I pondered...
The Cross & The Cosmos
CELEBRATING THE RICHNESS OF BEAUTY, SCIENCE and FAITH - expressed in poetry, prose, meditations and simple image by Trevor Thorn and occasional guest contributors
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MOST RECENT POSTS
Monday, 28 April 2025
A Thought Experiment (Work in Progress April 2025): The Use of Buildings Where Communities have Worshipped in the Past
Friday, 25 April 2025
Throughout last year, I was encouraging churches to decorate their Christmas Trees in such a way that they became part of the Christmas story thus changing them from a prettified pagan emblem at the front (usually) of the church into a symbol of the angel host that hovered over Bethlehem and invited the edge-of-society Shepherds to be the first people to witness the coming of the Saviour of the World, the Messiah.
However, as the year has passed and our companion site (a more secularly based site than this), has developed the ideas of CLIMERICKS and CLIMCUBES, these two potent symbols of Climate change, Climate Justice and servanthood in their own right, offer an opportunity to turn a Christmas Tree into an even more graphic symbol than that of the Angel Tree. In this, they also need the help of some of those lovely Palestine Olive wood tree hangings. I hope you are beginning to get the picture.
That picture is, overall, almost breathtaking in its simplicity and explicit messages. Just look!
FROM THE TOP - down to just above eye level are your LOCAL ANGEL THRONG. As there is now plenty of time to prepare, why not ask local craftspeople to make angels for the tree in their own medium. You will then have a beautifully diverse fellowship of angels AND an opportunity to invite the crafters in for their own pre Christmas celebration and dedication of their work hanging in the church, which at its best is the beating heart of any community.FROM EYE LEVEL to about 1metre off the ground - CLIMERICKS speaking of Climate Justice and Stewardship. So about OUR responsibility and opportunities to bring about the failing of the COGS industries.
BOTTOM QUARTER OF TREE - Palestine Olive wood tree hangings recalling the very land where Christ was born
AROUND THE TREE - CLIMCUBES to be given away at an Epiphany service - symbolic of our sending Your message of love and truth into our communities.
So the pretty but irrelevant Christmas Tree becomes a NATIVITY TREE -a multi-faceted symbol of HOPE and OUTREACH: a glorious transformation.
Please pass this idea on far and wide if you think it has merit
Wednesday, 23 April 2025
When The Last Sparrow Falls,
Photo credit Pixabay
When the last sparrow falls,
there’ll be weeping in heaven,
such as that which was heard
when a spear pierced the side;
and The Hope of The World
from the depths of human anguish
to his greatly beloved Father cried (x2)
When the last sparrow falls,
will the world even notice,
with its focus on wealth
at expense of the earth.
Or will the sudden dearth
of the sparrow’s cheery chirping
wake our souls to its worth (x2)
Monday, 21 April 2025
Saturday, 19 April 2025
A Day of Terror for Jesus’ Followers
As every year comes round, I spend this odd ‘between day’ wondering what it might feel like to feel all your hopes dashed, as evil seemingly had triumphed over good. Some years ago, I turned these thoughts into a poem.
Bleak Sabbath
Empty as an inverted pitcher,
every hope, every bright hour,
every wonderment at a miracle
quashed by three vicious nails and an alien spear
thrust deep into the side of my most precious love.
Hiding like me?
Full of fear?
Fled from the city
for the safety of home
and work they understand?
Oh where, oh where might they be?
I weep as I have never wept before – for the death of him
who filled us with hope and joy;
at the remembrance of horror
I thought I would never have to bear;
at the thought of his once beautiful body
lifeless in a stone-cold tomb.
And with gut-wrenching anxiety
for my own pitiable life.
There is nothing to live for,
I am utterly undone.
Let the mountains fall on me.
I feel I cannot bear another day.
Yet I will cry out to the Father
to whom he taught us to pray ...
Friday, 18 April 2025
Two Poems for this Most Holy of Days
See; a Centurion, a man under orders:
Friday, 11 April 2025
Looking for a truly All-age activity for Easter Day?
One of the items in this short E-Book for Holy Week, through to Easter Day is a very simple activity to engage every person celebrating the great day, together. I have long felt that the sharing of a common herb on Easter Day has a beautiful symbolism of the herbs and spices Mary took with her to the tomb.
There is also a Holy Saturday meditation titled ‘Bleak Sabbath’ which tries to envisage the feelings of one of Jesus’ followers that terrifying day after Good Friday.
