At The Time of His Arrest
Cosmic Mystery Series
ECUMENISM
AT THE TIME OF HIS ARREST (JOHN 17.21)
Tune:
LUCERNA LAUDONIAE 77.77.77
David Evans (’E.Arthur’) 1874-1948L
- 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.
- 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.
- 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.
- 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.
- 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.
- 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
Click Here for Sheet Music – Lucerna-Laudoniae
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Click Here for Full Index to William L. Wallace’s Series 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