Who’s in the House? God AND Andy Hawthorne

Superb news in this morning’s Queen’s Birthday Honours.

The Message Trust is delighted to announce that our founder and CEO Andy Hawthorne has been awarded an OBE in today’s Queen’s Birthday Honours List.

The honour recognises Andy’s outstanding achievements and service to young people in Greater Manchester for almost twenty years.

Since leaving his clothing business to work full time in schools in 1992, Andy has built a formidable reputation as a champion for young people and a pioneer of initiatives that help the hardest-to-reach young people in schools, prisons and disadvantaged local communities.

Through its schools bands and theatre company, 17 long-term Eden community partnerships and the Reflex prisons ministry, The Message Trust now reaches over 100,000 young people a year in Greater Manchester and beyond.

Thousands of young people attribute the radical changes in their lives to the work of The Message. Many former troublemakers have become staff members and key volunteers of the charity.

The Message Trust is held in high regard by other youth agencies nationwide and has received commendations from Prime Minister David Cameron and Chief Constable, Greater Manchester Police Peter Fahy as well as business leaders such as Michael Oglesby (Bruntwood) and Brian Souter (Stagecoach).

This Friday, the charity hosts its annual Urban Hero Awards, recognising six extraordinary young people who have been helped by the charity over the last year.

Among the award winners this year are former local tearaways now working hard on behalf of their community, and a youth worker-turned-entrepreneur who has set up four new medical practices on needy local estates.

Only one way to celebrate really, isn’t there?

5 Comments on “Who’s in the House? God AND Andy Hawthorne

  1. I never cease to be amazed at the timeliness of the thing I call "divine providence"!

    Just this week I re-released my song "Obscenity", thus reviving the "Lewd Logic" project that I launched in Barbados in 2000.

    "Obscenity", denounces Caribbean religious and other leaders' excessive, often opportunistic criticisms of the sexually suggestive dancing of the region’s people – especially during their annual festivals (Crop Over in Barbados, Carnival in Trinidad, and so on).

    “Obscenity”, like the entire Lewd Logic lecture that it compliments, urges empathy with the revelers, declaring “There’s method in our madness and reason in we revelry.” Fundamentally, the project creates a forum for discussion of the church’s chequered (some might even say abysmal) performance in the area of human sexuality guidance.

    I feel really fortunate to have come across this post here about “Jumping in the house of God”. I’m hoping my response will facilitate engagement with people who can advance this important discussion.

    We have a saying in Barbados that likens reasoning or calculation to “jumping up”. Hence one person may derisively say of another “He caan (can’t) jump up!”, meaning “He can’t add or count.”

    I suspect that this distinctive linguistic use of “jump” points to the profound, typically overlooked link between passion and reason – a “continuum” link that has been obscured by the dualistic distinction between the spirit and the flesh in the Bible.

  2. C'mon guys: surely what I was saying is not that hard to figure out.

    I'm just expressing my pleasure and surprise at finding the "Jumping in the House of God" (JITHOG) music post here on this blog. I did not come here looking for that: I came here via a Google search for information about Lesley Pilkington. I too have received correspondence from the Christian Legal Center about her plight.

    Finding the JITHOG post seemed like a serendipitous (or providential) discovery to me because I've just revived my "Lewd Logic" project, which essentially facilitates the kind of discussion that I assumed that post was intended to stimulate. I felt I had found persons who are interested in the kinds of issues my song “Obscenity” and the entire Lewd Logic CD address – issues about the acceptability of “jumping” (dancing) for the lord, and so on. I thought the statement “Only one way to celebrate really, isn’t there?” at the beginning of the JITHOG music post was intended to stimulate that kind of discussion.

    Now, if I’ve assumed wrongly, fair enough.

    But is my meaning any clearer now? Do you see how the issue of a simplistic, dualistic distinction between “the spirit and the flesh” in some parts of the Bible (especially in the New Testament) may figure in a discussion about acceptable (appropriate) or unacceptable (inappropriate) dancing – in a religious or broader social context?

    Also, Ryan, could you please explain what you mean by “sub 2 Unlimited”? I’m assuming it refers to the shortness/brevity of the iTunes music clip of “Obscenity”, but I’m not familiar with the phrase.

    The word “emetic” I understand. I just think your use of it here is uncharitable and unjustified. Are you an Anglican communicant? Where is your generosity of spirit? Does it not extend to non-British forms of musical expression?

    • 2 Unlimited are a band, who suck, and in a comparable manner to the way that the jumping in the house of the lord sucks (YMMV, of course).


      TS Eliot articulated a Christian view of art when he said that the greatness of a work of art can not be determined solely by literary standards but whether or not it is a work of art can be determined only by literary standards. I'd argue that applies to music too. Anybody can make a song that mentions Jesus – that, in no way, means that one should suspend regular standards of aesthetic judgment. Quite the opposite. Christian Rap is known as C-Rap for a reason ;). And if you like Rock music, then why not listen to U2 or The Rolling Stones, instead of those 'worship bands' that steal their riffs (isn't theft a sin?) and combine them with duff tunes and unintentionally homoerotic lyrics. Giving a 'free pass' to any old crap that has 'Christian' in the title or lyrics is, to me, far more of something to be repented than my alleged attitude above. But we're discussing matters of taste and YMM, I'm sure, may vary. Similarly, who are you to say what I should and should not find emetic?

      And you make some interesting points. Dancing is often seen as sexual, perhaps quite rightly. It's common to have Church ceilidhs here in Scotland; looked at dispassionately,are they any less likely to 'lead men into sin' than the more frowned-on student union type dancing?

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