Below, I reproduce again my post when this little booklet was first published, as new readers, and it seems there are quite a few of you, will not be aware of this story
Thursday, 10 April 2025
The Myth of Galileo
Our recent visit to IONA saw an interesting completion of a project that has been shaping itself in my mind for some time. I felt I wanted to write a song about Galileo whose insights and relationship with the church of the time are widely misunderstood. The song turned out to have dimensions I hadn’t expected and the scientific concepts needed to be checked by ‘real’ scientists who could ensure I was reflecting the best views of the moment, particularly in the area of quantum physics.
Quite extraordinarily, I have been brought into contact with three notable scientists of faith, all of whom are astrophysicists. They are Prof. David Wilkinson, former Principal of St John’s College, Durham (who generously invited me to be a visiting scholar at St John’s in 2018), The Revd Dr Rodney Holder (who is Trustee of the Faraday Institute for Science and Religion, among many other responsibilities in the Faith and Science Arena) and Bro Guy Consolmagno, Director of The Vatican Observatory, who I encountered on a retreat he ran at Launde Abbey in Leicestershire.
All pointed out a potential misunderstanding of the very issue I was trying to address, at the opening of the song and it was Bro Guy, who suggested a way round it, thereby leading to the splendid title of this song.
My thanks are due to all three of these ‘advisors’: here’s the song
The Myth of Galileo
Tune: Ellacombe/The Day of Resurrection
The Myth of Galileo, should please, no longer stand
He knew that faith and sciences can all walk hand in hand,
to show the glory God has sown throughout the universe.
So let’s give thanks and praises to show the Maker’s worth.
There’s glory in the stars of night, there’s wonder in the sun;
there’s beauty everywhere you look, Yes! great things he has done!
And neuroscience now reveals how connectomes combine,
to organise God’s gift to us, the brain and human mind.
In every creature of the earth there lie great mysteries,
which are revealed in greater depth by deft biology.
And botanists who seek for truth will maybe understand,
that as they probe each complex cell, they glimpse the Maker’s hand.
The ups and downs and charm of quarks can test the human mind:
as particles collide at speed, to seek what lies behind
the quantum concepts that defy perceived reality.
So maybe physics illustrates God’s cosmic mystery
So let’s give thanks that sciences of many disciplines,
show us the wonders and the grace, revealed from deep within
ourselves, and Gods great universe, the cosmos all around. Sing praise, sing joy, sing thankfully ‘We stand on holy ground!’
Wednesday, 9 April 2025
IONA: in retrospect
I had hoped to post a few times whilst we were on Iona, but the dynamics of the excellent writing course run by Kenneth Steven, the internationally known and highly commended Scottish poet, and enjoying the island's beauty meant the blog took a bit of a back seat. So in a belated attempt to recover something of the experience of being on one of the most precious places in our life story, Im posting this 2 weeks late!
The preciousness is due to the island itself but also because of the presence of The Iona Community, a dispersed Christian community with a passion for justice and peace themes. Among the themes is a passionate concern for inclusivity which brings us to the poem and my companion watercolour of the Nunnery on the island. Both prompt the question of why the Abbey, a conspicuously less well built building compared to the Nunnery (in Rosemary Power’s understanding) has been rebuilt, whist the women’ house has been allowed to fall into decay. The poem considers this:
There are several other poems about Iona on this blog which you will find in the A to Z Index in the right hand column OR you may care to go on to this poem; IONA: A Special Place in the Cosmos
Tuesday, 8 April 2025
Thursday, 3 April 2025
Netanyahu’s The Villain Today
I don’t usually take to politics on this blog, but the vileness of the Israeli genocidal assaults on Palestinians have so reached the utter depths of depravity, I feel I should not keep silent.
My anger is wrapped into limerick form which I have been using extensively on my Eco-verses companion blog under the title of ‘Climericks’: those are limericks about Climate Justice.
I am using a second term for limericks like this one, which is ‘Slimericks’: these are about the slime that seems to wrap itself into every political system, be it totalitarian, autocratic, oligarchical or even, so called, democratic.
This Slimerick goes like this -
Hamas blamers are vilely passé,
Netanyahu’s the villain today;
Wednesday, 2 April 2025
Rosemary For Remembrance, MY E-Book for Good Friday, Holy Saturday and an Easter Day All-Age ‘giveaway’!
