Cinderford vicar Mike Barnsley and musician Mark Venus have started a song-writing partnership that they feel is divinely inspired.
Mark Venus is a lifelong musician, gigging and also teaching in several local schools, but at the start of 2023 he found himself in a dark place.
He said, “I was going through a difficult time personally, which meant that I stopped performing with my band and I was left in the wilderness musically. I came to St Stephen’s Church, looking for community and I found more comfort there than I ever could have imagined.
“I loved going to church when I was a child and my faith has been with me all my life, even when I wasn’t attending any church. My Biblical knowledge isn’t great, but I love the stories. One day, I was listening to a piece of music after the sermon (Joel Payne, When my flesh is weak). It used a word I’d never heard before, Gethsemane. After the service, I asked Mike about it.
Mike said, “Mark said that we should write a song about it, so a little ‘tongue-in-cheek’ at first, we sat down, talking about the meaning of the words and how the first line might go. Later that evening, I sat down and wrote the lyrics for a song, based on our conversation. Songwriting is something I don’t ever normally do! This is a new way of expressing ideas and connecting differently.”
After a few tweaks, he sent the words to Mark who loved them. Mark, who is a guitarist and vocalist, said, “I’ve written two albums before this one, but this song was the easiest I have ever written. It felt like I wasn’t really writing myself.
“I felt a higher power was helping me with the melodies.”
Mike continued, “A couple of weeks later at a Bible study, Mark said he had his guitar in the car and wanted to play me the music he had put to my words. I wept.
“I don’t consider myself to be a songwriter. It felt more like discovering a song that was already there than writing it. Finding something that’s always been there.”
They called the song The Garden and recorded it as a single, which was released on Ash Wednesday on all the major platforms.
There’s a launch party planned for 24 February, 7.30pm to 10.30pm at St Stephen’s Church, the place where it all began and more songs planned for release later in the year.
Lyrics to The Garden
I visited the garden.
I never knew quite why.
I think it was the name
that first called out to me.
I visited the garden,
not sure what I would find.
I heard the trees, the ancient trees,
share their whispers from the past,
whispers from the past.
I visited the garden.
I knelt, I prayed, I wept,
then I heard that voice
that spoke to me across the years.
“I visited the garden
so very long ago.
I sweated blood,
cried ‘Abba, Father’.
I visited the garden.
My friends all slept.
The soldiers came.
The darkness fell – on Gethsemane,
Gethsemane, Gethsemane.”
I heard his voice.
He gave me hope.
I hear him now.
Gethsemane.
I heard his voice.
He gave me hope.
I hear him now.
Gethsemane.
Gethsemane.
Gethsemane.
I visited the garden,
The Garden of Gethsemane.
Wonderful story and wonderful song!
It’s been such a joy watching Mark and Mike on their journey, giving them both life doing something they love and hopefully will bring hope to those who listen.
New songs for a new season…..