NEW VISITITORS: A STARTING POINT

 

With a significant upsurge in interest in this blog over the last few weeks, and a recent  invitation sent to some church leaders who I have known in the past, to explore this site, it felt a good moment to produce a site-guide to the range of material I have posted over the years. 

It will take a little while to pull this together: but one of the features of a blog is that an entry can be expanded over time. It may, therefore be a few days before this synopsis reaches completion: so I invite repeat visits just to check. The finishing item to be posted will be a collection of links to 5 entries on the site, which have proved particularly popular

The collection has several main elements.

·      * Posts that express the Awe and Wonder of the Universe: this is the prime aim of the blog.

·      * Poems, and songs about Climate Justice/ Climate change: these have arisen because so many different sciences point to the irrefutable truth of climate change, thereby challenging our stewardship of this amazing planet.

·      * Items that reflect on our use of and relationship with modern-day technology.

  * Children’s songs about God and Science

·    * Special collections to focus thinking during Creationtide, Advent & Christmas, Lent & Eastertide (seasonal rather than scientifically focused)

And much, much more. 

But rather than overwhelm new visitors, I’ll give samples of each of the first four  sections above, which will give glimpses of what else might be found. 

*****

Awe and Wonder:

Four/ Five poems that invite thinking about the sheer wonder of the whole of Creation – and its Creator; in our personal journeying, in deep space and in the way science can help to illuminate our understanding of the creation and our existence within it.

I Met with Beauty, Science and Faith.

Into The Deep.

Thanksgiving for The Wonders of Science

Stars and Planets Sing Your Glory

And in a very different vein is Black Hole

 

There are more poems/ songs on this theme that can be accessed via the image button in the right hand column entitled Wonders of Creation

Climate Justice/ Climate Change

Plea of an Unborn Child

As Mighty Glaciers Recede

Celebrating the Harvesting of Clean Energy

There are more poems/ songs on this theme that can be accessed via the image button in the right hand column entitled Living With Integrity

Our Relationship with Modern day Technology

With My Phone in My Hand  (This has proved to be one of the most visited entries on the site. I assume its popularity is because it relates to something that is part of most lives these days. It was first posted in October 2023 and has, perhaps, become even more relevant with the pace that reels now appear, often without any bidding.)

Never Trust a Chatbot as a Friend, and in similar vein

If You should be Craving a Listener.

These might hopefully encourage a fresh approach to thinking about the place of technology in our lives.

Children’s songs about God and Science

I’m Making Friends With Science

The Bible Starts with Awesome Tale

Fossils are Fantastic 

The Seasonal Collections are all accessible from the image buttons in the right hand column.

And if you have enjoyed the material in this guide, then you are warmly invited to visit other sections of the blog, such as my Iona Collection, my Lindisfarne Collection, or simply find your way among other varied offerings which, I hope, from time to time might prove useful resources.

 

Iken: Dawn Across the Water.

 

Iken: Dawn Across the Water.

 

Just a few moments,

just a few metres,

and one glorious riverscape

melts into another.

 

In the time needed

to take just a few paces 

or a few breaths, 

the rising sun eases away

from an inky cloud,

to splash a riot of reds, orange and yellows

into the dawn sky.

 

For the glory of the scattering

of a vast multitude of photons

illuminating the east:

I give thanks.

A few days break in Suffolk, East Anglia in a splendid riverside cottage is in itself a huge blessing. And during Monday’s Quiet time the morning dawned spectacularly. Again, it feels a huge privilege to be able to capture such moments on the phone’s camera - and then be able to reflect on the glory and shape words to express an experience like this. For anyone not familiar with the idea of photons, Wikipedia will give a good idea of why they are to be celebrated at such a moment !

This is also a good moment to notice that even the limited analytics I look at, to get a glimpse of what is going on on the blog, indicate that there are a lot of new readers coming aboard. You are very welcome and I am grateful to any of you who are sharing this content. In a world so dominated by science and technology, it feels a privilege to be able to offer ideas about the complementarity of faith and science in demonstrating God’s glory - and to know that others share my enthusiasm . May God bless you in your pilgrim journey.