Thursday, 27 March 2025
Throughout last year, I was encouraging churches to decorate their Christmas Trees in such a way that they became part of the Christmas story thus changing them from a prettified pagan emblem at the front (usually) of the church into a symbol of the angel host that hovered over Bethlehem and invited the edge-of-society Shepherds to be the first people to witness the coming of the Saviour of the World, the Messiah.
However, as the year has passed and our companion site (a more secularly based site than this), has developed the ideas of CLIMERICKS and CLIMCUBES, these two potent symbols of Climate change, Climate Justice and servanthood in their own right, offer an opportunity to turn a Christmas Tree into an even more graphic symbol than that of the Angel Tree. In this, they also need the help of some of those lovely Palestine Olive wood tree hangings. I hope you are beginning to get the picture.
That picture is, overall, almost breathtaking in its simplicity and explicit messages. Just look!
FROM THE TOP - down to just above eye level are your LOCAL ANGEL THRONG. As there is now plenty of time to prepare, why not ask local craftspeople to make angels for the tree in their own medium. You will then have a beautifully diverse fellowship of angels AND an opportunity to invite the crafters in for their own pre Christmas celebration and dedication of their work hanging in the church, which at its best is the beating heart of any community.FROM EYE LEVEL to about 1metre off the ground - CLIMERICKS speaking of Climate Justice and Stewardship. So about OUR responsibility and opportunities to bring about the failing of the COGS industries.
BOTTOM QUARTER OF TREE - Palestine Olive wood tree hangings recalling the very land where Christ was born
AROUND THE TREE - CLIMCUBES to be given away at an Epiphany service - symbolic of our sending Your message of love and truth into our communities.
So the pretty but irrelevant Christmas Tree becomes a NATIVITY TREE -a multi-faceted symbol of HOPE and OUTREACH: a glorious transformation.
Please pass this idea on far and wide if you think it has merit
Monday, 24 March 2025
Geodes: A Poetic Exploration on Iona.
We have just returned from Iona, resplendent with spring flowers, having been on an excellent writing retreat led by our Scottish poet friend, Ken Steven. During the week I was delighted to have the postcard of geodes, shown here, still left on the table by the time I came to make my selection from a collection of images that Ken had gathered to inspire us to write. Someone had picked up the card ahead of me, then discarded it. I suspect there is a story there! But it gave me an opportunity to draw on it for a reflection on the exquisite beauty found in some inconspicuous looking stones - and a little of their history. I enjoyed every moment of the writing , and hope that you, precious reader, can too.
into shapes,
made beautiful to behold,
by the human eye?
Through them, the brain can reason,
then build speculation on knowledge,
to begin to fathom the mysteries
of aeon’s of pre-history.
All this is wrapped
in plainstone:
so I, full of ignorance,
need an interpreter,
a palaeontologist
to steer me through the labyrinth
of the varied calcifications.
More informed,
I still gaze in wonder
at this newly polished gem,
and ask myself,
‘Did God have a hand
in this imperfect perfection?’
And I know, that I believe, he did.
TT © March 2025
Wednesday, 19 March 2025
FOR ST. JOSEPH’S DAY: This Manger’s Well Made
This Manger’s Well Made (Stable Talk)
‘This manger’s well made’,
said Joseph to Mary,
‘Its joints are a joy
to a carpenter’s eye’.
‘I hope that our son
will be skilled with timber,
so neighbours we serve
will be e’er satisfied.
‘Oh Joseph love,
you are so wise and good.
yet our son will, perhaps,
work with far more than wood.’
‘That crook there is shaped
with skill and perception;
‘tis made for a shepherd
who’ll both dare and save’.
‘I’ll show our son how
sheep are protected,
so shepherds will ask him,
to shape them good staves.
Oh Joseph love etc
‘This yoke is a work
of marvellous honing.
It never will chafe:
the ox scarce need a goad.
Our son must learn ways
of both beast and ploughman,
then contour his yokes
to ease burdensome loads’.
Oh Joseph love etc.
‘I‘ll teach him the strengths,
Of timber, dear Mary,
show him all the things
he must and must not do’.
‘Like ne’er make a cross
for fierce Roman soldiers,
Nor sell them our wood
To hang slave, thief or Jew.’
‘Oh Joseph love,
you are so wise and good.
Yes, our son when time comes
Will be smitten by wood.
Wildfires: Evidence of Climate Chaos
Wildfires: Evidence of Climate Chaos
Cascade of Stars and Gas (Imagined image: CGI)
Butterfly Nebula (CGI)
Ten thousand billion suns - A scintilla of God’s Universe

