{"id":3071,"date":"2023-12-21T17:31:54","date_gmt":"2023-12-21T17:31:54","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/risen.org.uk\/?p=3071"},"modified":"2023-12-21T17:35:41","modified_gmt":"2023-12-21T17:35:41","slug":"blog-december-21st-shane-macgowan-part-two","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/risen.org.uk\/?p=3071","title":{"rendered":"Blog December 21st Shane MacGowan Part Two"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-3072\" src=\"https:\/\/risen.org.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/Christmas-2023.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"910\" height=\"607\" srcset=\"https:\/\/risen.org.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/Christmas-2023.jpg 910w, https:\/\/risen.org.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/Christmas-2023-300x200.jpg 300w, https:\/\/risen.org.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/Christmas-2023-768x512.jpg 768w, https:\/\/risen.org.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/Christmas-2023-624x416.jpg 624w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 910px) 100vw, 910px\" \/><\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"The Pogues -  Fairytale Of New York (Official Video)\" width=\"625\" height=\"352\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/j9jbdgZidu8?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>And to carry on from last week\u2019s blog featuring Shane MacGowan (the lead singer of \u201cThe Pogues\u201d and co- writer of \u201cFairytale of New York\u201d)<\/p>\n<p>But it wasn\u2019t just Catholicism that resonated with MacGowan.<\/p>\n<p>In\u00a0<em>A Drink with Shane MacGowan<\/em>\u00a0(Pan Books), presented as a conversation between him and his wife, Victoria Clarke, a more syncretistic spirituality emerges. He talks about praying to Buddha as well as God, and even suggests that Jesus\u2019 resurrection was a result of him visiting \u201cthe East\u201d and developing Taoist powers.<\/p>\n<p>Clearly, MacGowan\u2019s faith is difficult to pin down, echoing that of his good friend,\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.premierchristianity.com\/i-couldnt-resist-the-ringing-intensity-of-christ-the-christian-faith-of-nick-cave\/15075.article\">Nick Cave, who has in recent years returned to church, but stops short of calling himself a Christian<\/a>. How fascinating it would\u2019ve been to listen in to some of their conversations about faith!<\/p>\n<p>Nonetheless, it seems that Christianity was an important feature of MacGowan\u2019s life \u2013 one that he perhaps held onto more dearly in later years. In an Instagram post announcing her husband\u2019s death, Clarke said Shane \u201chas gone to be with Jesus and Mary and his beautiful mother Therese.\u201d At his funeral, held at\u00a0St Mary of the Rosary Church, Tipperary, Fr Pat Gilbert said MacGowan \u201chad great faith\u201d and received Holy Communion at the church regularly. U2\u2019s\u00a0Bono, a fellow Irish rockstar and Christian, read from\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.esv.org\/verses\/1%20Corinthians%2013\/\">1 Corinthians 13<\/a>.\u00a0Jonny Depp and Bob Geldoff said prayers.<\/p>\n<p>Last year, MacGowan gave an intriguing interview to\u00a0<em>The Guardian\u00a0<\/em>(the singer\u2019s first interview with a British newspaper in a decade). In the article, journalist Simon\u00a0Hattenstone\u00a0reported how\u00a0religious icons were \u201ccrammed\u201d onto MacGowan\u2019s mantelpiece, and the photoshoot shows the musician sporting a huge crucifix.<\/p>\n<p>During their conversation, MacGowan revealed that he and his wife no longer receive many visitors, but a talkative priest comes regularly. The singer admitted losing his faith \u201ca few times\u201d over the years \u201cbut never for long\u201d. He refused to elaborate further, but the following night, Hattenstone received a phone call from MacGowan. \u201cI just wanted to know if you have faith,\u201d said the singer. After offering a response,\u00a0Hattenstone returned the question. \u201cNo, I just wanted to know about you,\u201d said MacGowan. \u201cGod bless.\u201d The line went dead.<\/p>\n<p>It speaks to the enigma of MacGowan, while shedding further light on a faith that seemed to have depth but was not without doubt and struggle. \u201cI\u2019m very, very aware that there but for the grace of God go I,\u201d he once said.<\/p>\n<p>For him and for ourselves, we can only say: \u201cAmen\u201d.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Quote of the week<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-3073\" src=\"https:\/\/risen.org.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/Isiah-9.6.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"300\" height=\"168\" \/><\/p>\n<p>A VERY HAPPY CHRISTMAS TO YOU ALL<\/p>\n<p>MUSTARD SEED SONGS<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>And to carry on from last week\u2019s blog featuring Shane MacGowan (the lead singer of \u201cThe Pogues\u201d and co- writer of \u201cFairytale of New York\u201d) But it wasn\u2019t just Catholicism that resonated with MacGowan. In\u00a0A Drink with Shane MacGowan\u00a0(Pan Books), presented as a conversation between him and his wife, Victoria Clarke, a more syncretistic spirituality [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3071","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-ken-shearsmiths-blog"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/risen.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3071","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/risen.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/risen.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/risen.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/risen.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=3071"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/risen.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3071\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3075,"href":"https:\/\/risen.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3071\/revisions\/3075"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/risen.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=3071"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/risen.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=3071"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/risen.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=3071"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}