One: My friends we live in a broken world, aching from the wounds in our lives, communities, country, and the whole inhabited earth. 

We meet the abundance of your creation with exploitation and deprivation;

We meet the peace that passes all understanding with war and violence;

We meet the love that knows no borders with exclusion and hate;

We meet your boundless grace with judgment and revenge.

All :

In the presence of your peace,

in the confidence of your love,

we confess our failings and wrongs,

turning from that which harms ourselves,

our neighbours, and you. 

One: Meet us in our brokenness, loving God

All: And journey with us on the path to healing and hope.

Jennifer Henry

1. Loved into being, by the Creator,
creatures revealing beauty divine.
Precious your textures, exquisite your colours,
diverse beyond measure, bold your design.

2. Christ interrupting, all our injustice,
bold love disrupting failures to care.
Seeking our witness, equity flowering,
daring within us, redress and repair.

3. Spirit unfolding, forging connexions,
deep in belonging, each find their place.
Risking inclusion, mutually transforming,
beloved perfusion, abundant in grace.

4. Torn and divided, forgetting your promise,
needing reminded just whose we are.
Rethread your vision, restore our fabric
Weaver Christ risen, mending us all.

Lyrics: Jennifer Henry (2025)

Tune options: It might scan to a traditional Gaelic melody, with traditional words by Eleanor Farjeon, made famous in a less traditional rendition by Cat Stevens.

Note: I have been coming undone by the vilifying of DEI. Not only are these hard won words, values, aspirations, strategies and commitments, they strike me as core to the dream of God, the essence of God’s revelation of themselves. I wrote this poem/hymn reflecting on the Trinity and this trio of words. Blame the Methodists for “connexion”. It’s still a work in progress but I thought I would share it.

Into this now,

this night,

this world You come.

Vulnerable,

beautiful,

impossible Hope.

Sink deep into our worried hearts.

Inhabit our wounded lands.

Unsettle our established injustice.

Find us, Blessed Christ Child.

Find us. Amen.

Words: Jennifer Henry (December 2024)

Image: Greyson Joralemon, Unsplash

Risen Crucified One,

recruit us to your conspiracy of hope.

Today in the chorus of the Creator’s impossible grace

may we sing together,

full throated,

a boisterous, Alleluia.

Amen.

Jennifer Henry (Easter 2021)