Of course she's brilliant and working with her is the greatest blessing a scruffy music teacher like me could dream of. But Lucy is what happens when you make instrumental tuition available to disadvantaged children. Help us to get this message across to those who decide.

The reputation of the Labour Party will never recover if the @Keir_Starmer & @DavidLammy continue their complicity with this mass slaugnter & ethnic cleansing "Gaza will be entirely destroyed,’ far-right Israeli minister tells conference" theguardian.com/world/live/2…

Our friend @therimaahmed has got a brilliant new podcast series!

Ooooo! It's the marvellous @therimaahmed !

Here's another movement of A Todmorden Cantata from our performance during the 150th anniversary celebrations of Todmorden Town Hall. youtu.be/haaAZxBjNTM

RT @zarahsultana: Pope Francis used his final public address to call for a ceasefire in Gaza: “Unarmed civilians are subjected to bombings…

Happy Easter!   “Mary Magdalene turned around and saw Jesus there, but she did not know it was Jesus…supposing him to be the gardener.” –John 20:14, 15   Mary Magdalene is the first person to encounter the risen Christ. It’s no accident that the gospel writer of John has Mary mistaking Jesus for the gardener. A gardeners work is like going home, with their hands in the soil ( humans from the humus). Just as Adam is created from the soil, Jesus is buried then risen from the dead, bringing new life. Both happening in a garden. John is hoping we notice the connection. This is Jesus continuing to show us that resurrection and new life and our hope of heaven happen here on the ground. In the dirt, loving where it hurts in the humus of humanity. This is a Christ it may be hard to recognize. It is not a risen Christ in bright glowing robes, but Christ in muddy ones ( and in Rembrandt’s version of the moment, a beat up straw gardener’s hat and shovel) Jesus doubles down being human wounds and all. He’s showing us that he is to be found in the people and places where many are not looking. It’s Mary who is the first to recognize this Jesus. A woman becomes the first to share the first fruits of the resurrection.  “An Apostle to the Apostles”   Using the traditional resurrection icons of Mary and Jesus on easter morning I wanted to flip the image around. Instead of Jesus towering over Mary Magdalene, I wanted to show Mary standing tall looking for Jesus and finding Christ the Gardener down on the ground with the plants. “Unless a seed falls into the ground and dies it remains alone; but if it dies, it bears much fruit.” (John 12:24)   Icon:“Mary Magdalene and Christ the Gardener” Signed Prints, Digital Download and wood prints Available: kellylatimoreicons.com

For Good Friday here is the 7thC Christ in Glory from the Ruthwell Cross in the Scottish Borders, surrounded by the text of the Anglo-Saxon poem, the Dream of the Rood. It seems to have been the work of a Jarrow sculptor, so part of the world of Bede: Syllic wæs se sigebeam, ic synnum fah, forwunded mid wommum. Geseah ic wuldres treow wædum geweorðod, wynnum scinan, gegyred mid golde; gimmas hæfdon bewrigen weorðlice wealdendes treow. Wondrous was that victory-beam; I, stained with sins, wounded with wickedness. I saw the tree of glory adorned with drapery, shining with joys, decked with gold; gems had worthily wrapped the Ruler's tree. The Dream of the Rood, ll.13-17.

It is Good Friday. Today we bear witness to Christ present in all of the crucified people of history. Most importantly those who are suffering and oppressed in our current time. Looking into the eyes of mothers who are continually losing sons and daughters who are unjustly murdered by the state. Our hope for this image is that it will continue to guide our thought, and prayer, but most importantly, our action. Hopefully, we won’t be like Peter sitting by the fire, the rooster crowing, and instead of standing with Christ in his suffering and having the hard conversations, we instead run away and act like they don’t exist. “Mama” is currently installed at Holy Communion Episcopal Church in St. Louis, MO. Prints and Prayer Candles: kellylatimoreicons.com

Another day, another atrocity committed by Israeli forces. We're horrified by reports that Israeli airstrikes have hit multiple camps for displaced Palestinian people, including children. The UK must act now to end its complicity & suspend all arms transfers to Israel.

Our PM @Keir_Starmer condemns similar actions by Russia, but clearly doesn't regard Palestinians as human beings & apparently shares the Israeli view that they are little better than cockroaches ripe for mass murder. Even @DavidLammy makes the odd half-hearted condemnation of Israeli war crimes, but Starmer apparently approves & continues to provide the Israelis with arms, political support & diplomatic cover. Netanyahu knows Starmer will let him murder, starve & drive out ever last Palestinian woman & child without so much as a single tweet of condemnation...

More from our performance last Saturday in Tod. @therimaahmed youtu.be/u0DJD9aV2Pc

Here's a bit of our performance of A Todmorden Cantata last Saturday for Tod Town Hall's 150th anniversary. youtu.be/3qYHjzC2Olg

A House of the People is an idea whose time has surely come.

Many thanks to friends, comrades & strangers who have supported me through this process - especially the excellent lawyers at @libertyhq . This isn't about me: it's about the rights of all people to express their views. Police must be held to account. independent.co.uk/news/uk/ho…

This is genuinely, horrifically, extraordinary. Labour politicians arguing against citizens being able to make ethical investment decisions. Many people do not want - and would never want - their money to support the arms industry theguardian.com/business/202… #pacifism

Here is the Gaza documentary that the enfeebled BBC, our patsy Government and the Israeli Ambassador don't think that you should now see. Do share. Widely. rumble.com/v6nm6n9-bbc-gaza-…

As Muslims around the world look to the evening skies for the sighting of the new moon of Ramadan, we hold our breath for the Spirit to descend and fill our hearts with mercy and vision for a better world #Peace #Ramadan #RamadanMoon

Well, it looks like #Trump will be visiting the UK and meeting Charles Windsor. This has the advantage that we can protest against both of them at the same time. #StateVisit #NotMyKing

“A spirituality of liberation will center on a conversion to the neighbor, the oppressed person, the exploited social class, the despised ethnic group, the dominated country. Our conversion to the Lord implies this conversion to the neighbor. To be converted is to commit oneself lucidly, realistically, and concretely to the process of the liberation of the poor and oppressed.” Gustavo Gutiérrez-Merino Díaz OP was a Peruvian philosopher, Catholic theologian, and Dominican priest who was one of the founders of liberation theology in Latin America. His 1971 book “A Theology of Liberation” is considered pivotal to the formation of liberation theology. A book that would go on to influence many others the last 50 years including myself. After Gustavo passed late last year at the age of 96, I immediately began on Icon of him. Fr. Gustavo taught me that liberation is as much an exodus away from wicked systems as it is communion with “the other”.  The poor are sacred to God. If you are looking for Jesus, go walk around your neighborhood and you’ll probably find him.   He was described as a “humble man with a great capacity to make friends”, he combined his work as a theologian and lecturer at top universities with his work as a priest, officiating at weddings and holding retreats. He was well known by the way he connected with people talking about chess, traditional music, cinema, and his support for Alianza Lima football club. I depict him doing just that in this icon. Wandering the streets around Lima. He once said, “So you say you love the poor? Name them.” I do not doubt he could.   Signed Prints and Original Icon Available: kellylatimoreicons.com

Still the trains rattle through my hometown of #Rochdale to the most "ridiculous power station on earth". Dr Diana and the @axe_drax are telling the truth about this even if the courts are slow to catch up. theguardian.com/environment/…