WITH hits including "Pray", and "I Found Heaven", it could be
argued that Take That have been baiting the nation's clergy for
years.
This Christmas, the Assistant Curate at St Wilfrid's, Brayton,
the Revd Richard Battersby, went on local radio to put his own spin
on the Gary Barlow canon, suggesting that "If these songs had been
around 2000 years ago, they would have struck a chord with Joseph
and Mary."
In a broadcast for Radio York, Mr Battersby told the Christmas
story through songs including "Shine" ("The Christmas story reminds
us that we all shine"); "Rule the World" ("God gives us the chance
to help with him rule the world . . . a rule of love, serving each
other with his son, Jesus"); and "Could it be magic?" (Did the
shepherds feel "spirits move me"?)
A fan of the band since they came to his children's attention
after they re-formed, he was struck by the "highly prophetic" words
of "The Garden", with its reference to fishermen, a crowd, and a
"stranger on the hill". Using the songs to talk about God is not
"trivialising Christmas", he said on Tuesday, but a form of
"creative mission".
"What the Church has missed is its lost history of the secular
and religious feeding off each other," he said. "Important parts of
our Christian faith can be articulated in secular song."
He went on: "In Acts, Paul is in Athens, looking at the tomb of
the Unknown God. I think it's our job as Christians to start
pointing the world to our Unknown God, and I think we can do that
through things like this."
Although he speculates that the references to God in Take That's
latest album cannot be unintentional, he has yet to hear from Mr
Barlow, despite attempts to contact him on Twitter.
Although he would "love" to stage an event in York Minster with
the band, his current plans include using "Every breath you take",
by The Police, in next year's midnight mass: "It's about God
watching us."
To hear the BBC York broadcast, visit www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p02dz1jd