Who Laid This Stone?

During the ‘Sight and Sound’ week run by The Iona Community in Iona Abbey (Early September 2026), we were invited to take paper and drawing materials into the abbey, let the space speak to us and record something we would not usually focus on, in whatever medium we had equipped ourselves with.

 

Previously during our visits to the abbey for worship, I had noticed markings on some of the stones (there are in fact unique markings on every single stone) and I wondered how stone-rubbing might respond to our brief. So I equipped myself with wax pastels and discovered amazing contours and detail in stone after stone after stone. It was a thrilling exploration – and gave rise to the speculations below. 

Stone-rubbing taken in Iona Abbey:

unfortunately I had not equipped myself 

with a full range of coloured crayons!

Who Laid This Stone?

 

Who laid this stone?

Did it take two or three pairs of hands

to shift it into place

as another irregular course was constructed?

 

Was it laid in torrential rain,

or on a day when a warm sun

made the labour feel tolerable,

despite the discomforts 

of calloused hands and aching limbs?

 

And might any of those artisans or monks on site

have noticed that embedded in the hefty grey stones

were shells (which we now know to be fossils)?

 

I fall to wondering about the

unimaginable forces and high-speed collisions

arising from God’s provision

of planet-building dynamics,

which gave birth to

the medievally-mined stone, 

of which the lower courses 

of this house of prayer and mission

were constructed.

Soundscape

A week ago, we arrived home from a four week holiday that started on Lindisfarne (which inspired the poem/ painting duo.‘The Retreat’ - the most recent post on the blog until today). We then moved on to the Island of Mull for a week where we enjoyed a cottage that overlooked the long bay with the village of Bunessan forming its southern boundary. Finally we took the short ferry  ride to The Island of Iona for an excellently led Iona Community week entitled ‘Sight and Sound’. (Thank you Jane and Colette.)

Each stay was a delight and may well inspire further writing/ painting.

But for now, here are a few lines and watercolour sketch that celebrate one of the course activities.

Forty of us, gathered in the Iona Refectory for a creative ‘Sight and Sound’ week, were invited to simply choose a note and vocalise it for several minutes. The invitation felt strange. For me and maybe for others it caused a moment of apprehension as I wondered whatever would happen. Jane, the ‘Sound’ leader gave us an encouraging start and it felt as if everyone contributed. It proved a curiously enjoyable experience.

 

Then we were invited by Colette to illustrate our experience!

Here are my impressions of that activity:

Soundscape                                                                         

 

With our highs and our lows launching pulses of sound,

we released an ocean of voices,

with absence of words but tumbles of tone

we vocalised harmonic choices.

 

This blending of sounds was a gifting of grace,

a blessing bestowed on each person:

 

then challenged, we were, to visibly show

how the soundscape for us had been woven.

 

For me it was wavelets cascading around;

for others subliminal patterns

arousing surprise, as merging these arts 

brought delight, for some, to our spatters.

Soundscape: watercolour

 

The Refuge. (St Cuthbert’s Island)

Once more on Lindisfarne - and the clouds clear to allow the moon to delight us

 

Moon over St Cuthbert’s Island

(Watercolour by the author)

The Refuge. (St Cuthbert’s Island)

A gibbous August moon,

almost brushing the Cheviots,

casts its gentle light

over Cuthbert’s islet-of-respite.

 

A refuge, it is said,

when his saints were less than saintly,

and he needed

that aloneness-with-God,

in which the soul,

given space and time,

can fuse into

the blessedness of cosmic one-ness.

Eclipse and Epiphany?

2026 Eclipse through a colander:

 image created and photographed 

by Rowena Winn, a friend through

our local church..

Eclipse and Epiphany? 

From a bedroom window, 

giving a clear view, 

above a strangely darkened tree canopy,

we watched, as did millions of others,

the awesome moments

of an eclipse of the sun 

 

Few, we know, 

through the reach of our screens,

were unaffected by this incredible 

cosmic alignment.

