In 1842 a man called Joseph Scrivenen graduated from his university in Dublin, and the fell head over heels in love with a girl from his home town.  They got engaged, and with great excitement began planning their wedding and their life together as husband and wife.

The eve of their wedding arrive at last, and Joseph’s fiancée saddled a horse to go and see him.  Tragically, this is one of the last things that she would ever do.  A little later Joseph saw his bride-to-be riding towards him, and he grinned.  But suddenly, just as she was crossing a bridge, over the river near his house the horse bucked and threw her like a rag-doll down into the river below.  In blind panic Joseph ran to the river, calling out her name.  He plunged into the icy waters, but it was too late.  His bride was already dead.

Heartbroken Joseph emigrated to Canada, where eventually he fell in love again.  In 1854 Joseph was due to marry Eliza Roche but she fell ill and grew progressively worse.  The wedding was repeatedly postponed until, three years later, Eliza died.  Joseph Scrivener would never again give his hear to another woman.

Tomorrow night is U2 night at Church.

It's the first of several evenings (follow-ups include the Simpson's, the West Wing and Bach) when we take seriously the whole thing about Christ being in the culture, and not just in the Church.

I'm going to following Stocki's basic narrative, that the band move from the doctrinally conformist Gloria; to the faithful yearning of "I still haven't found", to the irony of Achtung Baby (we'll be looking at U2 putting his shades on in the One video - although as Mr. Stockman points out the song took on new meaning after 9/11) and then the renaissance of "All that you can't leave behind" and "Atomic Bomb" (using Walk On and then Yahweh to get us there).