From time to time I have found myself writing a song with God and/or Jesus as the first person; God singing the song.  This, by the way is one of the reasons why Firthian music was not acceptable to Liturgical Publishing companies…but I digress.  In those cases I find that approach to be the best way to tell the story and relate the message. 

No Longer Servant But Friend is one of the first to do that.  And it was written for a dear friend, Fr Jerry Corrigan who was my pastor for a number of years and then was reassigned to a new parish.  

Jerry, in my opinion, was the creation “God fashioned” to live the priesthood as it was meant to be lived.  He was compassionate, personable, deeply caring, humble to the core and genuinely a fully alive human.  He loved to sing, dance, tell jokes, smoked like a fiend and was a recovering alcoholic; never trying to hide who he was and embracing everyone for who they were.  I loved Jerry so much. And then he was going to be moved away.

I’ll never forget the day I got that news.  I was heartbroken.  As it is with the Church when assigning their Priests the parish community isn’t given much notice, but we were able to put together a grand going away party following his final Mass with us.  As it happened, the Gospel Reading for that day was John 15:15; “I no longer call you servants because a servant doesn’t know his master’s business.  I call you friends because everything I have learned from my Father I have shared with you.”  

As Jerry was proclaiming that Gospel, I heard Jesus saying that specifically, directly to Jerry. And it stayed in my head for days, those words repeating and each time being said to Jerry.  One night before he left; I heard the song play out in my mind and put it to guitar.  He left the next day.  When recording the album I wanted No Longer Servant to be the first track he heard.