Rap Around The Cross

Mearns lives in Northern Ireland. A charity project brought him to Whitby, on the NE Yorkshire coast of England, where Saint Hilda led a great faith community in the seventh century, from which Captain Cook sailed to so-called 'new worlds', and to which Goths and Dracula fans flock. Mearns is a children's writer. He loves the story of Caedmon, the shy, uneducated cowherd in Hilda's monastery who felt he could never sing. After a vision and Hilda's encouragement he became the first pop singer of faith songs in English. Hilda unlocked the song in his heart. Our aim is to do this for people today.

Many schools have some thirteen-year-old pupils who can't read or behave properly. Mearns now teaches part-time at a local school. He told the story of Caedmon to thirteen-year-olds who had given up believing they could learn or do anything much. He asked them to help him illustrate the story of Caedmon. He took them up the 199 steps to the high stone cross near the great abbey ruins that depicts Caedmon's story. 'You can do it. Try rap' said Mearns. So these youngsters pranced around Caedmon's Cross rapping out the story. They begin to believe.