Tower and Town, June 2018

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Clergy Letter: God’s Grandeur

As Spring moves towards early Summer, many of us will identify with Gerard Manley Hopkins’ conviction that the world is charged with the grandeur of God. It was the contrast with human toil that prompted Hopkins to state that ‘for all this nature is never spent; there lives the dearest freshness deep down things’.

The abundance and freshness of nature, especially vivid at this time of year, does indeed seem to hint at an everlasting source of life, but Hopkins’ confidence that nature is ‘never spent’ is not one we can share today.

We know that areas of the natural world are indeed ‘spent’, that deforestation and the ensuing desertification are having significant impacts on livelihoods, especially of the poor. And also how in Britain and Europe, both biodiversity and bio-abundance have declined significantly over the past 40 years.

The scale of the challenge is so great that it can lead to a sense of despair and resignation - the (understandable) feeling that on my own I can’t make a difference. If I were on my own, perhaps that despair might be justified, but of course no individual is on their own - we all live together.

Accordingly, the smallest of acts can begin to have an impact when they are carried out in tandem with others.

We have a wonderful example of this on our very own doorstep in the form of the Marlborough Downs Space for Nature, a project led by local farmers working together with a shared vision ‘to improve the condition and connectivity of the ecological network of the Marlborough Downs and to connect people to the downland landscape’.

Just as neighbouring farms can enhance each other’s work by following the same practices together, so can individual people and individual churches. For churches, as custodians of land as well as buildings, have a significant part to play.

The potential for churches to play their part in caring for the environment has been recognised in the existence of the Eco Church initiative and the simple test that explores five key areas of church life: Worship and teaching; Management of church buildings; Management of church land; Community and global engagement; Lifestyle.

An opportunity to learn more about both Eco Church and also the pioneering work of Marlborough Downs Space for Nature is offered to us on June 14th 7.30pm when an Open Meeting of the Marlborough Deanery Synod will meet in the middle of the Marlborough Downs themselves! The venue for the meeting is the Members’ Barn at the Barbury Castle Estate, SN4 0QZ courtesy of the hospitality of Barbury Castle Estate. Do come along if you possibly can.

The world is charged with the grandeur of God.
It will flame out, like shining from shook foil;
It gathers to a greatness, like the ooze of oil
Crushed. Why do men then now not reck his rod?
Generations have trod, have trod, have trod;
And all is seared with trade; bleared, smeared with toil;
And wears man's smudge and shares man's smell: the soil
Is bare now, nor can foot feel, being shod.

And for all this, nature is never spent;
There lives the dearest freshness deep down things;
And though the last lights off the black West went
Oh, morning, at the brown brink eastward, springs —
Because the Holy Ghost over the bent
World broods with warm breast and with ah! bright wings.

Andrew Studdert-Kennedy