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 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

 

 

 

 

 

An Angel Tree as a Community Project

As we move rapidly through the second half of the year, here’s a re-post  of The Angel Tree idea to involve a wide part of a community through those with a creative streak - AND - incorporate the tree more thoroughly into the Christmas story. 

At this time of the year it would be good to make a start if it feels a good concept. 

 

Our Angel Tree, Manger scene

 and NASA cosmic image.

An Angel Tree 

A Community project - Creation, Creativity and The Crib

 

There is something very special about one idea inspiring another, especially when the further idea has the potential to engage others and to illustrate a precious part of the Christmas story!

 

Just before Christmas 2023, I posted a poem with the title O Christmas Tree with Angel Throng: it was inspired by a collection of 70 angel ornaments, which we had made over several years and which now decorated, in entirety, our beautiful tree (other than a set of LED lights and a star at its top). In writing a short introduction to the poem, I suggested there might be a possibility that trees in churches or chapels could follow this concept, thus according the tree a more significant place in the Christmas narrative. As I wrote, I recognised that the accumulation of a sufficient number of angels to completely decorate the rather larger trees in most churches could be expensive…

 

But then … such a simple idea emerged: the tree could become a community project for Advent.

 

Here’s how it might work - although every Angel Tree will have its own unique demands!

·      # Several weeks before the start of Advent, make it as widely known as possible that the Church/Chapel Christmas tree will be populated with as many hand-made angels as the community can produce. If you call up Angel and craftworks on the web, all manner of hand-crafted angel ideas will be found, among them being knitted, crocheted, macrame, paper-plate, coffee filters, fret-worked, scroll-sawn, cross stitch, glass-painted, paper strip, felted, fan-folded and many, many more. 

·      # Issue invitations to participate. Make the deadline for receiving angels around mid November, so you have plenty of time to assess how many angels your tree will need to hold. Angels will need to have the name of the maker on them – discreetly of course!

·      # Then, on each Sunday in Advent put around a quarter of the angels you have received on the tree. Let the crafters know when their angel will be put on to the tree and that they would be particularly welcome to that service.

ø OR # incorporate unveiling the Angel throng into an already established Crib Service thus potentially broadening the age range of the participating congregation/ fellowship members.

·   # If you have a writer in your community, ask s/he to devise a prayer for each week.

·   # Have your Christmas Angel Tree near your nativity scene: thus the tree will be filled with ‘hovering’ angels incorporating the tree into the manger story – and invite all the crafters to whichever service the crib is blessed. In this way you will be linking Creation (The tree), Creativity (the crafters) and the Crib (Incarnation and Salvation).

·   # Offer simple seasonal hospitality after each dedication service so crafters can get to know each other  and encourage them to talk about their particular craft-work to others.

You may like to read the Angel tree poem which you can find by clicking HERE 

May your Angel Trees be witnesses of the fellowship that can be engendered through the crafts-people and the Christmas story in your community.

CLIMERICKS (Companion site) and the UK General Election

KEEPING CLIMATE CONCERN

CONVERSATIONS ALIVE with... 

St Cuthbert’s Island, off Lindisfarne, Northumbria.

An islet under threat from rising sea levels. The islet

has been adopted by Eco-Verses as

a symbol of the global risk to low-lying places.

Today, because the UK is voting in a General Election, I am posting a CLIMERICK written for my companion blog Eco-Verses where you will find a whole collection of Climericks covering many different aspects of Climate concern. I am posting it here because I hope that Christians who read it here will see Climate concern as a Kingdom Issue and maybe encourage their own churches to make it clear that Eco-concern is a part of the ethos of their church. A pop-up display is in the final stage of development on the Eco-Verses site and could prove a useful way of signalling concern both to regular members of a congregation and visitors to the church.

On the day for electoral choice,

ask will who you choose raise their voice

for the need to go green

and defy all the spleen

that the fossil fuel lobby employs?

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

 

Children and Young People, Now Sing Praises to The Lord,

Pixabay free image of children from many races.

Delighted to be challenged in the Resound Worship song-a -month challenge to write an intergenerational worship song, thus returning to a genre that I had put on one side as other writing demanded attention. So here is a very literal inter-generational song with a deliberately simple chorus so that it could be sung with VERY young children able to join in. Good to have a new addition to my collection of children’s songs which can be found HERE

Children and Young People, Now Sing Praises to The Lord,

 

Children and young people, now sing praises to The Lord,

praises to The Lord, praises to The Lord.

Children and young people, now sing praises to The Lord,

Praise Him for His creation.

 

Chorus:

 

Da-de-da, de-da-de-da sing praises to the Lord,

praises to the Lord, praises to the Lord

Da-de-da, de-da-de-da sing praises to the Lord,

Praise Him for His creation.

 

Chorus

 

Grown-ups of all nations, now sing praises to The Lord,

praises to The Lord, praises to The Lord.

Grown-ups of all nations, now sing praises to The Lord,

Praise Him for His creation.

 

Chorus

 

Seniors with wisdom, now sing praises to The Lord,

praises to The Lord, praises to The Lord.

Seniors with wisdom, now sing praises to The Lord,

Praise Him for His creation.

 

Chorus

 

Children of all ages, now sing praises to The Lord,

praises to The Lord, praises to The Lord.

Children of all ages, now sing praises to The Lord,

Praise Him for His creation.

Praise Him for His creation.

Score: