If your church is working to promote biodiversity in its churchyard: this may be of interest

ON OUR COMPANION BLOG ECO-VERSES

KEEPING CLIMATE CONCERN

CONVERSATIONS ALIVE with... 

A Churchyard:

In this Little Patch of Creation 

With many churches working to promote the biodiversity in their churchyards, here is a novel way to invite people in. Further Climericks will build on this invitation.

 

In this little patch of Creation,

we invite you to find restoration

for your body and soul,

in this place, with its rôle -

to give peace that will last generations.

Find more about the thinking behind the growing collection of CLIMERICKS HERE  

NEW CLIMERICKS WILL APPEAR ON THIS SITE TWICE WEEKLY - SO KEEP LOOKING TO STAY UP TO DATE.

Aurora over Iona Abbey - Real and imagined!

Sometime between 2015 and 2018, with the sunspot cycle low in its eleven year sequence, I imagined, in pastel, how an aurora might look over Iona Abbey, feeling that such an event, if ever it happened, would beautifully illustrate the idea that Iona is a thin place where heaven reaches down to touch the earth.

So I was absolutely thrilled to see the picture below taken by Mark Wildman, Head Chef at The Bishops House, Iona, on 24th September 2024. Thank you Mark and thank you Robbie (Warden of Bishops House)

Just wonderful!

The pastel was an outworking of a poem I had written in 2015

Aurora

 

Your hand,

O Lord,

ripples the light

at the ends of the earth.

 

You have set the stage

for dancing curtains

to irradiate

the dark hours

preceding

a polar dawn,

with the assistance

of Your beautiful servant

the sun,

whose life-giving

irridescence

is muted

and borrowed,

so we might safely

be wonder-struck

by the glory

of Your

heavenly light.

 

An Autumnal Mist

  

This morning, I glanced out of our bedroom window and caught this exquisite moment on my phone, where it will join a billion other camera-shots, recording the passing of today. I could not resist turning the beauty into a poem for I particularly love those moments when a picture births a poem or vice versa. 

 

 

 

 

An autumnal mist

filters the morning sun,

reducing its blaze to quiescent orange,

on which, just for a few rare minutes

I can safely stay my eye.

 

I remind myself

that beyond nature’s curtain,

spins a roiling,

turbulent ball of gas,

that sustains all life

on Earth.

 

So I give thanks.

 

But remember,

that unconstrained,

this glowing sphere

also has,

a fearsome capacity

to kill and destroy.

 

TT 21.09.24

Remembering Bishop Simon Barrington-Ward and New Inspiration From The Jesus Prayer.

One of the 50 different language versions

in the Jesus Prayer collection

gathered and posted in 2012

(by chance in this set, the slide above emerged

as a random selection - and is coupled

with the Coventry cross-of nails, another

remembrance of Bishop Simon)

 

From time to time recently, I have returned to praying The Jesus prayer in some of my quiet times. It has evoked memories of the part that the late Bishop Simon Barrington Ward played in our lives at the time we moved to Cambridge for me to join the staff of Ridley Hall. Bishop Simon’s prayerfulness shone out of him, sometimes with his small pocket book that he would write in whenever anyone asked for prayer. As Chaplain to the staff at Ridley, he played a significant role in the staff fellowship that was such a special part of that time of new horizons in a place that neither Pam nor I had ever expected ourselves to be. So much of that time to be thankful for.

 

Lord Jesus Christ, 

Son of God, 

Have mercy on me,

A sinner.

 

And in the times of further using this ancient prayer came the fresh idea of adding  a further stanza to the prayer

 

Lord Jesus Christ, 

Son of God, 

Come fill me

With thanksgiving and praise.

 

This second stanza above emerged in an earlier morning quiet time and helped me recognise that maybe to seekers or non-believers, the wonder that is the Jesus Prayer (Stanza 1) might feel downbeat and give or reinforce feelings that the Christian faith is a dour philosophy.

 

By adding the second stanza, it might help some to recognise that Confession – Thanksgiving – Praise is a sequence of hopefulness that mirrors the pattern of much liturgical worship: so might be able to bring some hope and optimism into the lives of some who are heavy-laden.

