kneel in wonder at heaven touching earth

May we trust in your mercy and know your love

These lines from the Collect for the Fourteenth Sunday after Trinity — “May we trust in your mercy and know your love” — made me think of that wonderful hymn by Frederick William Faber, “There’s a wideness in God’s mercy”. I’ve heard it said many times that we, Anglicans, learn a lot of our doctrine through our hymns; and I think that is certainly true of this particular hymn.

There was such a lot I was thinking of saying about trusting in God’s mercy and knowing his love. But the words of the hymn say it all for me; and far better than I could. Please, read the words, take them to heart, and trust in their truth.

There’s a wideness in God’s mercy
  Like the wideness of the sea;
There’s a kindness in his justice,
  Which is more than liberty.

There is no place where earth’s sorrows
  Are more felt than up in heaven;
There is no place where earth’s failings
  Have such kindly judgement given.

For the love of God is broader
  Than the measure of man’s mind;
And the heart of the Eternal
  Is most wonderfully kind.

But we make his love too narrow
  By false limits of our own;
And we magnify his strictness
  With a zeal he will not own.

There is plentiful redemption
  In the blood that has been shed;
There is joy for all the members
  In the sorrows of the Head.

There is grace enough for thousands
  Of new worlds as great as this;
There is room for fresh creations
  In that upper home of bliss.

If our love were but more faithful,
  we should take him at his word;
and our life would be thanksgiving
  for the goodness of the Lord.

Frederick William Faber (1814-1863)

Incidentally, Faber spent a few years as Rector of the Parish of Elton, in Huntingdonshire, just up the road from where I live. That was before he converted to Roman Catholicism, and moved to Birmingham in 1847. You can read more about Frederick William Faber on the Ely Diocesan Website, HERE.

Merciful God,
your Son came to save us
and bore our sins on the cross:
may we trust in your mercy
and know your love,
now and in all our days;
through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

Additional Collect for The Fourteenth Sunday after Trinity
is Copyright © The Archbishops Council

Lambeth Conference - From the Bishop of Ely

The Bishop of Ely has written a report about how he feels the Lambeth Conference went. For me, it summarises very well what I’ve been reading on various blogs throughout the Conference, and is very positive. I hope it’s okay for me to publish it in full here — it was posted to a public email list, so I’m hoping that means it’s in the public domain.

There are three paragraphs I particularly want to highlight:

There can be no doubt that, as a leading article in The Times recently said, ‘the Conference has gone far better than the Archbishop or even the most optimistic Anglicans could have imagined’. It was a remarkable and in many senses unexpected success. The Press, who arrived ready to file their obituaries of the Anglican Communion, found they were writing a very different story. It is clear that through the guidance of the Holy Spirit and the vision and spiritual stature of the Archbishop of Canterbury, the Conference has been a considerable success, and that the Anglican Communion has made remarkable and unexpected progress.

I’m sure many of those participating were filled with trepidation about what might happen. But by working together; listening to each other; and, most importantly, listening to God; those fears were replaced by something quite amazing.

As the Conference proceeded, it was impossible not to be aware that we had the privilege of being present at a very significant occasion — an occasion at which it can truly be said that the Holy Spirit had led the Church through and around its difficulties into a new place.

God is still active today, sometimes even in the Church!

The Lambeth Conference has put new heart into the Anglican Communion, significantly raised its profile, and strengthened its internal structures. The widespread agreement of the moratoria indicates some change of direction in the thinking of many in the Communion.

I feel honoured to be a small part of the Anglican Communion. Our Bishops have been fantastic at this Lambeth Conference. I just hope and pray that the rifts, with those who felt unable to come this year, can be repaired as positively.

The full report by the Bishop of Ely follows:

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