Blogs

Black, Gay, Christian, Queer: the church and the famine of grace – Book by Jarel Robinson-Brown – reviewed by Brunel James

If this book is as insightful as the review suggests then it ought to, not simply make us think but, change our ways within the church. The only condition I add is that I have not read the book. The review in itself ought to be recommended reading.

Read the review here

Pulsar discoverer Jocelyn Bell Burnell wins Breakthrough Prize – Hymn – In quasars, quarks and pulsars

This hymns was written over 30 yeaars ago after reading Stephen Hawking's Brief history of time

1	The God of cosmic question
	Surprises by his birth,
	Not in some new dimension
	But on this ravaged earth!

2	In quasars, quarks and pulsars
	We seek the cosmic truth:
	The ground of our existence
	That set creation loose,

3	And human senses lead us,
	Through all they analyse,
	From arrogance to wonder,
	To spiritual surprise.

4	But senses have their limits:
	Unanswered still there lies
	The single, deepest question
	Our intellect supplies.

5	Yet history proffers insight:
	The Christ of time and space
	Speaks of a God incarnate
	Amid this curious race:

6	Alive within our compass,
	Upon this ravaged earth,
	The God of cosmic question
	Surprises by his birth!

Andrew E Pratt (born 1948)	
© 1991 Stainer & Bell Ltd 
7 6 7 6 Iambic Tunes: KINGS LYNN (also COSMIC QUESTION)
Published in Blinded by the Dazzle

Alternative second verse -

2	At scientific frontiers
	We seek the cosmic truth:
	The ground of our existence
	That set creation loose,

God would not will what we have seen

1	God would not will what we have seen,
	the terror, violence, death;
	for God is love, the source of life,
	the essence of our breath.

2	God would not break the damaged reed,
	the smouldering wick is fanned;
	yet human power, our want and greed
	can counter what God planned.

3	Our will is free, our way we choose,
	to act for good or ill,
	to offer love, to calm or heal,
	to damage or to kill.

4	God give us courage in the face
	of carnage that we see,
	to work for life, to live for love,
	to set your people free.

Andrew E. Pratt (born 1948) (alt Andrew Pratt 13/8/2021
Words © 2006 Stainer & Bell Ltd, London, England, http://www.stainer.co.uk. Please include any reproduction for local church use on your CCL Licence returns. All wider and any commercial use requires prior application to Stainer & Bell Ltd.
Metre: CM