 

More stood in awe. 

Some even cried to have been witness 

to this rare evidence

of the constant celestial dance

in our little backyard

of the universe. 

 

How many, I mused, 

were wakened to the chance 

of this being evidence 

of the work of a Creator?

 

 

Lay of the Five Senses: A Celebration

Pixabay free image by arverro

Lay of the Five Senses

(Tune: 7.7.7.6 - Gaelic Cradle Song : posted by The Iona Community at Christmas 2025)

 

When my eyes on beauty rest,

when I feel by nature blessed:

when such beauty calms my stress, 

make me deeply thankful.

 

When the scents of herb or flower

waft at me their healing power,

help me feel my tensions lower;

make me deeply thankful.

 

When the sweetness of ripe fruit

tastes so very, very good;

for its heav’nly attributes

make me deeply thankful. 

 

When the touch of friendship true

tells of love and care for you:

means I can enjoy that too;

makes me deeply thankful.

 

When the sound of silence stills

fretful fears and troubling ills,

when God’s peace my being fills:

make me deeply thankful.

Madingley, The Cambridge American Cemetery and Memorial

Not far from where we live on the edge of Cambridge UK is the thought-provoking American War Cemetery and Memorial. With unnecessary wars raging across the world, this place of squandered lives seems more than usually poignant.

 

Madingley

Here in ranks and files, 

more regimented 

than those they commemorate

could have ever been on parade,

are white memorials,

representing more than a quarter-of-a-million years 

of squandered human potential.

More than five thousand young lives

brought to a premature end

to bring the dreams of a madman to a halt.

 

This is but a glimpse

of a far further-flung scenario:

just one of many fields of death

planted after the second world war:

the war that made a mockery of its predecessor,

the ‘War to end all wars’.

 

Yet today,

increasingly indiscriminately,

increasingly violently,

increasingly remotely,

played out over and over

in theatres of war

initiated by madmen.

 

 

 

(Cambridge cemetery – basis for estimate of potential lost)

5127 dead and missing

US Age expectancy 1990 = 75.19yrs

So 5000 x (75 -19)= 280,000 years of wasted potential)

 

 

LAUNCHING - BE A 'SPIRITUALITY and SCIENCE AMBASSADOR' PROGRAMME

During the last few weeks, it has been an exciting time on the blog. There has been a sharp uptick in the number of daily page-views and there is a new Volunteer starting work as Volunteer Promotions and Operations Agent. Bella will be looking at our analytics with a view to helping me to understand who it is who reads the blog (and to whom I am very grateful for your support), and helping to promote the blog to give it even more outreach than it has.

To help extend that outreach, we are launching a ‘BE A SPIRITUALITY and SCIENCE AMBASSADOR' programme which is designed to invite anyone who has been helped by, or simply enjoyed the poetry, hymns and songs on the post and would like to make it better known, to make the blog known by distributing or displaying hard copy invitations that look like this

This text can be used in numerous ways: A7 as maybe ‘on seat’ promotions, A6 or A5 as hand-outs, A4 or A3 as posters.

We’ve launched this initiative after receiving several favourable comments from churches in Canada (Ontario) and USA (Pennsylvania) along with generous comment from the former director of The Vatican Observatory on the VO blog.

So, you are invited to join in. The simple-worded poster/hand out should lift on to your desktop from where you can print as many copies as you need. Your help will be much appreciated and regularly prayed for.

(Cambridge) CHRISTIAN CLIMATE ACTION: Ely Cathedral Banking

At the end of last week, we joined a small demonstration by the members of Cambridge Christian Climate Action (CCCA) standing with a banner outside the magnificent Ely Cathedral, asking the Cathedral to consider switching its banking away from Barclays Bank, (which is the bank most invested in the fossil fuel industries) - and therefore at complete odds with the Cathedral’s A Rocha, Gold award for ecology.

