This came onto some radio programme I have in the background when I am at this machine. It is one we used to bellow out at school on the last day of each term and the first day of the following term.
Reason for putting it here is that I like it. Surely that is enough? However, it seem that I may be furthering some grossly racist hymn. In August 2004, the Rt Revd Stephen Lowe, Bishop of Hulme, called for the first verse of the hymn to be removed from Church of England services, calling it "totally heretical". He believed it placed national loyalties above religious ones and encouraged racism and an unquestioning support of governments. His words sparked a debate on the wider implications of the hymn. All the more reason for reproducing it then. To cull such a wonderful poem at a time when we are facing the situation when calls to Islamic prayer will ring out over the morning calm makes it all the more important to make our position clear.
Entire and whole and perfect, the service of my love;
The love that asks no question, the love that stands the test,
That lays 'pon the altar the dearest and the best;
The love that never falters, the love that pays the price,
The love that makes undaunted the final sacrifice.
And there's another country, I've heard of long ago,
Most dear to them that love her, most great to them that know;
We may not count her armies, we may not see her King;
Her fortress is a faithful heart, her pride is suffering;
And soul by soul and silently her shining bounds increase,
And her ways are ways of gentleness, and all her paths are peace.
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