 

I hope that for those who are thoroughly immersed in the ancient prayer, this might not be an affront, but a sincerely meant augmentation that can spread the meditative reach even further as we move through the 21^stcentury.

 

In 2012 I was very thoroughly immersed in the ancient prayer, I struggled to produce the prayer in 50 languages to encourage thinking about Jesus welcoming people of every nation. With the development of web-based translation services, that has become a far easier task, so without much ado Stanza 2 can be swiftly available in translation and some samples follow. 

 

Perhaps a similar sequence to my earlier collection, which can be found HERE , will follow.

 

So, as a start towards a similar collection, here are five language versions compiled with the help of a web translation site.

 

Spanish

Señor Jesucristo,

Hijo de Dios,

ven y lléname

Con acción de gracias y alabanza.

 

French

Seigneur Jésus-Christ,

Fils de Dieu,

Viens me remplir

Avec remerciements et louanges.

 

Portuguese

Senhor Jesus Cristo,

Filho de Deus,

Venha me preencher

Com ações de graças e louvor.

 

Italian

Signore Gesù Cristo,

Figlio di Dio,

Vieni a riempirmi

Con ringraziamento e lode.

 

German

Herr Jesus Christus,

Sohn Gottes,

komm und erfülle mich

mit Danksagung und Lobpreis.

 

As I post this, I think I will be returning to this theme.

 

 

If I were Satan.

Post Greenbelt...

 

If I were Satan,

where better to install an outrightly evil regime

than in the land that Jesus lived?

 

If I were Satan,

where better to encourage people to invest wealth

in industries that have the capacity to destroy Earth?

 

If I were Satan,

what better perversion of language to foster

than calling the industry that produces every killing machine

‘Defence’?

 

If I were Satan

mightn’t I decide to pursue a strategy

to persuade Christians that Zionism is of God?

 

If you were Satan……….. what would YOU do?

 

 

We, Pam, my wife and I, have the privilege of taking today easily after spending the weekend at the Greenbelt 24 Christian Arts Festival. We managed this by camping at a nearby Premier Inn, hiring a mobility scooter and me taking the assisted transport ‘bus’ from, and to the box office to the site entrance at the beginning and end of each day.

As ever, it was a very special experience to see thousands of fellow Christians going from place to place, tent to tent, to hear from others who are passionate leaders about all the big justice and peace issues of the our time.

And for me, it was a particularly special festival. The Iona Community and their publishing arm Wild Goose publications had put out invitations to any authors whose material they had published, to make a presentation of their work in the Community tent. This felt a huge privilege to be able to talk about my blogs, The Cross and The Cosmos (This blog!) and Ecoverses/ Climericks which is where I publish a Climate concern post every 2 or 3 days. I am so grateful to the community for this opportunity.

The experience had just one thing in common with leading a church service. Five minutes before we started, there were a handful (or maybe two) of prospective listeners. Then as we started, there were, I estimate, 90 people in the tent and a considerable number crowding round the entrance. Wonderful!

Yet even more wonderful was the experience once again of worshipping with several thousand like-minded fellow Christians in very special Act of Communion on Sunday morning. The sun shone, after Friday’s rain and Thursday’s high winds, and we were fortunate to be spotted as we made our way into the main (and massive) arena by Mike A who kindly wove his way among the gathering crowd and steered Pam on the mobility scooter and me into the company of friends from Waterbeach, Landbeach and beyond.

Having arrived home yesterday, very weary, I woke in the night eager to reflect my feelings about that outdoor communion. 

This is the result which I hope feels to some that maybe they would like to share in a very special August Bank Holiday event next year - beautiful and challenging at the same time.

Links to the Greenbelt site and to The Iona Community’s presence on the web will be found below the poem. Pam and I give grateful thanks for both of them.

The lovely fabric panel pictured here was on display in the Quaker exhibition of Environmental concern expressed in fabric, and echoes themes within my poem

 Sharings.

Seldom have I worshipped,

with several thousand others,

children, women and men.

 

This is Greenbelt 24

 

Comes a moment

of anticipation;

‘Eat this bread,’

‘Drink this cup’

And a mighty silence

shakes itself out upon us.

