God above us around us beneath us, within us
We delight to share with all life
the building-blocks of cells and the minerals of which we are made

We acknowledge the limits of our knowledge, limits which become the more apparent, the more we learn.
We wonder at the mystery of our radical interdependence, the waving of the web of life, as the snakes and flowers weave together on the high stone crosses of this island;
And we are inspired by those artists of the past, for whom it was inconceivable
that a cross of salvation would not also be a tree.
Feeding and offering habitat to all the birds of the air.

We see much too, that seems cruel and vicious in what we call nature.
Predators, who nonetheless ensure the balance
of life and environment

And human selfishness and arrogance
which afflicts us as a species, expressed in
injustice and the oppression of the poor.

For if we are yet to find our calling in the communion of Creation
then we must needs model it on how we treat ourselves.

And so, appalled at the damage that has been done
But encouraged by the beauty which remains
we seek and claim the forgiveness
which Jesus so often offered
before folk could put right the harm they had chosen.

God in Christ, hear us, continue to warn us
help us to turn
and rejoice in your way.
AMEN.