Above:  A Field

Image Source = Luc Viatour

(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Field_Hamois_Belgium_Luc_Viatour.jpg)

Hymn Source = Chalice Hymnal (1995), of the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ)

Words (1991) by the Reverend Ruth Duck, United Church of Christ

http://ruthduckhymnist.net/

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1.  Creative God, you spread the earth with life in many forms:

the deer and elk and columbine, the bee in humming swarms.

Forgive us for each flow’r and bird now vanished by our hand.

Teach us to treat with loving care the creatures of the land.

2.  The planet teemed with living things before all human birth,

and even fire and beasts of prey renewed the life of earth.

Forgive us, that the last to come, we threaten sea and air.

Teach us to tend life’s fragile web with wise and tender care.

3.  O playful God, you fill the field with lavender and blue.

You paint the bird with indigo, with red or tawny hue.

Forgive us that we grieve your heart, destroying what you do,

and teach us simpler, gentler ways to live on earth with you.

Above:  The Delegation from St. Gregory the Great Episcopal Church, Athens, Georgia, at the 2012 Awards Ceremony of Georgia Interfaith Power and Light

(The parish won the Trailblazer Award.)

Image Source = Bill Monk, Episcopal Diocese of Atlanta

(https://picasaweb.google.com/114749828757741527421/GIPPIES2012#5715332810092393954)

Hymn Source = Chalice Hymnal (1995), of the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ)

Words (1992) by Shirley Erena Murray (born 1931)

http://www.hopepublishing.com/html/main.isx?sub=27&search=64

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1.  Touch the earth lightly,

use the earth gently,

nourish the life of the world in our care:

gift of great wonder,

ours to surrender,

trust for the children tomorrow will bear.

2.  We who endanger,

who create hunger,

agents of death for all creatures that live,

we who would foster

clouds of disaster–

God of our planet, forestall and forgive!

3.  Let there be greening,

birth from the burning,

water that blesses and air that is sweet,

health in God’s garden,

hope in God’s children,

regeneration that peace will complete.

4.  God of all living,

God of all loving,

God of the seedling, the snow, and the sun,

teach us, deflect us,

Christ reconnect us,

using us gently, and making us one.

Above:  A Forest in Winter

Image Source = Robert P. VanNatta

(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Douglaswinter.jpg)

Hymn Source = Chalice Hymnal (1995), of the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ)

Words (1973) by Brian Wren

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1.  We thank you, God, for water, soil, and air,

large gifts supporting everything that lives.

Forgive our spoiling and abuse of them.

Help us renew the face of the earth.

2.  We thank you, God, for minerals and ores–

the basis of all building, wealth, and speed.

Forgive our reckless plundering and waste.

Help us renew the face of the earth.

3.  We thank you, God, for priceless energy,

stored in each atom, gathered from the sun.

Forgive our greed and carelessness of power.

Help us renew the face of the earth.

4.  We thank you, God, for weaving nature’s life

into a seamless robe, a fragile whole.

Forgive our haste, that tampers unaware.

Help us renew the face of the earth.

5.  We thank you, God, for making planet Earth,

a home for us and ages yet unborn.

Help us to share, consider, save, and store.

Come and renew the face of the earth.

Above:  A Stream

Image Source = Adam.J.W.C.

Hymn Source = Chalice Hymnal (1995), of the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ)

Words (1973) by William Watkins Reid, Jr. (1923-2007))

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1.  Mountain brook with rushing waters,

eagle perched in lofty tree,

flowering hillside in the springtime,

white-tailed deer alert and free!

Beauty, beauty all around us!

Jubilate! Sing for joy!

Help us, God, preserve earth’s splendor

for tomorrow’s world to see.

2.  Pure the water freshly flowing

toward its ocean destiny,

clean the air of God’s creatoin,

rich the soil, the mine, the sea.

“Earth is good!” God’s word proclaimed it.

Jubilate! Sing for joy!

Save us, God, from wasteful living,

from pollution’s tragedy.

3.  Waving fields of wheat and barley,

giant apples juicy red,

cattle grazing in the pasture;

by God’s bounty we are fed!

Well supplied the world around us!

Jubilate! Sing for joy!

May no greed or warring madness

scorch the earth or rob our bread.

4.  Keep us faithful in the struggle

to conserve earth’s threatened store

as we fight to save the forest,

clean the stream, protect the shore.

God and humans work together,

Jubilate! Sing for joy!

Partners working till as stewards

we can say, “Earth’s good!” once more.

Above:  The Corn Harvest, by Pieter Bruegel the Elder

Image Source = Wikipedia

Hymn Source = Chalice Hymnal (1995), of the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ)

Words (1970), by Fred Pratt Green (1903-2000), British Methodist minister

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1.  For the fruit of all creation,

thanks be to God;

for good gifts to every nation,

thanks be to God;

for the plowing, sowing, reaping,

silent growth while we are sleeping,

future needs in earth’s safekeeping,

thanks be to God.

2.  For the just reward of labor,

God’s will is done;

in the help we give our neighbor,

God’s will is done;

in our worldwide task of caring

for the hungry and despairing,

in the harvests we are sharing,

God’s will is done.

3.  For the harvests of the Spirit,

thanks be to God;

for the good we all inherit,

thanks be to God;

for the wonders that astound us,

for the truths that still confound us,

most of all, that love has found us,

thanks be to God.

