* This text from 2002 was my offering to a ‘hymnsearch’ promoted by a church in the USA, who asked for ‘A hymn to call the Church to affirm gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender persons, and to celebrate their gifts and ministries’.

During the course of writing the hymn (which didn’t win) I twice consulted with fellow members of the Hampshire and South Wiltshire branch of Lesbian and Gay Christian Movement, whose contributions strengthened my own.

These words go well with OLD HUNDREDTH.