Spirit, Love, and Light

Today at UUCWI, we'll have a worship service using the personal poetry of 12 of our members and friends, including me. My contribution is to lead a hymn I wrote when I was a student in a Hymnody class at Iliff School of Theology. The words are below. It can be sung to the tune "Restoration", as individual verses, or to "Hymn to Joy" (aka Ode to Joy by Beethoven) by making the verses eight lines long instead of four. Or, if you prefer, find a different tune in the metrical index of any hymnal, under the section 8.7.8.7. or 8.7.8.7.D (for the 8-line arrangement of verses).

You are welcome to use it, if you like it, just giving attribution.

SPIRIT, LOVE, AND LIGHT
by Rev. Elizabeth “Kit” Ketcham, 1999
TUNE: Restoration or Hymn to Joy
8.7.8.7.

Wandering in earth’s lonely places,
We see clear, though sick with fright,
In our comrades’ lovely faces,
God is Spirit, Love, and Light.

Jesus was our prophet, mentor.
Heart and soul he does invite
us to find God at our center,
God is Spirit, Love, and Light.

Yet we need to be reminded,
In the deepness of the night,
Whom we seek when we are blinded,
God is Spirit, Love, and Light.

When we question our disgraces,
Where can God be in our plight?
Answers come from hidden places,
God is Spirit, Love, and Light.