It is currently thought that the Universe has at least 1,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000 stars! Hence the use of the word ‘scintilla’ for a mere ten thousand billion.
Cross and Particle Accelerator (CGI)
Nebula (Embroidery)
Nativity Star (CGI)
Orange Galaxy
Cosmic Ikon 8 Moth
Cosmic Ikon 8: Moth Nebula(imagined-acrylic) The Gold field of deep space is intended to convey the Lordship of Christ over the whole of the Cosmos
Surprise garden rose (Photo)
This beautiful head of roses in our garden, which are giving off a delightful perfume in the morning sun, seems a fitting picture to link to the sonnet 'Evolution and Beauty'. Let the picture take you there. It is a surprise because it is growing high on a bush of otherwise pure yellow roses: amazing!
Cross and Vortex
Gaseous Cosmic Threads (Mixed media)

Gaseous Cosmic Threads: Mixed media - acrylics and painted threads
Cosmic Icon 7 Summerflower
Cosmic Icon 7 - Summerflower Nebula (Acrylic)
Cosmic Labyrinth (CGI)
Cross of Autumn Leaves (cropped Photo)
IONA: The Marble Quarry (Photo)
Celtic cross candle (Photo)
Light of the World amidst stars (CGI)
Iona from Fionnphort (Watercolour)
My Mesh Mask for Radiotherapy
Double Celebration
St Neots Sunset (Photo)
Gabriel - written/painted by Pam, my wife in 2015
Maple Leaf Nebula (CGI)
Beauty in the Garden - June 2016
Beauty in the Garden - June 2016
Aurora Imagined over Iona (Watercolour & pastel)
First posted here on Adomnan’s day (23rd September) 2015. An imagined natural phenomenom that could be seen to resonate mystically with the idea of Iona being a ‘thin place’ where heaven brushes earth.
Assisi Sunset
Assisi Sunset
Thinking about the Brain

