Celebrities share what Festival of Hope in Liverpool's cultural quarter means to them
By Michael Ireland, Chief Correspondent, ASSIST News ServiceLIVERPOOL, ENGLAND (ANS) -- Hundreds of Gospel music entertainers and artists recently performed during the Festival of Hope, a massive free, Gospel Music and Arts festival weekend along Hope Street in Liverpool, England's cultural quarter.
Peter Wooding, Senior News Editor of UCB UK Radio, caught up with two celebrities, well-known in the United Kingdom, and asked them about their presence at the Festival, which is part of a series of events throughout the country this year known as HOPE 08.
Andrew Lancel is currently starring as Detective Inspector Neil Manson in the ITV1 (British Independent Television) police drama 'The Bill,' a role he has played since 2003. It is the longest running crime drama on television.
Andrew Lancel
He was asked by Wooding what made him want to be part of the recent Hope 08 event in Liverpool, England?"My feeling is as a Christian I'm part of one of the biggest brands in the country and it's crazy not to use that brand to maybe just add (something) in a little way. I like being involved in things when people get together. And you know getting out the message of hope is a fantastic thing. As I said amongst all the hoorah and money in the capital of culture, it's nice to just have a moment where people can sit down and perhaps remember what it is all about.
His impression of the event?
"Great! It's a great vibe, the whole youth congress, I went down there the other week and it's just a fantastic vibe. I wish people could just get more into the community of it. You don't always have to believe, you don't have to be a person of faith, but just settling into the community can lift you (up) in so many ways, (and) this is a great example of that."
Wooding also caught up with Cathy Tyson, who is the daughter of a black barrister from Trinidad and a white English social worker mother. She dropped out of college at age 17 to pursue acting at Liverpool's Everyman's Theater. After a 1984 production of "The Blitz Show," she won admission to the Royal Shakespeare Company. Her film debut was as an elegant black prostitute in Mona Lisa (1986). She was most recently on the Liverpool Nativity during Christmas 2007.
Tyson told Wooding; "I'm here today at the Festival of Hope because I was asked to speak on hope today, do an interview also that's coming up soon and I just made a connection through the organizer of this event Pastor Tani Omideyi of Liverpool Lighthouse church. He invited me to come, which I couldn't believe. I thought 'wow, this is going to be amazing.' A street party on Hope Street, Liverpool, near the cathedral, yes please! So I'm here today and I love things that are on the street."
Tyson was asked what it means for her to be back in Merseyside, to be a part of an event like the Festival of Hope?
Cathy Tyson
"Oh it's lovely, isn't it? People have gone through lot in Liverpool and now they can celebrate with people and be optimistic and more hopeful about the future. That's what it means to me to connect with people, to connect with my past and my present. That's what it means to me to connect with people. You know this is mine and my mother's home, we came from here. I've been in Liverpool Eleven times already this year you know I just can't stop getting on that train really and I've got two more times to get on it as well. I've been here once or twice already in June."
Tyson gave a very moving speech at the event about what hope means to her. Wooding asked her to share a bit more about what it meant for her to make a commitment to hold onto hope in a time of real hopelessness.
"Oh a day at a time, because I can think the negative very easily. It's to remind myself to have positive affirmations. I remind myself to always mix with people -- I think you can be quite hopeless if you're on your own -- and always to get up and join in and engage with people, because we are not alone really," said Tyson.
"So many of us can feel that way, especially when we're feeling bad. A problem shared is a problem halved. So I make a commitment on a daily basis, because life can be so changeable. But as I said, it's all how you react to things because we all are going to face disappointments throughout our lives, all of us. But it's how you weather the storm isn't it ? and not let them get you down, and you've got to look at your own life and see positives in it. I met somebody today whose wife is dying, but to look at his face you wouldn't be able to tell. That gives me hope, it gives me a lesson any way."
Wooding commented: "Now this event today is actually part of a nationwide series of events happening throughout this year called Hope 08. A number of churches are putting on these kinds of events, what are your thoughts on churches coming together to do this right across the country?"
Tyson responded: "Oh fantastic! Liverpool's always been known for joining in, engaging people that are different, and I respect that about Liverpool and I think it started in the eighties. Somebody may correct me, but it may have started earlier. I think it's great -- it gets people talking because there are bigger issues at stake, there are big issues at stake. We need to not give up hope on young people that have left the system -- and that is a challenge -- but it's not insurmountable. You know even death isn't insurmountable really if you've got a faith and if you mix with people who are positive."
ANS would like to thank Robin Frost for transcribing these interviews.
** Michael Ireland, Chief Correspondent of ANS, is an international British freelance journalist who was formerly a reporter with a London newspaper and has been a frequent contributor to UCB Europe, a British Christian radio station. Michael's involvement with ASSIST News Service is a sponsored ministry department -- Michael Ireland Media Missionary (MIMM) -- of ACT International at: Artists in Christian Testimony (ACT) International.
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