Poetic ecumenism

In his first sermon as general secretary of the World Council of Churches, Olav Fykse Tveit spoke of the need to enter into the depths of this world and its suffering and divisions - and together, to be the voice calling to newness of life. But he also quoted a poem by a Norwegian poet, Olav H. Hauge, expressing the dream of love, love for the life we have, love for the world we live in, today and tomorrow:



This is the dream we carry through the world
that something fantastic will happen
that it has to happen
that time will open by itself
that doors shall open by themselves
that the heart will find itself open
that mountain springs will jump up
that the dream will open by itself
that we one early morning
will slip into a harbour
that we have never known.

Wonderful words of hope and faith and a readiness and openness to be surprised by the future. Maybe that's the challenge facing the ecumenical movement today, linking the institutions - old and worn out as they may seem - to the dreams and complexity of poetry. Then by chance today I stumbled upon an address by Lindsey Sanderson, Assistant General Secretary of Action of Churches Together in Scotland, on "Simple Gifts: New Possibilities on the ecumenical journey". Back at the WCC central committee in September 2009, she tried to find a way of linking prayer and public statements about trouble spots in the world (although the prayers themselves seem to be missing from the statements on the WCC Web site). Here, she uses "Simple Gifts", a Shaker dancing song to be used in worship, to hold together her reflections on the future of ecumenism. The song itself, she noted, was written by Elder Joseph Brackett in 1848 in the Shaker community in Alfred, Maine. 

Over time the melody has been adapted by a number of people including Aaron Copeland in the ballet, Appalachian Springs, Sydney Carter, in the well known, hymn, ‘Lord of the Dance’, the dance musical of the same name by Irish dancer Michael Flatley and most recently at the inauguration of Barack Obama.

This is Elder Brackett's first verse:

‘Tis the gift to be simple, ‘tis the gift to be free,
‘Tis the gift to come down where we ought to be
And when we find ourselves in the place just right,
‘Twill be in the valley of love and delight.
When true simplicity is gain’d
To bow and to bend we shan’t be asham’d
To turn, turn will be our delight
‘Till by turning, turning we come round right.

The "place just right ... the valley of love and delight" ... maybe this is also the "harbour that we have never known". Two visions for  being one together - at a time when institutions everywhere are being called into question, the challenge is to reflect on how to hold together institutional and poetic ecumenism.