This image is formed from a small section of neural pathways posted by the Koch Institute, clipped, part inverted and stitched together. It is intended to impart a sense of our extensive, but still partial understanding of what goes on in that awesome part of our bodies, our brains. By clicking on the image, you will be taken to a celebratory poem/song ‘For Amazement by Beauty’ about all of our senses.
Source (CGI by Trevor Thorn)

Source: Expand the image to reveal its heart
Rainbow spiral (CGI)
Cross and simple Prayer rope (Photo)

Cross and simple prayer rope: make one like this to use as an aid to using ‘The Jesus Prayer'
Sing of God and Science - ‘Wordle’ Icon
Cross of Nails (CGI)
Rosemary For Remembrance: Download for Holy week & Eastertide.

This modest cost download from Wild Goose Publishing contains a poem linking Christ’s Nativity and Crucifixion, A meditation for Good Friday, an imagined reflection of a close follower of Jesus (Bleak Sabbath) and a chidren’s/ congregational activity for Easter day. Click on the image to take you to the Wild Goose order page.
Calvary - Lifeblood of the Cosmos

Calvary - Lifeblood of the Cosmos
Gaseous exoplanet atmosphere

Gaseous exoplanet atmosphere - imagined image (Acrylic to CGI)
Alpha Omega bookmarks 1(Cross-stitch embroideries)
Ancient Storms

Ancient Storms: Imagined image (CGI)
Cross and Orbits
Nails and Thorns

This image for Holy Week is the work of a long-standing friend, sadly now dead, Ruth Bradford. Ruth drew this a few years ago and said 'This picture came as a result of a Lent Course I did with my Cluster Group at church. We worked through "He Chose the Nails" by Max Lucardo. When talking about the crown of thorns he spoke of the meaning of thorns in the Bible being the results of sin.'
Living With Integrity Logo

Living With Integrity/ Care for Our Common Home logo posted ahead of Climate Change talks Dec 2015.
St Cuthbert’s/ Hobthrush Island

Beautiful islet off Lindidfarne - song of seals as background music
Eastertide Garden Glory

Joy ablaze in the Garden
'Scientists in Congregations' Award

Delighted to be able to display the certificate awarded for the ‘Sing of God and Science’ project designed for use in church primary schools. Especially delighted with the affirmation of the awarding body (Durham University) in the centre of the certificate. Click on the image to take you to a sample of the songs that will be incorporated into the full collection later this year.
Creation by Joanna Tulloch
Close encounter