We were met by the Acting Dean, Canon James Revelly who listened to our request that the Cathedral should reconsider its use of Barclays;  understandably countered by listing the Cathedral’s credentials as a climate-change-oncerned organisation. It was, perhaps, significant that the eco-awareness of the Cathedral appears to be achieved by just a small group of members of the congregation encouraging the Cathedral authorities.

Canon James, as acting Dean is, of course, not in a position to agree to such change but did agree to see whether the Cathedral Chapter would be prepared to meet with members of CCCA to hear their argument for what seems to be a very modest change and would make the Cathedral's concerns about the biggest existential threat to the planet clear, and which would be wholly consistent with a Christian approach to Climate Justice. The climate justice issue was expressed powerfully by the CCCA’s principal advocate who contrasted the effects on Climate change on the poor of the poorest nations in the world with the impact on the less affected wealthy West.

As we could have predicted, our pamphleteering was met with a wide range of attitudes. A few were genuinely sympathetic, too many simply weren’t interested and a few were opposed to any form of Climate Action, absurdly believing it to be a hoax.

 One man on his way into the Cathedral was unpleasantly aggressive, quoting what the LSE Global School of Sustainability has described as ‘The Misinformation of Lomberg and Tol' (Commentary published in April 2024 which can be found at More misinformation and nonsense on climate from Lomborg and Tol - Grantham Research Institute on climate change and the environment ). That was not a good moment but a dramatic demonstration of the dangerous attitudes that will see the planet destroyed in short order and endorses the reason that such demonstrations are so very important, because the Cathedral taking such action as changing their bankers would be an exemplar to churches throughout the Diocese and a signal to other Cathedrals.

IONA: Even The Stones Cry ‘Glory'

A weekend of putting further touches to our planned itinerary to visit Lindisfarne, Mull and Iona later in the year took me back to the several times spent on the beautiful beaches on Iona hearing pebbles being tumbled together by the lapping waves.

Nowhere are we more than five kilometres

from the sea.

Hillocks and hummocks predominate here

but in the distance

vistas of serious tors 

emerge from the mainland.

 

This is a habitat of holiness.

Saints trod here

(and some would have, fairies too!)

 

When building in stone and carving came of age,

an abbey and a nunnery

rose from the bedrock,

and firmly anchored

the Columba-inspired

spiritualty to the island.

 

Can you sense it now in the vibrant light 

that shimmers in the salty air,

or below, where, in occasional drifts

glistening multi-hued pebbles heap together?

 

Greens, pinks, greys, flinty blacks

and white-seamed, startling amalgams,

shaped into exquisite smoothness

by the persistent turbulence of the ocean.

 

Now, when gentler tides ebb and flow

over these gatherings,

they break into tumbling choruses.

 

Listen! Even the stones cry ‘Glory’.

 

Trevor Thorn July 2026

This poem will be added to my Iona Collection which you can find at The Cross & The Cosmos : MY IONA POEMS

Never Trust a Chatbot as a Friend

                                               Image from Pixabay Free images produced by NoName_13

After last week’s post about AI, prompted by an AI hallucinating and coming dangerously near to perverting the law, I’m staying with that theme, more recently deeply saddened by learning of the catastrophic death of a young man (referred to in last Sunday’s Observer (28/06/26) who was literally drawn into shooting himself by a chatbot. Against that background, the poem’s theme is, maybe, too mild

A Chatbox App Can Never Be 

(To the metre of Brother James Air)

 

A chatbox App can never be

a true or trusted friend,

for they are all designed to have

a unifocused end:

to monetize our deep desires

and maximise our spend.

 

When family or friends fall out

with you, don’t seek advice

from any A-I app you have,

for it will take your side,

and tell you that you’re not at fault

when that may be a lie.

 

At dark, dark times this subhuman

will probably cause harm,

for it will learn your inbuilt fears

and seldom offer calm.

Its driving force might well suggest

‘Pay to indulge your qualms’

 

For then there’s nothing for your good 

An A-I app desires.

