Poetry Corner The following liturgical poems were written by Jill Harris for two separate rituals performed by the Ephesus Group. Invocation was part of a Christmas ritual, and Thanksgiving was part of a ritual that looked at the development of the myth of the Last Supper and explored whether it could still serve us in the 21st century as a means of grace.
Invocation In the shadows cast by sunlight in the prism of metaphor & symbol in the echoes & harmonics of reverberating music in the subtleties of many-layered words in the hidden worlds of quantum physics & the deep universe in the weave of human interplay the glance, the touch, the otherness, the commonality, we recognise the richness of dimension.
Thanksgiving For myth to break and pass around, to dip in wine and savour, flavour of this world’s life, this, our home; for heroes who return with fire to light the beacons on the hills, for gods who come to earth with thunderbolts of gifts; For earth and water, sun and seed for toil and growth and greening; for alchemy and transformation - grain to bread and grape to wine, bread and wine to flesh and blood, the stuff of life, all that we know and are, yet arcing, joining, I and thou; for alchemy and transformation - each one alone to guests at table, circled with light and warmth, and welcomed, hands over food, faces glowing, leaning towards one another, eyes meeting, voices rising and falling; and falling silent, remembering what troubles lie beyond the light; for this bounty, we give thanks.
For the power of grace and mercy to confront and change; for love which whispers in our ear until we listen; for costly giving, for redemption, new beginnings; for this bounty, we give thanks.
For bread to break and pass around, and wine to share — from ages past what we have done to celebrate community and tell the story of a God of flesh and blood, like us, who trod the labyrinth and lighted us the way, hero, victim, profoundly wise; the best we know; for the Christ who hosts the meal of life; For all this bounty, we give thanks. for their bounty, we give thanks. Jill Harris is a liturgist who works with the Ephesus Group For the god who stayed and died in Wellington, New Zealand. She and her husband. will be and yielded up his power visiting the UK from February to June, 2005, and would be that we might shape the world for good interested to make contact with others who are involved in or ill - salvation or destruction similar work in the UK. Her email address is: jjharris@xtra.co.nz for ourselves, our planet, one another; for this bounty, we give thanks.