CAPTION:
New Worship Song Encourages us to Make Room for Others
A new song based on the welcome and hospitality of God has been released by the Devon-based singer songwriter Andy Flannagan.
Making Room was originally written for the Thy Kingdom Come Pentecost Service at Exeter Cathedral in June and sung with a congregation of over 900.
Beginning “There is room at the table/a place at the feast/a space for the lost/ the last and the least” its lyrics reference the way Christ made room for us by dying on the cross: “You spread your arms/ and made room for all your children” and remind us to make room for others who may be different to us and to make space in our lives for God.
The song is being released as a video, with the lyrics and music also being made available to enable churches and other organisations to use it.
Andy, who is originally from Northern Ireland and re-located to Exeter a few years’ ago from Luton, is also Co-Director of the charity Christians in Politics. He said “The response to the song has been amazing.
“I have never had more requests for music scores and chord sheets! It has now been used at multiple conferences, and people are reporting that it feels like an important time in our nation to be singing these words.
“As believers will we follow the harder way of Christ or easier road of lazy populism.”
Rev’d Jeremy Putnam, Diocese of Exeter Mission Enabler, led the planning team for the Thy Kingdom Come service and said “We based the theme for the service Making Room on Acts 2:1-12 and how the Spirit of God is such a unifying force for good.
“It led us to think carefully about how we make room for God in our lives, for the Spirit in our worship, and for Jesus in the way we act in the world. But it also led us to consider how we make room for other people, and how God’s Spirit pushes all of us to be more generous and loving.
“We were delighted when it prompted Andy to write a new song on the same theme, and I hope it will be a valuable resource for many churches. Making Room is a song that looks upward to God, as well as looking outwards to our relationship with others in a way that is fully grounded in the realities of life today.”
As well as Making Room, Andy also recently released the song Renovate, which was written for the Exeter Cathedral Thy Kingdom Come service in 2024, and is part of the London Institute for Contemporary Christianity’s Boundless song project, which aims to release new worship songs which are explicitly connected to everyday life rather than detached from it
Watch the video here:
