A CELEBRATION OF GOD'S WORLD IN SUMMER
St Peter, St Mary Bourne
Hymn 116 All things bright and beautiful C F Alexander (1818-95)
Each little flower that opens
Opening Words (Matthew 6.28-9, NRSV)
Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow; they neither toil nor spin; yet I tell you, even Solomon in all his glory was not clothed like one of these.
A short silence as we consider the flowers arranged in church.
Reading
Flowers preach to us if we will hear.
The rose saith in the dewy morn:
I am most fair;
Yet all my loveliness is born
Upon a thorn.
The lilies say: Behold how we
Preach without words of purity.
The violets whisper from the shade:
Men scent our fragrance on the air
Yet take no heed
Of humble lessons we would read.
The merest grass
Alongside the roadside where we pass
Tells of his love who sends the dew,
Who sends the rain and sunshine too.
(from Christina Rossetti, 'Consider the Lilies of the Field')
Hymn 104 For the beauty of the earth F S Pierpoint (1835-1917)
Each little bird that sings
Opening Words (Matthew 6.26, NRSV)
Look at the birds of the air: they neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Not one [sparrow] will fall to the ground unperceived by your Father.
A short silence as we listen to the singing of a skylark, and the beginning of Vaughan Williams' The Lark Ascending
Poem: To a Skylark
Ethereal minstrel! pilgrim of the sky!
Dost thou despise the earth where cares abound?
Or, while the wings aspire, are heart and eye
Both with thy nest upon the dewy ground?
Thy nest which thou canst drop into at will,
Those quivering wings composed, that music still!
To the last point of vision and beyond.
Mount, daring Warbler! that love-prompted strain
('Twixt thee and thine a never-failing bond)
Thrills not the less the bosom of the plain.
Yet might'st thou seem, proud privilege!, to sing
All independent of the leafy spring.
Leave to the nightingale her shady wood;
A privacy of glorious light is thine;
Whence thou dost pour upon the world a flood
Of harmony, with instinct more divine;
Type of the wise who soar, but never roam,
True to the kindred points of Heaven and Home!
(William Wordsworth, 1770—1850)
Hymn Morning has broken
The ripe fruits in the garden
Opening Words (based on verses from Genesis 2)
The Lord God planted a garden in Eden And there he placed the human being he had formed. And the Lord God placed the human being in the garden to tend it and to care for it.
A short silence while a bowl of garden produce is brought up.
Reading
Our England is a garden, and such gardens are not made
By singing 'Oh, how beautiful' and sitting in the shade,
While better men than we go out and start their working lives
At grubbing weeds from gravel-paths with broken dinner knives.
There's not a pair of legs so thin, there's not a head so thick,
There's not a hand so weak and white, nor yet a heart so sick,
But it can find some needful job that's crying to be done,
For the Glory of the Garden glorifieth every one.
Then seek your job with thankfulness and work till further orders,
If it's only netting strawberries or killing slugs on borders;
And when your back stops aching and your hands begin to harden,
You will find yourself a partner in the Glory of the Garden.
Oh, Adam was a gardener, and the God who made him sees
That half a proper gardener's work is done upon his knees,
So when your work is finished, you can wash your hands and pray
For the Glory of the Garden, that it may not pass away!
And the Glory of the Garden, it shall never pass away!
(from Rudyard Kipling, 'The Glory of the Garden')
Hymn 457 For the fruits of his creation F Pratt Green (b1903)
The tall trees in the greenwood
Opening Words (based on Psalm 1.3-4)
The righteous are like trees planted along a river bank Which yield their fruit in due season: Their leaves shall never wither and they shall prosper in all they do.
A short silence as we picture in our imagination a favourite tree.
Reading: A Tree
A tree grows, bears fruit — then, after a certain time, it no longer grows, it loses its leaves, its branches wither. What happens? Why is its vital energy checked? Because it did not sink deep enough roots into the earth on which it stands. Anyone who has to do with trees knows what I mean. The same thing, I thought to myself, has happened with us humans. Humanity has not had deep enough roots. It has not found sustenance and fresh impetus, because the ethical code on which it was based was too narrow and did not have a deep foundation. It has concerned itself only with human beings and our relations with human beings. It has given only a passing nod to our relationship with other living creatures, looking upon it as a nice bit of sentimentality, quite innocuous but of no great significance. For only if we have an ethical attitude in our thinking about all living creatures does our humanity have deep roots and a rich flowering that cannot wither.
(Albert Schweitzer, 1875—1965)
Hymn O Lord my God! When I in awesome wonder
The sunset and the morning
Opening Words (based on verses from Genesis 1 and Psalm 19)
God made two great lights: The greater to rule the day and the lesser to rule the night; The sun comes forth as a bridegroom from his chamber and like a strong man runs his course with joy.
A short silence while music plays.
Poem: The Setting Sun
This scene, how beauteous to a musing mind,
That now swift slides from my enchanted view;
The sun sweet-setting yon far hills behind,
In other worlds his visits to renew:
What spangled glories all round him shine;
What nameless colours, cloudless and serene
(A heav'nly prospect, brightest in decline)
Attend his exit from this lovely scene.
So sets the Christian's sun, in glories clear:
So shines his soul at his departure here:
No clouding doubts, nor misty fears arise,
To dim hope's golden rays of being forgiven;
His sun sweet-setting in the clearest skies,
In faith's assurance wings the soul to heaven.
(John Clare, 1793—1864)
Hymn 16 The day thou gavest, Lord, is ended J Ellerton (1826-93)
The Lord God made them all
Opening Words (based on verses from Genesis 1 and 2)
God saw all that he had made and it was very good. On the sixth day God completed all his work. And God blessed the seventh day and made it holy. Because on the seventh day he rested from all his work.
A short silence to contemplate the beauties of the summer and God's creation.
Prayers to include the Lord's Prayer
Hymn 98 From all that dwell below the skies Isaac Watts (1674-1748) Psalm 117
Blessing
May God the Creator, who made us and all living things and all the marvels which surround us in the natural world, bless us, our homes and our families, now and for ever. Amen.
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