Note for readers: I have used this post to explore a new blogger feature - ‘beta features’. The claim is that the words coloured blue will help in engaging reading experience. Frankly, I’m not sure! It feels to me that the interruption of blue among the prevailing black could deter as many prospective readers as encouraging any. So, please regard this posting as an experiment, so I can test the effect.
Once again on holiday on Lindisfarne (warm sun at the start and the wildness of Storm Amy last night!) and inspiration pays a visit...
We arrived last weekend and listened to Sunday Morning Worship from Lichfield Cathedral, before going to the Island’s Parish church for an imaginative and worshipful harvest festival with a decidedly ecumenical flavour (Praise the Lord!).
Two comments in the Sunday Worship service from Lichfield Cathedral, although both slightly paraphrased, particularly caught my attention,
‘What better time to remember God’s generosity, when the harvest is reaped, when God's bounty from earth and sky and sea yields up its fruits. His gifts. His handiwork.’
Then
‘ Imagine a world where moral progress advanced as rapidly as quantum computing! ‘
By one of those, not necessarily logical(!), mental leaps that occur occasionally, I found myself wondering what celebrating harvest in a quantum-computing-aware world might look like. Here’s the outcome. Whilst writing it, the concept of clean-technology-energy- harvesting went hand in hand with an awareness of how much easier it is/ will be to share energy generation more equitably, when sources do not necessarily have to be tied in to massive grid systems.
Come Celebrate The Harvest of Energy.
Tune: We Plough the Fields and Scatter.
Come celebrate the harvest
of energy from wind
produced by lofty turbines
both elegant and kind
to land or sea beneath them
as they embrace fresh air
give thanks for God’s great gifting
of power to wisely share.
Refrain
All the good around us
is given by God’s hand,
providing generous harvests
from farms of sea and land.
We thank you for the photons
that burst from sun’s fierce glow,
which can then be converted
so energy can flow
from banks of solar panels
to sub-stations that feed
heat sources, light and power
to serve a worldwide need.
Refrain
Give thanks that channelled water
can cleanly generate
vast quantities of power
from tides or river’s spate.
These sources are a Godsend,
when they are planned with care
and like all green-power options
are best when they are shared
Refrain
So thank God for resources
that help us generate
to now improve its state:
please help us use it wisely
in just and generous ways.
And for these mighty blessings,
let’s render thanks and praise.
Refrain
Because of its writing location, this hymn is incorporated in ‘My Lindisfarne Collection’ which can be found HERE