ECUMENISM

AT THE TIME OF HIS ARREST (JOHN 17.21)

Tune:

LUCERNA LAUDONIAE 77.77.77
David Evans (’E.Arthur’) 1874-1948L
 

1. At the time of his arrest
   Jesus prayed for all his friends
   That they now might come to show
   Oneness that will never end,
   This would help the world to find
   Truth for every heart and mind.

2. We may claim to be as one
   In a worldwide Christian church
   But the truth is really this
   Churches lack agreed research
   On what Bibles really say
   And the meaning of Christ’s Way.

3. In this age of fractured thought
   Everyone can pick and choose
   What they worship or believe
   Or what sacred texts they use
   To release the power to change
   All they need to rearrange.

4. Institutions need to change
   In this new free wheeling age
   From control to nourishment,
   From the preacher to the sage
   Who resides within each heart
   And is found in life and art.

5. Unity should have no chains
   To control a person’s ways
   But allow us all to find
   Life that lives a song of praise
   Then our oneness will emerge
   From the ways our hearts converge.

6. If as mystics always claim
   All of life is truly one
   Every sage should be affirmed
   For the insights they have won
   As the Church’s chequered tale
   Shows how pilgrims can prevail.

Text © William Livingstone Wallace

 
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Hymns “Cosmic Mystery”

 
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William (Bill) Livingstone Wallace is a retired New Zealand Methodist Minister and one of our most prolific contributors. Bill says that his work springs from communicating with the fire in his gut and his observation of both the internal and external aspects of the Cosmos. Since an early age, he has been both sympathetic to and critical of the church, announcing at the age of 13 his belief in evolution. In his youth, he struggled with the disconnection between art and spirituality in his own and other denominations and with the way in which all of the liturgies prior to the sermon were regarded as preliminaries and longer sermons were viewed as superior to more concise ones.

He holds a B.A. in philosophy and a Dip. Ed. and is the author of nine published collections of his hymns as well as other resources on our website. His aim is to help people be empowered by the divine within them and the Cosmos and to work to overthrow the forces of personal and institutional greed which destroy both the ecosystem and human society.

Click Here for a Full Biography of William L. Wallace

Click here for a complete list of his work on ProgressiveChristianity.org