came to the Island to visit her parents, we learn something of her background, and the extensive experience she will bring to her leadership role in ministry on the Island. And Sheila...

The Venerable Andi Brown will retire in a few days' time, having completed ten years as Archdeacon of Mann and Vicar of St George and All Saints Church in Douglas.  On At Your Service today, he talks about the challenges and blessings of doing two demanding ministries at the same time, and reflects on the other experiences he's gained during 41 years as a priest in the Church of Engla...

Research has shown that we fear dementia more than we fear cancer - and we find it such a hard subject to discuss - yet most of us know a friend or family member living with the illness.   On the programme this week, three very different but hugely positive and inspirational women share their message.  Gina Shaw was diagnosed with dementia when she was in her early 50's but she refus...