Dare to dream...

A while ago there was a bit of discussion on various blogs of our dreams for the church, and I was driven quietly mad by my inability to remember or track down a hymn I'd once sung which expressed my own dreams rather well. Hunting for last minute resources for my "favourite" spot (the monthly worship at the home for rather absent elderly people) I discovered it lurking . So, here it is. It's by Kate Compston
(from Dare to Dream ed Geoffrey Duncan) and is sung to The Streets of Laredo.

I dream of a church that joins in with God's laughing
as she rocks in her rapture, enjoying her art:
she's glad of her world, in its risking and growing:
'tis the child she has borne and holds close to her heart.

I dream of a church that joins in with God's weeping
as she crouches, weighed down by the sorrow she sees:
she cries for the hostile, the cold and no-hoping,
for she bears in herself our despair and dis-ease.

I dream of a church that joins in with God's dancing
as she moves like the wind and the wave and the fire:
a church that can pick up its skirts, pirouetting,
with-the steps that can signal God's deepest desire.

I dream of a church that joins in with God's loving
as she bends to embrace the unlovely and lost,
a church that can free, by its sharing and daring,
the imprisoned and poor, and then shoulder the cost.

God, make us a church that joins in with your living,
as you cherish and challenge, rein in and release,
a church that is winsome, impassioned, inspiring;
lioness of your justice and lamb of your peace.