 

We are blessed,

as Heaven surely brushes

the earth, where we are gathered.

Briefly, a thin place.

 

In the hushed arena

The Spirit whispers;

‘Will you weep for Gaza?’

‘Will you weep for your threatened planet?’

‘Will you weep over the evil of the arms trade

which you allow to determine your economic order?’

 

I quake inside and wonder:

‘Did a similar, beautiful, challenging peace

descend,

when Jesus broke

a child’s bread and little fishes

in their militarily-occupied country?’

 

Trevor Thorn: (privileged to have been invited to contribute to the Festival as a Wild Goose/ Iona author)

To see more about Greenbelt CLICK HERE

To see more about The Iona Community CLICK HERE

With My Back to The Chapel Wall: A New Vista

 

St Peter’s-on-The Wall, 

Bradwell-on-Sea, Essex (2024) 

For those who have, like Pam, my wife, and me, visited the Chapel built in the 7th century by Cedd and his followers, many times over the years, the comparatively recent installation of wind turbines is bound to affect our perceptions of the site, gladdening many and bothering others.

I am firmly in the former of these two groups, so was glad to be able to spend a week in the nearby Othona Community* and feel again a sense of spiritual well-being this time, both in the chapel and arising from the sight of the clean energy producers.

Given this weaving of emotions, I was particularly pleased, when looking out to sea, with my back to the chapel wall (so standing on the left of the chapel in this picture), I was able to fashion words that both celebrated a return to a place special to Pam and me and generated ideas to draw together in a new  poem inspired by a change after centuries : 'With My Back to The Chapel Wall’

With my back to the chapel wall

I know, from Cedd’s faithful orientation

I am facing East.

And in a bracing onshore wind, 

I look out to sea.

Within moments I am assailed 

by a breath-sapping gust

and simultaneously seized by the vista.

A makeover after millennia

of changelessness.

Tall white tapering candles of steel

surmounted by swirling blades

eagerly drawing energy 

from the same - but amplified wind.

These are our hope.

But grief stricken, I see

that even now

they are threatened by

the menacing blackness

of earlier constructed rigs.

In the foreground,

grasses sway and dragonflies dart,

while they still can.

* The Othona Community, with its site adjacent to the Chapel, is a Christian Community of reconciliation which welcomes people of all faiths or none to join in the fellowship of that community. You can read more at The Othona Community, Essex

POP-UP DISPLAYS of CLIMERICKS to MAKE IT CLEAR YOUR CHURCH/ CHAPEL/SCHOOL CARES ABOUT THE ENVIRONMENT.

 

If you are among those Christians who really care about the environment and where we are all heading, you might like to consider mounting a POP-UP DISPLAY of CLIMERICKS. It is very simple and will make it absolutely apparent that you and your colleagues do really care and want our Political and Community Leaders to initiate and encourage the urgent action that Earth and we, its people, need.

 

CLIMERICKS have been devised to help start conversations and to make protest about Climate concern inaction. Although a very serious topic, some will hopefully make you smile!

 

All you need to do is visit our companion site https://eco-verses.blogspot.com/

where you will find some 70 Climericks. Chose the ones you think are most telling. Even just two or three will make the point but bigger displays may, by their scale have more impact. Print them out, each on an A4 sheet. Print the explanatory sheet that you will find HERE (on 2 x A4 sheets to keep things simple). Laminate them all, if you can, and DISPLAY.

 

You can see pop-up displays at St Mary’s Church, on the Holy Island of Lindisfarne, Northumbria (UK), where possible sea-level rise will have huge impact. And from 2^nd – 14^th September 2024 in the Michaelhouse Café, in Trinity Street at the heart of Cambridge (UK) you will find an exhibition of around 40 Climericks to ponder as you enjoy coffee, cake or one of the Café’s delicious lunches.

 

Why not be an early-adopter of this initiative? Others will almost certainly be grateful to you for giving them a way in to express their angst, anger or frustration and occasionally, their hopes and their enthusiasm to support beneficial Climate action.

