I was fortunate to have been brought up in the countryside of Northern Ireland, County Down to be precise, a landscape characterised by drumlins (small hills) constituting what we learnt in Geography was a “basket of eggs topology.” So a drive anywhere is a series of gentle ups and downs. No wonder I was nonplussed when arriving on the mainland in 1984 (to study Theology at Manchester,) that my drive from Liverpool was completely flat. It was quite mind-blowing!
The sights and smells of the countryside were part of my childhood and I am eternally grateful for that. We went on Nature Rambles and like many of a certain generation, our primary school had a Nature Table. Not for us, the invincible ignorance of some of today`s urban youth, unaware of the source and origin of chips or sausages or milk!
Our hymns from the BBC School Hymnbook, which accompanied the broadcast Daily Service, spoke in glowing poetic terms of this creation, language which has now been omitted because no-one believes that it is relevant to the majority of children - hymns like Jan Struthers` “Daisies are our silver;”
Daisies are our silver,
Buttercups our gold:
This is all the treasure
We can have or hold.
Raindrops are our diamonds
And the morning dew;
While for shining sapphires
We`ve the speedwell blue.
or Cecil Frances Alexander`s “All things bright and beautiful” with its;
The tall trees in the greenwood,
The meadows where we play,
The rushes by the water
We gather every day.
But today`s rediscovery of the significance of Creation, spurred on by concerns about pollution, the climate and exploitation has produced new hymns for a new age.
My flat journey to Manchester and to the Northern Federation for Training in Ministry at Luther King House, opened up to me new heights of spirituality, new ways of thinking and worshipping and the discovery of new hymns, at least, new to me. Which leads me to today`s hymn, Fred Pratt Green`s “God in His love for us lent us this planet”
God in His love for us lent us this planet,
gave it a purpose in time and in space:
small as a spark from the fire of creation,
cradle of life and the home of our race.
Thanks be to God for its bounty and beauty,
life that sustains us in body and mind:
plenty for all, if we learn how to share it,
riches undreamed of to fathom and find.
Long have our human wars ruined its harvest;
long has earth bowed to the terror of force;
long have we wasted what others have need of,
poisoned the fountain of life at its source.
Earth is the Lord's: it is ours to enjoy it,
ours, as His stewards, to farm and defend.
From its pollution, misuse, and destruction,
good Lord, deliver us, world without end.
May it`s lyrics evoke within you a deepened duty of care for God`s Creation.
Alan Kennedy
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