Hymns Modern & Ancient

422: O valiant priests

Tune: 10.10.10.10.  Ellers  (E. J. Hopkins)

 

©Pharisaios Publications 2004

 

O valiant priests, who to your altars came

Through smoke of incense and by candle flame;

Tranquil you pray, your holy virtue proved,

Your preaching hallowed in the church you loved.

 

Proudly you gathered, in the autumn light,

To consecrate a Bishop to the fight;

All you had hoped for, all you had, you gave

To save the church - yourselves you scorned to save.

 

Splendid you passed, the great procession made,

Into that church, who's light shall never fade;

Deep your contentment in that holy throng,

Laying on of hands to now set right a wrong.

 

Some years ago, as earth lay dark and still,

Came a report that aggravated ill,

Blind to the frailty of our human clay,

Clergy were told we could not walk that way.

 

Still stands that law from that dread hour to this,

Forbidding touch or just a loving kiss;

Still, through the veil, our Father's pitying eyes

Look down to bless our lesser Calvaries.

 

We are his servants, in his steps we tread,

For some, alone, for some the marriage bed,

But for those priests who love their gender true,

A church in schism is the likely view.

 

O risen Lord, O Shepherd of the heart,

The human church has driven men apart,

In glorious hope, your Spirit says "Begin!"

So all thy children may be welcomed in.