Above:  St. Mark’s Episcopal Church, Dalton, Georgia, October 23, 2011

Image Source = Bill Monk, Episcopal Diocese of Atlanta

(https://picasaweb.google.com/114749828757741527421/StMarkSDalton02#5666790009433551346)

Words (1967), by Fred Pratt Green (1903-2000), British Methodist minister

Hymn Source = Chalice Hymnal (1995), of the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ)

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1.  O Christ, the healer, we have come to pray for health, to plead for friends.

How can we fail to be restored when reached by love that never ends?

2.  From every ailment flesh endures our bodies clamor to be freed;

yet in our hearts we would confess that wholeness is our deepest need.

3.  How strong, O Christ, are our desires, how weak our knowledge of ourselves!

Release in us those healing truths unconscious pride resists or shelves.

4.  In conflicts that destroy our health we recognize the world’s disease;

our common life declares our ills.  Is there no cure, O Christ, for these?

5.  Grant that we all, made one in faith, in your community may find

the wholeness that, enriching us, shall reach the whole of humankind.

Above:  Church of the Common Ground, Palm Sunday 2011, Meeting at Woodruff Park, Atlanta, Georgia

Image Source = Bill Monk, Episcopal Diocese of Atlanta

(https://picasaweb.google.com/114749828757741527421/CommonGroundPalmSunday#5596706806709954834)

Words (1968) by Fred Pratt Green (1903-2000), British Methodist minister

Hymn Source = Chalice Hymnal (1995), of the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ)

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1.  When the church of Jesus shuts its outer door,

lest the roar of traffic drown the voice of prayer,

may our prayers, Lord, make us ten times more aware

that the world we banish is Christian care.

2.  If our hearts are lifted where devotion soars

high above this hungry, suffering world of ours,

lest our hymns should drug us to forget its needs,

forge our Christian worship into Christian deeds.

3.  Lest the gifts we offer, money, talents, time,

serve to salve our conscience, to our secret shame,

Lord, reprove, inspire us by the way you give;

teach us, dying Savior, how true Christians live.

Above:  Holy Eucharist at the Ordination of Ben Wells to the Sacred Order of Priests, St. Bartholomew’s Episcopal Church, Atlanta, Georgia, August 27, 2011

Image Source = Bill Monk, Episcopal Diocese of Atlanta

(https://picasaweb.google.com/114749828757741527421/BenWellsOrdination#5645978723316614978)

Words (1977) by Fred Pratt Green (1903-2000), British Methodist minister

Hymn Source = Chalice Hymnal (1995), of the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ)

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1.  Loving God, as now we gather,

of that love unworthy still,

give us courage to surrender

rebel heart and stubborn will,

and in us, in faith maturing,

all your promises fulfill.

2.  Holy Lord, as here

you give us bread and wine, as means of grace,

grant to all who call you Savior,

now to meet you face to face,

and to own, in silent wonder,

Lord, how holy is this place.

Above:  Part of the Procession at the Ordination of Ben Wells to the Sacred Order of Priests at St. Bartholomew’s Episcopal Church, Atlanta, Georgia, August 27, 2011

Image Source = Bill Monk, Episcopal Diocese of Atlanta

(http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3wr158KA1tg)

Words (1978) by Fred Pratt Green (1903-2000), British Methodist minister

Hymn Source = Chalice Hymnal (1995), of the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ)

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1.  God is here!  As we your people meet to offer praise and prayer,

may we find in fuller measure what it is in Christ we share.

Here, as in the world around us, with all our varied skills and arts

wait the coming of the Spirit into open minds and hearts.

2.  Here are symbols to remind us of our lifelong need of grace;

here are table, fount, and pulpit; here the cross has central place.

Here in honesty of preaching, here in silence, as in speech,

here, in newness and renewal, God the Spirit comes to each.

3.  Here our children find a welcome in the Shepherd’s flock and fold;

here as bread and wine are taken, Christ sustains us, as of old.

Here the servants of the Servant seek in worship to explore

what it means in daily living to believe and to adore.

4.  Lord of all, of Christ and kingdom, in an age of change and doubt

keep us faithful to the gospel; help us to work your purpose out.

Here, in this day’s dedication, all we have to give, receive;

we, who cannot live without you, we adore you!  We believe!

Uncut Grass

Image Source = Jeremy C. Schultz

(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Uncut_grass.JPG)

Hymn Source = Chalice Hymnal (1995), of the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ)

Words by John M. C. Crum (1872-1958), a priest of The Church of England

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1.  Now the green blade rises from the buried grain,

wheat that in dark earth many days has lain;

love lives again, that with the dead has been;

Love is come again like wheat arising green.

2.  In the grave they laid the love by hatred slain,

thinking that Jesus would not wake again,

laid in the earth like grain that sleeps unseen;

Love is come again like wheat arising green.

3.  Christ came forth at Easter, like the risen grain,

who that for three days in the grave had lain;

raised from the dead, the risen Christ is seen;

Love is come again like wheat arising green.

4.  When our hearts are wintry, grieving, or in pain,

your touch can call us back to life again,

fields of our hearts that dead and bare have been;

Love is come again like wheat arising green.

http://lenteaster.wordpress.com/2011/07/28/first-day-of-easter-easter-sunday-year-b-principal-service/

http://lenteaster.wordpress.com/2010/10/29/great-vigil-of-easter-year-a/

http://lenteaster.wordpress.com/2010/10/29/first-day-of-easter-easter-sunday-year-a-principal-service/

http://lenteaster.wordpress.com/2010/10/29/first-day-of-easter-easter-sunday-years-a-b-and-c-evening-service/