Hymns: 1999 Memories

The picture shows an old fountain near where our fellowship used to meet in Tipperary town back in the 1990s. It was provided by Stafford O’Brien Esq (1783-1864), a prominent local landowner. He was obviously a man of faith, going by the inscription he added. The fountain is no longer operational. Thankfully, the spiritual fountain is.

Strangely, I tend to remember my earlier life more than later years. Maybe I wasn’t as disciplined about jotting things down. Also, once I settled down in Tipperary Christian Fellowship, I didn’t really move around the Christian scene as much as I did in previous years. My secular studies, work and family life kept me busy. Speaking of family life, our final child, a baby girl, was born in 1999. That’s the nicest thing that happened in 1999. Otherwise, I don’t remember much. In the run-up to 1999, it was viewed as a momentous year. Think of Prince’s song 1999, where he says that he’s going to “party like it’s 1999”. Maybe he thought the end of the world would come. I’m old enough to remember David Bowie’s 1984 and Paul McCartney’s 1985 recorded back in 1973. Such years seemed very special or scary, but when they actually arrived, they was nothing special about them. Maybe the year 3000, in the title of a Busted song will be more interesting. They say we’ll live under water 😀.

So some Christian songs of 1999 included the following:

Christian group, Sixpence None the Richer had a crossover hit with Kiss Me. Until now, I never bothered to investigate any of their Christian songs, but I think I will now. Trust is an example:

In the wider Munster (Ireland) scene, Grace Baptist Church was formed in Killarney in 1999 as was Tralee Baptist Church. Both had existed in earlier forms for a good many years. I remember people from Tralee being baptized in Limerick Baptist Church back around 1990 or 1991. If I remember correctly, I think someone from Tipperary Christian Fellowship was baptized the same night. I don’t remember what the Tipperary fellowship was called at that stage, but it was the same group. Churches in nearby towns or cities would sometimes make use of our baptismal tank at Limerick Baptist Church. I remember using Mallow Street Christian Fellowship, in Limerick, for some of our baptisms for Tipperary Christian Fellowship in 2011.

And I remember speaking at the Killarney fellowship back in 1993; a sermon on the book of Job. Many of these groups started as Bible studies, progressed to fellowships, and eventually became Baptist churches.

I didn’t really take on many external speaking engagements after my move to Tipperary Christian Fellowship. I do remember speaking at a weekend in Ballybunion in 1999, and I remember speaking at a special meeting on the Millenium theme in Tipperary following a week of evangelism. And I spoke at Mallow Street that Autumn. But for the most part, in Tipperary, our Sunday meeting was very much like a simple Bible study, with a few hymns thrown in. I would love to see such fellowships in every town in Ireland. We had a great bunch of people, and many were much more theologically aware than folks I met in other evangelical churches. We had different views on this and that, but I never remember it being a difficulty. I remember us studying the book of Psalms, prayer, the book of Acts, and 1 and 2 Corinthians in Tipperary in 1999. I’m sure we did a lot more, but I didn’t bother jotting it down 😀.

On October 31, the Lutheran World Federation and the Roman Catholic Church signed the Joint Declaration on the Doctrine of Justification in Augsburg, Germany—a major step toward healing centuries-old theological divisions. For example; here’s are two snippets:

“Together we confess: By grace alone, in faith in Christ’s saving work and not because of any merit on our part, we are accepted by God and receive the Holy Spirit, who renews our hearts while equipping and calling us to good works.”

“When Catholics affirm the “meritorious” character of good works, they wish to say that, according to the biblical witness, a reward in heaven is promised to these works. Their intention is to emphasize the responsibility of persons for their actions, not to contest the character of those works as gifts, or far less to deny that justification always remains the unmerited gift of grace.”

No doubt the debate goes on in some respects, but at least we see some emphasis on salvation by grace rather than by works or religious practices, which is often how people in Ireland think. Although maybe modern Irish people often either don’t believe in Christianity at all or believe in universalism – i.e. salvation for everyone, whatever the believe or do.

In December, Pope John Paul II apologized for the execution of Jan Hus in 1415, acknowledging historical wrongs committed by the Church

The year ended with the Millenium Prayer by Cliff Richard. I can’t say that I was a great fan of the song, but it was nice to see the Lord’s Prayer top the charts for the close of the Millenium.

Finally, here’s some music, events, and films/TV shows that would have formed the background to 1999. I don’t necessarily endorse all the songs or films😀, but thinking of them takes me back to 1999.

10 Songs

• Praise You – Fatboy Slim
• National Express – Divine Comedy
• You Stole The Sun From My Heart – Manic Street Preachers
• No Scrubs – TLC
• That Don’t Impress Me Much – Shania Twain
• Everybody’s Free (To Wear Sunscreen) – Baz Luhrmann
• Coffee And TV – Blur
• Tsunami – Manic Street Preachers
• She – Elvis Costello
• Carnation – Liam Gallagher & Steve Craddock
• Why Does It Always Rain On Me? – Travis
• The World Is Not Enough – Garbage

10 Events

• The Maastricht Treaty came into force on November 1, officially establishing the Euro as a common currency for European Union member states
• The impeachment trial of U.S. President Bill Clinton ended
• NATO began airstrikes against Serbia
• The Scottish Parliament was officially opened on July 1
• Iranian student protests erupted
• John F. Kennedy Jr., his wife Carolyn Bessette Kennedy, and her sister Lauren Bessette died in a plane crash
• A total solar eclipse occurred on August 11
• The Petronas Towers were officially opened in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia
• East Timor voted for independence from Indonesia
• The Second Chechen War began
• Sega released the Dreamcast
• Boris Yeltsin resigned as President of Russia on December 31, handing power to Vladimir Putin

10 Films or TV Shows

• Star Wars: Episode I – The Phantom Menace
• Fantasia 2000
• Stuart Little
• Angela’s Ashes (a film about Limerick)
• Toy Story 2
• The World is Not Enough
• The Iron Giant
• Muppets in Space
• The Matrix
• Tea With Mussolini
• The Blair Witch Project

10 Famous People Who Passed Away

• John F. Kennedy Jr. – Lawyer, publisher, and son of President JFK
• Dusty Springfield – British pop and soul singer
• Curtis Mayfield – Soul and funk musician known for Superfly
• Jill Dando – British TV presenter and journalist
• Grover Washington Jr. – Jazz saxophonist
• Scatman John – Pop singer known for “Scatman (Ski-Ba-Bop-Ba-Dop-Bop)”
• Oliver Reed – British actor (Gladiator, Women in Love)
• Quentin Crisp – British writer and cultural icon
• Donal McCann – Acclaimed Irish stage and film actor
• Rick Danko (Musician, The Band)