It is almost the end of term. New horizons beckon. Liminal, means threshold. After Easter, I will be on a seven week placement in a cathedral. This year is flying by with incredible speed, and yet it has been crammed full, in almost every dimension, seeming almost timeless. Exhausting, exhilarating, stretching, wondrous – I could describe it in many words, but those will do for starters. I have another year of study ahead, and will learn in the next few months where my curacy/title post will be. I have no idea where that will be, or what further challenges lie ahead, but a prayer I came across many years ago, seems to sum up my feelings at the moment:

“For all that has been, thanks….. and for all that is to come, YES.”  (Dag Hammarskjold )

We sang a hymn last night in chapel that seemed to express the same thought. Words I had never come across before, a hymn by Timothy Dudley-Smith, sung to a tune I have loved since I was a very young child- The Londonderry Air – more commonly known by the Irish folk song O Danny Boy. I sang my heart out with the rest of the choir, most of us rising to our toes as the notes soared..

O Christ the same, through all our story’s pages
Our loves and hopes our failures and our fears
Eternal Lord the King of all the ages
Unchanging still amid the passing years
O Living Word the source of all creation
Who spread the skies and set the stars ablaze
O Christ the same who wrought our whole salvation
We bring our thanks for all our yesterdays

O Christ the same, the friend of sinners sharing
Our inmost thoughts the secrets none can hide
Still as of old upon Your body bearing
The marks of love in triumph glorified
O Son of Man who stooped for us from heaven
O Prince of life in all Your saving power
O Christ the same to whom our hearts are given
We bring our thanks for this the present hour

O Christ the same, secure within whose keeping
Our lives and loves our days and years remain
Our work and rest our waking and our sleeping
Our calm and storm our pleasure and our pain
O Lord of love for all our joys and sorrows
For all our hopes when earth shall fade and flee
O Christ the same beyond our brief tomorrows
We bring our thanks for all that is to be

Words: Timothy Dudley Smith (b. 1926)
Tune: Londonderry Air Irish Tradtional (aka O Danny Boy)

Violinist Liana