On the sixth day of Christmas...if

Unfortunately I can't find a recording of this to share with you, it's a fairly new John Bell hymn which I first sang at St Peter's House church community based in the chaplaincy of Manchester University. I was on placement there during my ordination training. John Bell and the Iona community are very special, the island itself kept creeping into my life, even before I had a faith, and we visited for the first time as a family this year. The Celtic traditions linking ourselves and our worship to the natural world is something which resonates deeply with me and I usually wear a celtic trinity symbol rather than a cross, the interwoven knots a reminder of all things being joined in relationship. The trinity above all else is about relationship.

If my name was Mary
(just sixteen with a child)
forced to flee my country
(failing state turning wild)
would you find a place for me?

If the town I came from
once had been occupied
by your nation’s soldiers
at whose hands my dad died,
would you find a place for me?

If your nation’s air force
dropped their bombs on my street
on the wrong presumption
that was where rebels meet,
would you find a place for me?

If I’d  learned your country
saw and heard of our plight
but remained persuaded
we were wrong, you were right,
would you find a place for me?

If the boat I paid for
was unfit to set sail
and if seeking refuge
was now certain to fail,
would you find a place for me?

If my name was Mary
(just sixteen with a child);
if his name was Jesus…

Words: John L. Bell, copyright (c) 2015 WGRG, c/o Iona Community, Glasgow, Scotland. www.wildgoose.scot