Close encounter: Imagined image (CGI)
Poppy Nebula (Imagined image): Acrylic & mixed media
Ikon Galaxy (Imagined image: CGI)
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The poems can also be called up by subject matter as shown below.
- #Advent (7)
- #Angels (2)
- #Aurora (1)
- #Awe and Wonder (192)
- #Bethlehem (16)
- #Brain (1)
- #Breathing (1)
- #CALM (1)
- #Calmness (1)
- #Cancer (3)
- #Care of the planet (65)
- #Carols (3)
- #Centering (1)
- #CenteringPrayer (1)
- #Childlikeness (2)
- #Christmas (23)
- #Christmas 2025 (1)
- #ChristmasTree (2)
- #ChurchUnity (1)
- #CLIMATE CONCERN (30)
- #Community (1)
- #COPD (21)
- #Coronation (1)
- #Crafts (1)
- #Craftwork (1)
- #Creation (2)
- #Donkey Palm Sunday Man-about-Jerusalem Oppression Messiah Hosanna (1)
- #Ecology (42)
- #Ecumenicalism (1)
- #Fitness (1)
- #Herbs (1)
- #HOMESCHOOL HELP: Songs of Faith and Science. (23)
- #Iona (1)
- #Kngship (1)
- #Meditation (140)
- #Miracles (4)
- #Mothers (1)
- #Neurons (1)
- #Prayer (2)
- #Rites of Passage (6)
- #Schoolassembly friendly (48)
- #Science and Faith (186)
- #SingofGodandScience (37)
- #Wellbeing (1)
- #Wellness (1)
- +Simon Barrington-Ward (1)
- A (1)
- Addenbrookes (1)
- Advent (5)
- All Age (38)
- Amazement (1)
- Angels (1)
- Assisi (2)
- Aurora (1)
- Awe and wonder (1)
- Beauty (107)
- Bible (5)
- bio-diversity (1)
- Blessings (52)
- Brain (1)
- Breathing (1)
- calm (2)
- calming (1)
- Calmness (1)
- Cancer (4)
- Carols (2)
- celtic Christianity (1)
- centering (2)
- CenteringPrayer (1)
- Childlikeness (2)
- Children's (38)
- Children’s (1)
- Christmas (1)
- Christmas 2025 (1)
- ChristmasTree (1)
- ChurchUnity (1)
- Churchyard (1)
- CLIMATE CONCERN (11)
- CLIMATE CRISIS (13)
- Collective Worship (14)
- Community (1)
- cosmology (1)
- Crafts (1)
- Craftwork (1)
- Creation (79)
- Cross stitch embroideries (7)
- Ecology (16)
- Ecumenicalism (1)
- Ely Cathedral (13)
- Epiphany (1)
- Exoplanets (1)
- faith (1)
- Family (4)
- Fitness (1)
- Guest Contribution (7)
- hermit’s cell (1)
- history (1)
- Holy Week and Easter (31)
- HolyLand Pilgrimage (15)
- Hope (24)
- Hosanna (1)
- Imagination (1)
- Inspiration (1)
- Internet (2)
- Iona (19)
- Jesus Prayer (1)
- job38 (1)
- Just a bit of nonsense. (13)
- Justice (10)
- Lament (3)
- Lifestyle (11)
- Little Canticles (15)
- Meditation (2)
- Mindfulness (1)
- Miracles (3)
- Mothers (1)
- Mums (1)
- My Mobile (2)
- Neurons (1)
- Our own death (1)
- Phone (2)
- Prayer (38)
- Psalms (9)
- relaxation (1)
- Rhymes for reading the sky (3)
- Rites of Passage (1)
- Science and Faith (152)
- Science Weekend at Church (4)
- Sing of God and Science (22)
- spirituality (42)
- stewardship (1)
- Technology (4)
- Thanksgiving (19)
- The lighter side (12)
- Waiting (2)
- Wellbeing (1)
- wellness (2)
- Wonder (1)
- Worship Songs and Hymns (38)
- Writing verse (2)
Cosmic Ikon 2 (Imagined image: CGI)
Ex Nihilo (Imagined image: Acrylic)
Steer to slidesow
Crib, Cross and Star. (CGI)

This image is intended to place Christ at the focal point of the Universe. The manger is deliberately oversized compared with most manger images: it is for cattle, not designed for a baby! It is a reminder of how often we want to make the story a 'comfortable' one - when at its origin it was almost certainly, inherently uncomfortable!
St Peter-on-the-Wall,Bradwell 7th Century Chapel of Saint Cedd (Watercolour)
The Hermit's Cell: IONA (Watercolour)
Liberating Forces (Imagined image: CGI)
Mull across the Sound of Iona (Watercolour)
Cross and Sunflower (Sculpture by Lilo Bauer-Frietag)

This 'New Life' Cross featuring the sunflower motif superimposed on the cross was made by Lilo Bauer-Frietag of Washington DC whom I 'met' in a spirituality group discussion on the web
Galilee - Lakeside Communion (Photo) Altar top
Cosmic Ikon 4 Nativity Star (CGI)

Nativity Star - Cosmic Ikon 4: The Gold of the sky represents God's Lordship over time and space and the cross at the centre foretells the future of the Christ child
Nativity Star Ikon (CGI)
Galaxy of Galaxies (Cross-stitch embroidery)
Heart of Gold Galaxy (Watercolour)
Cross and Nebula (Pastel)
Alpha Omega bookmark Cross-stitch embroidery)
Galaxy 3 (Embroidery)
Starburst 1 (Imagined image: CGI)
Black Hole (Cross-stitch embroidery)
Cross in Spiral (Imagined image:Pastel)
'Lord of Infinity’ Cross (CGI)

This simple Cross motif has been fashioned for this blogsite to symbolise 'Christ, the Lord of Infinity' comprising a straight upright intersected by the mathematical sign for infinity. Click on the image to take you to the poem 'Alpha and Omega' which also reflects Christ's place at the centre of the Cosmos.