 

You do not need to do this, but it would be great to know you have picked up this idea, so do let us know of your intention at crossandcosmos@gmail.com

Out and About with The Cross and The Cosmos 2

I’m on an astronomy retreat this week with The Othona Community in Bradwell on Sea, Essex. Rhythms of the community are dictated by brief morning and evening reflections in the close-by 7^th century chapel built by St Cedd and swimming! That is because the only a proportion of the guests are here for the Astronomy; for a greater proportion, this is a family holiday with a guest star, Ivy who at 18 months has, I think, managed to charm everyone.

 

Every activity here is shared in some way by the guests and I was invited first to take an evening reflection, yesterday to say grace at lunchtime, and today I have been on lunch-time washing up duty, which is no small task with 90 guests. Thankfully the community has invested in modern cleaning equipment which is powered by off-grid electricity: an impressive feature which makes hosting such a large holiday-time population, practicable.

 

This, being my first summer week attendance here, I was a bit taken aback to be asked to lead Monday evening’s reflection, illuminated by candles and torches. As it happened, just as I was about to leave on Saturday for the 85 mile journey to the edge of eastern Essex, I spotted a copy of the Celebratory Faith and Science service we held in All Saints, Landbeach in 2014. So I was able to put together a brief service order built around the strands of that earlier event. We sung Let The Cosmos Praise its Maker and the Cosmic Doxology, both of which you will find below. We also used the modern concept Psalm 24 which can be found  at the link below

Let The Cosmos Praise its Maker,

Tune: Praise My Soul The King of Heaven  (Praise) OR Picardy (Reflection)

 

Let the Cosmos praise its maker,

In its known and unknown tongues,

Giving thanks for all existence

In its multitude of forms;

From immense to subatomic,

From primaeval to new-born.

 

All the fundamental forces

Dance before his heavenly throne,

Giving praise with saints and angels

For the mighty deeds he’s done;

Bringing matter out of nothing

As the universe was formed.

 

Let us, as his much loved creatures

Seek how we might understand

All the glory of creation,

All the beauty that he planned,

And his cosmic gift, salvation

Through Christ Jesus, God in man.

 

Trevor Thorn © 2018

A Cosmic Doxology

Tune Blaenwern (Love Divine)

  

Christ  before us, Christ within us,

Christ to left and Christ to right.

Christ whose love enfolds all creatures,

Christ the source of life and light.

Christ the cosmic Lord of glory,

Christ who battled sin’s great curse,

Christ the risen and ascended

Sanctifies the universe.

 

Psalm 24 as a modern reflection (Video link at end)

Verses can be spoken or chanted.

The three Responsories can sung by all to the tune Truro/ Jesus Shall Reign Where'er The Sun.

The whole cosmos is the Lord's and everything in it:

every particle of matter throughout the universe.

 

All human beings, the earth’s wild creatures and resources:

and unknown beings who may live on planets far beyond our reach.

(Responsory 1) 

Lift Up your heads, you galaxies, 

Bright Nova form a dazzling path,

That your great King of Glo-o-o-ory 

Through all your realms may nobly pass 

 

It was God commanded the deep realm of space, Come forth:

and it sprang into instant being.

 

He established light and dark; light to see the wonders of our generous planet:

darkness to invite us to see the vastness of creation.

(Responsory 2)

 Who is this great and glorious King?

The Lord, Creator of us all, 

It was His Word establish-ed 

Prime forces and base particles.

Who shall travel beyond, into the eternal presence of The Lord:

or who shall dare to approach that holy place?

 

Even those who have clean hands and pure hearts, 

who love righteousness and Godly justice, and who despise greed and iniquity.

 

These will receive blessings from The Lord: and be welcomed into his kingdom of love.

They will be a renewed generation of those who revere God,

who stand in awe at the unfolding of the magnificence of his creation. 

 

Lift Up your heads, you galaxies, 

Bright Nova form a dazzling path,

That your great King of Glo-o-o-ory 

Through all your realms may nobly pass 

 

 

(c) March 2023

There is a YouTube Video  posted on the Sing of God  and Science channel. You will find it at 

https://youtu.be/4XHgjfVDhlY  

Out and About with The Cross and The Cosmos.

