40 O ye sun and moon, bless ye the Lord: praise and exalt him above all for ever.
41 O ye stars of heaven, bless ye the Lord: praise and exalt him above all for ever.
42 O every shower and dew, bless ye the Lord: praise and exalt him above all for ever.
43 O all ye winds, bless ye the Lord: and exalt him above all for ever.
44 O ye fire and heat, bless ye the Lord: praise and exalt him above all for ever.
45 O ye winter and summer, bless ye the Lord: praise and exalt him above all for ever.
46 O ye dews and storms of snow, bless ye the Lord: praise and exalt him above all for ever.
47 O ye nights and days, bless ye the Lord: praise and exalt him above all for ever.
48 O ye light and darkness, bless ye the Lord: praise and exalt him above all for ever.
49 O ye ice and cold, bless ye the Lord: praise and exalt him above all for ever.
50 O ye frost and snow, bless ye the Lord: praise and exalt him above all for ever.
51 O ye lightnings and clouds, bless ye the Lord: praise and exalt him above all for ever.
52 O let the earth bless the Lord: praise and exalt him above all for ever.
Song of the Three Holy Children
There are four churches in the rather remote community of Change Islands, Newfoundland. With a year-round population of roughly 175 (more through the summer) and eight children in the school, none of these congregations is close to thriving. The United Church attracts three or four to worship while the Anglicans might get eight or nine on the Sundays when the priest makes the trip by ferry for a service.
Just the same, St. Margaret's Anglican church is a lovely structure which seats 300 and is both a landmark and a sea-mark. The doors are always open, God bless them, and as we made our way to and from hikes we stopped in often to take in the tranquility of the building which replaced the former church more than a century ago. Somehow a bible presented to the congregation in the 1850's has survived and is on a stand at the front of the sanctuary for anyone to peruse.
My dark secret --green secret?- is that every time I entered the church on this trip, as well as during my previous two visits to Change Islands, I would open that bible to a passage of scripture which celebrates the God of Creation and creation itself. This time around those passages included Job 38, Isaiah 55, Psalm 148, Proverbs 8. Genesis 9...that may be all. On my return the bible was usually closed again and I've probably confounded some conscientious member whose task is care of this monumental tome.
One of the pillars of St. Margaret's is our elderly friend Margaret Parson, who ain't no saint in the traditional sense but is feisty angel in our eyes. She loaned me one of her copies of the Book of Common Prayer so that I could search out what is included as The Song of the Three Holy Children, an apocryphal portion of the book of Daniel in some versions. It is a lengthy hymn of praise, a celebration of creation in its many expressions.
We appreciated that their minister/priest, the Rev. Dr. Joanne Mercer, has been observing Creation Time with her congregations and has left printed prayers at the entrance to the church appropriate for the season. We took a copy and carried it with us on our rambles. When we stopped along the way to enjoy the vista or tranquility we'd read one of those prayers as a way of acknowledging God, the source of all being.
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