When our views are varied (website only)

When our views are varied
and emotions strong,
when belief feels threatened,
claiming others wrong;
show us how to listen
and to not accuse,
open and respectful
to each other’s views.

If we let division
distract from Christ’s reign,
we neglect our calling
to aid those in pain:
Justice must speak louder
than our claims to right;
love must be our essence,
living in the light.

God, forgive your people
in our broken state;
we your church have fostered
prejudice and hate.
Let us embrace difference
in our unity;
for the church is richer
with diversity.

Through a dim-lit mirror,
partial truth we know
and as we discover,
grace and love must grow.
Let God’s truth shine brighter
into every place
till we know completely
and see face to face.

Words © Gary Hopkins 2012

Metre: 65 65 D

Suggested tune: Evelyns (StF 317ii)

More information

In reviewing this text, one comment received from a member of the Singing the Faith Reference Group was that, too often, we express strong views about the choice of hymns in worship or whether we prefer pews or chairs, but we seem to "care less about the more important issues" such as prejudice within our Church, locally and nationally.

In addresing this issue head-on, Gary Hopkins' 2012 text alludes to the writings of St Paul: specifically to 1 Corinthians 13:12 (verse 4), but also to those passages in Paul's letters in which the apostle pleads for unity amongst the early Christian communities (e.g. Ephesians 2: 11-22; 4: 1-6; and Philippians 1: 27-29).