 

Earth at Greenbelt

August may be a quiet month for many but August this year has been filled for me (Trevor) with preparations for a couple of upcoming events.

First, I will be making an appearance at Greenbelt, the annual Christian arts festival near Kettering. I have a few of my poems in Iona/ Wild Goose Publications which qualifies me as a 'Wild Goose author' for a slot in the I/WG authors’ event. So if you are attending the festival, I would be thrilled to see you in the Wild Goose tent around 2pm on the Friday of the Festival. I am on stage after 3 earlier contributors: the session starts at 1pm

A few days after that, I will be displaying a sequence of CLimericks in the Michaelhouse cafe in Trinity Street (just off Senate House Hill in Cambridge. CLimericks are a five line poem featuring issues about Climate chaos/Climate concern. The purpose of these short verses is to enable any concerned person to make a personal protest or simply to start a conversation. There is a fund of these verses on the web at https://eco-verses.blogspot.com ,but just for the short period of Monday 2nd September until Friday 13th you will be able to chew over the many aspects of Climate based issues over a latte and cake, or even over one of Michaelhouse’s delicious lunches. 

This is the third pop-up display of CLimericks and seeing these in a cafe location might prompt you to mount a similar display in a community cafe, church, school or any other public place where you think it would be good to encourage debate on this THE issue of the twenty-first century. If this sounds of interest, please contact me at crossandcosmos@gmail.com

A Poet’s Plea: To Our American Sisters and Brothers in Christ.

 

I have to confess that neither my wife of I can make any sense of the reason that any Christian leaders would support the former President of the USA in his bid to return to the White House. So these words are drawn together out of that perplexity. Our prayer is that they might find some fertile fields.

A Poet’s Plea 

To Our American Sisters and Brothers in Christ.

(After re-reading Galatians 5. 22-3.)

Oh, America, will you elect to build love and not hate?

Oh, America, will you elect to bring joy to a pain-filled world?

Oh, America, will you elect to foster peace throughout the world?

Oh, America, will you elect to recognise patience for the virtue that it is?

Oh, America, will you elect to spread kindness about you?

Oh, America, will you elect to put goodness at the heart of your world-wide relationships?

Oh, America, will you elect to restore faithfulness among your national traits?

Oh, America, will you elect to embrace gentleness in your policy-making?

Oh, America, will you elect to recognise self-control as a fruit of the Spirit?

Trevor Thorn, Nr Cambridge, UK.

A Quiet Space - A Veritable Blessing - Matthew 6.6

Matthew 6.6  But whenever you pray, go into your room and shut the door and pray to your Father who is in secret; and your Father who sees in secret will reward you.

Our Quiet Room: Pictures clockwise from top centre

Ex Nihilo: Acrylic by the author

Ely Cathedral: pastel - artist unknown 

St Peter’s on the wall, Bradwell on Sea, Essex. Line drawing - artist unknown

Icon: The Archangel Gabriel written by Pam, my wife on a week’s Icon painting retreat

Icon: John the Baptist written by Pam on a week’s Icon painting retreat 

I post this with deep gratitude, but knowing that not many will be able to contemplate creating such a space. However, if anyone sees this and feels they have space that can be similarly kept as a peace-filled haven, then I will be glad of the prompting to post this entry; even though logic might say it is unlikely to be of help to many others. 

And if that is the case, then it will stand as a simple prayer of thanksgiving between me and Jesus.

 

A Quiet Space.

 

Dearest Lord,

we are very blessed

to have the privilege

of being able to keep a dedicated space

as a quiet sanctuary within our home.

 

This is a place

to meet you in the blessed peacefulness

of the morning.

 

This is a place

where we can encounter

you at work in others.

 

This is a place.

where the tribulation of others.

can be shared.

 

And all these uses

have been, are, and will be

sacred footsteps

in our own journeying

with you.

 

It is a gift

that has been one among

the many blessings

we have experienced here,

in our lovely and love-filled home.

 

And in the blessed peace,

of a morning,

I give thanks.

 

Amen.

 

Monday/Tuesday 24^th /25th June 2024