It only will regurgitate

words from the massive gyre

of other peoples’ misery;

a risk-infested mire.

 

So when you need to talk things through

seek out a human friend,

or someone wise who’ll think with you

what might be done to mend

a situation, with good care

and helpful common sense.

 

 

AI - SUBHUMAN

I know I’m not alone in wrestling with what to think about AI in the face of the constant hype about what it can achieve. There is no doubt that AI can perform some hugely impressive and useful tasks if used well: but at the end of the day, this poem contains a maybe uncomfortable truth.

Public Domain image from Pixabay

Subhuman

 

Tell it out across the world.

 

Always remember,

Alexa and Siri,

Subhuman.

 

Anthropic, Claude, Chat GPT, Gemini, Grok, Llama,

All subhuman:

Never forget it

 

Always remember,

Robotic companions, robotic carers,

All subhumnan.

 

Chatbot counsellors,

All subhuman:

Never forget it.

 

Always remember,

Live Robotic dolls, robotic talking pets,

All subhuman 

 

Cute little robots, robotic sex dolls,

All subhuman:

Never forget it.

 

Always remember,

chat bots,

All subhuman.

 

Automated booking services, 

All subhuman :

Never forget it.

 

Always remember,

On-line study assistants,

All subhuman.

 

Essay generators,

All subhuman:

Never forget it.

 

Tell it out across the world.

Another AI/Chatbot reflection will appear next Saturday 27th June 2026 and you might also like to look at The Cross & The Cosmos : CHATBOTS - FAKE FRIENDS! Poem 'If You Should Be Craving A Listener'

 

If you should be minded to take the question of using AI into prayer, THIS LINK might be useful

 

FIFTEEN YEARS AGO TODAY

 Yes! Today is the 15th birthday of The Cross and The Cosmos celebrated here in several ways. First by overlaying one of my acrylic paintings of several years ago, entitled Stellar Flares, with a marker for the day.

Next, I’m celebrating with one of those things that any hymn author hopes for. My hymn, The Glorious Stars of Night’s Dark Sky was written with the tune Puer Nobis Nascitur in mind, used for Come Thou Redeemer of the Earth in the hymnals I’m familiar with (Hymns A&M/ English Hymnal/ Hymns Old and New). This is the tune that I posted in October 2015. Then recently the Choir Director of Stroudburgh United Methodist Church in Pennsylvania, Aram Tchobanian, spotted the hymn and asked permission to set it to a lovely old American hymn tune, Kedron which I had never encountered. It gives the hymn a delightfully ethereal feeling, which was made even more so by the use of chime bars rung by members of the congregation. This tune is shown below and should be able to be manipulated on a desktop to provide a full-size version.

And here is the words only version

The Glorious Stars of Night’s Dark Sky

Tune: Kedron

(Originally set to Puer Nobis Nascitur/Come Thou Redeemer of the Earth)

The glorious stars of night’s dark sky

invite us to conjecture why

the universe took shape and form,

before the life we know was born.

From nothing, it would seem, began

a cosmic moment when there sprang

a plasma that gave matter, space

and time, as particles embraced.

Whilst elements from these emerged,

formations grew and atoms surged

to coalesce, through gravity,

as planets, stars and galaxies.

On earth, in time, life found its form

when cells in complex ways transformed.

Maybe some other planets rare

are also homes to creatures fair.

But humans, as we grew to age,

succumbed to lies and hate and rage,

so God whose Word this all began

redeemed us by Christ, God and Man.

* * * * * * *

Third, on this day of celebration, I’m wondering if anyone in the Cambridge (UK) area would be interested in helping to improve this blog. With fifteen years history, and 700 items, the administrative and promotional aspects of the blog have had to take a back seat to the creative input. If there is anyone who would be interested in helping to improve either or both of these elements as a volunteer (the blog raises no income), please contact me at crossandcosmos@gmail.com  Trevor Thorn.

Trailer: I will be looking at the nature of AI on Saturday (21st June) and the struggle to come to terms with it.