This series started with Hymns: 1980 Memories. I find it a little harder to remember stuff in the 21st Century. I sometimes feel like somebody teleported me into the future. I want to go back to being 18. Anyway, I’ll do my best to adapt to the 21st Century 😀.
In 2009, we went to Northern Ireland on holiday, my first time visiting the North since 1998. We went to the Giant’s Causeway, Ulster Folk and Transport Museums, Bangor, Newcastle, and we went to Newry Baptist Church, my first visit for many years. Newry is an interesting town because it’s just over the border, and it’s largely Roman Catholic. So, it feels very much like the Republic of Ireland.
I also remember visiting the Logos Hope ship in Cork. Logos Hope belongs to Operation Mobilization (OM). Young people spend a year on these ships, which travel the world and distribute books and Christian literature and do other kinds of mission work.
I’d heard of it for many years and met a few young people who spent time on the ship, but this was our first time visiting an OM ship. Their founder, George Verwer, spoke at Cork Baptist Church back in the 1980s.
Here are some songs that first appeared in 2009.
In 2009, U2 released Magnificent, a song where Bono gives credit to God for his voice, at least I think so. All our gifts come from God. A few years later, I purchased a Blu-ray of U2’s 2009 Rosebowl concert. I had heard Magnificent before, but I grew much more attached to it after seeing it performed live.
I used to see U2 in Cork in 1979 and 1980. We used to just about put up with Irish groups and get very excited when UK groups played. The last time that I saw U2 in 1980 was at a Police concert in Leixlip. They had a few chart hits in the UK in the early 1980s, but I was truly astonished to see how huge they became. And musically, I do prefer their post-1980s material. A friend of mine mentioned that some of them once came along to his Christian fellowship in Limerick. It was probably around 1981.
Another artist who gave glory to God for music in 2009 was Paddy McAloon of Prefab Sprout. The Album, Let’s Change the World with Music has many references to God, though Paddy McAloon admits to doubts.
With secular music, I always try to take a “cup half fill attitude”. I’m a bit more judgmental about music produced by Christians, but I am trying to be nicer as I grow older 😀.
I also remember listening to recordings on Acts by John Samuel At the Castle. John Samuel was Pastor of Grosvenor Road Baptist Church in Dublin for 19 years. I was also quite interested in some interviews with Phillip Jensen on 9Marks. Phillip Jensen is an Australian cleric of the Anglican Diocese of Sydney and the former Dean of St Andrew’s Cathedral. He is the brother of Peter Jensen, the former Anglican Archbishop of Sydney. In Ireland, you don’t get many evangelical bishops. An exception was John Gregg, who I wrote about in another post recently. He was the Church of Ireland bishop of Cork when St Finbarr’s Cathedral was built back in the 19th Century.
Speaking of Anglicans, some of us attended the Christmas carol service at the Church of Ireland in Tipperary town that Christmas. It was nice, but I was freezing cold 😀. In recent years, I’ve started attending an Advent procession at St Mary’s Church of Ireland Cathedral, Limerick. But or my normal church life, I prefer evangelical churches. You do get annoying people in evangelical churches, but I’d be more annoyed if I had to listen to a preacher who didn’t believe in the physical resurrection of Jesus. A 2019 survey found that about one-third of Church of England clergy expressed doubts or disbelief in the physical resurrection. Well, maybe that means that two-thirds of them do believe in the physical resurrection, but I prefer churches where 100% of people believe in the physical resurrection 😀.
What else happened in 2009? Evangelical pastor Rick Warren delivered the invocation at President Barack Obama’s inauguration. People tend to think that evangelicals are all right wing, but that isn’t the case. I suppose, we’d have conservative views on particular issues, but you do get a fair few lefties among evangelicals too. And some distance themselves from politics altogether.
In Tipperary, I remember that we went through Psalms, Ezra and Nehemiah, and Paul’s third missionary journey on Sunday mornings. And we did the book of Revelation. We had different views on Revelation, but we didn’t fight about it. We never did much fighting at all in Tipperary Christian Fellowship 😀. I was big into the Unbelievable podcast in 2009, and Mike Reeves on church history.
Elton John played Thomond Park in Limerick. I wasn’t into concerts in 2009. I did see Paul Weller in Cork in 2010 though. I felt odd going to a concert at my age, but I went to see him in Limerick last year, and nearly everyone around me was my age and older. And Paul Weller himself was 66 😀. And we got Beatles Rock Band for the Xbox 360 in 2009. That was great fun.
I asked Microsoft Copilot if any UK chart songs of 2009 had a spiritual theme. It mentioned Jai Ho. “Jai Ho” means “Let there be victory” in Hindi, often used in spiritual or celebratory contexts. Copilot also mentioned Beyonce’s Halo and Leonard Cohen’s Hallelujah, which was sung in the X-factor that year.
None of these would qualify as evangelical hymns, but Jai Ho does take me back to 2009. 2009 was a terribly stressful year at work. But for some strange reason, I’m nostalgic about stressful periods in my life. Maybe, it’s because I’m now free of those particular stresses.
Some people think that in heaven, we’ll forget about our lives in this world. But I sometimes wonder would thinking back make us appreciate heaven more. We’ll be free of all the sin and suffering of this life.
Anyway, here are some music, events, and films/TV shows that would have formed the background to 2009. I don’t necessarily endorse all the songs or films 😀.
10 Songs
- Use Somebody – Kings of Leon
- The Loving Kind – Girls Aloud
- Love Story – Taylor Swift
- Halo – Beyonce
- Jai Ho – A. R. Rahman ft. Pussycat Dolls
- Release Me – Agnes Carlsson
- Magnificent – U2
- We are the People – Empire of the Sun
- Paparazzi – Lady Gaga
- I Gotta Feeling – Black Eyed Peas
10 Events
- Swine Flu Pandemic
- First Flight of the Boeing 787 Dreamliner
- Matt Smith Named New Doctor Who
- Barack Obama Inaugurated as U.S. President
- Sri Lankan Cricket Team Attacked in Pakistan
- U.S. Troops Withdraw from Iraqi Cities
- Amanda Knox Convicted in Italy
- Plane Crash in Hudson River
- Russia-Ukraine Gas Dispute
- North Korea Conducts Nuclear Test
10 Films or TV Shows
- Avatar
- Up
- Star Trek
- Coraline
- Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince
- The Twilight Saga: New Moon
- Sherlock Holmes
- Horrible Histories
- Michael McIntyre’s Comedy Roadshow
- Ice Age: Dawn of the Dinosaurs
10 Famous People Who Passed Away
- Michael Jackson
- Farrah Fawcett
- Patrick Swayze
- Ted Kennedy
- Dave Dee
- Stephen Gately
- Jade Goody
- Danny La Rue
- Wendy Richard
- Frank McCourt
Hibernia Gospel 