“Wondrous Landscape, Through a Child’s Eyes”

According to Robert McFarlane, author of “Landmarks: ‘Joyous’ Observer” and a trilogy of books about landscape and the human heart, the language of young children might be called “Childish.”  We were all fluent in Childish once, and there are more than a billion native speakers today….though in time, all those speakers will forget they ever knew it.  In this era of diminishing childhood contact with nature, All Souls member Diana Martha Clark, DMin, MSW, MA will share with us an inspiring story of young children interacting with nature at Hinchingbrooke Primary School in England.  With ever-increasing wonderment, the adults followed the children through the doors of nature that swing open to them with every step, recorded in a fantastical map of Childish landscape.

 

All Souls Church Worship Service
 Sunday, July 26, 2020

“Wondrous Landscape, Through a Child’s Eyes”

Hinchingbrooke Primary School, England

Click right here on Sunday a little before 10:00 A.M. to join your ASC friends online.

Join the service about 10 a.m. or a little earlier at the link above.
If you do not have internet connection at that time,  you can join by phone:Dial one of these numbers:
312 626 6799
929 205 6099
Meeting ID: 670 556 039
Password: 741852

      Order of Service       
July 26, 2020

Welcome and Board Greeting        Leslie Kinney 

Prelude    Lullaby         Leo Brouwer               
                    Eva Greene, piano 

Chalice Lighting   Beth & Michael McKinney

“We light this chalice for our children and youth, and for us:

celebrating the flame of faith lit in each of us,

honoring the light each of us brings into the world,

rejoicing in the community we create together.”

    —Christian Schmidt, Alexis Capen             

Opening Words/Reading                     Diana Clark

“To rescue our children, we will have to let them save us from the power we embody: we will have to trust the very difference that they forever personify. And we will have to allow them the choice, without fear of death: that they may come and do likewise or that they may come and we will follow them, that a little child will lead us back to the child we will always be, vulnerable and wanting and hurting for love and for beauty.” —June Jordan
                        

Hymn             Touch the Earth, Reach the Sky
                      Christina Gibbons, soprano

Reading         “Wonderland”by Suzy Kassem        
                             read by Janis Chaillou    

Special Music: We Are the World
                            Voices of Hope Children’s Choir                                                                                         

Story for All Ages  “The Curious Garden” by Peter Brown
                         read by Jeff Paulson

Offertory        In her own sweet world   Bill Evans
                               Eva Greene, piano

Offering    shared with Nicole’s Community Kitchen         

Reading     “Twice Blessed” by David Whyte,
                               read by author

Homily  “Wondrous Landscape, Through a Child’s Eyes”  Diana Clark        

Hymn             Spirit of a Child
                     Marie Gorst, soprano 

Extinguishing the Chalice       Beth & Michael McKinney

    “We extinguish this flame but not the light of truth,
  the warmth of community, or the fire of commitment. 
These we carry in our hearts until we are together again.”                                       –                                          Elizabeth Selle Jones

Closing Circle.  
“Carry the flame of peace and love until we meet again.”      (to be sung 2 X)
          

“WONDERLAND”    by Suzy Kassem

It is a person’s unquenchable thirst for wonder

That sets them on their initial quest for truth.

The more doors you open, the smaller you become.

The more places you see and the more people you meet,

The greater your curiosity grows.

The greater your curiosity, the more you will wander.

The more you wander, the greater the wonder.

The more you quench your thirst for wonder,

The more you drink from the cup of life.

The more you see and experience, the closer to truth you become.

The more languages you learn, the more truths you can unravel.

And the more countries you travel, the greater your understanding.

And the greater your understanding, the less you see differences.

And the more knowledge you gain, the wider your perspective,

And the wider your perspective, the lesser your ignorance.

Hence, the more wisdom you gain, the smaller you feel.

And the smaller you feel, the greater you become.

The more you see, the more you love —

The more you love, the less walls you see.

The more doors you are willing to open,

The less close-minded you will be.

The more open-minded you are,

The more open your heart.

And the more open your heart,

The more you will be able to

Send and receive —

Truth and TRUE

Unconditional

LOVE.”

“Twice Blessed”      by David Whyte

So that I stopped
there
and looked
into the waters
seeing not only
my reflected face
but the great sky
that framed
my lonely figure
and after a moment
I lifted my hands
and then my eyes
and I allowed myself
to be astonished
by the great
everywhere
calling to me
like an old
and unspoken
invitation,
made new
by the sun
and the spring,
and the cloud
and the light,
like something
both
calling to me
and radiating
from where I stood,
as if I could
understand
everything
I had been given
and everything ever
taken from me,
as if I could be
everything I have ever
learned
and everything
I could ever know,
as if I knew
both the way I had come
and, secretly,
the way
underneath
I was still
promised to go,
brought together,
like this, with the
unyielding ground
and the symmetry
of the moving sky,
caught in still waters.

Someone I have been,
and someone
I am just,
about to become,
something I am
and will be forever,
the sheer generosity
of being loved
through loving:
the miracle reflection
of a twice blessed life.