This coming Sunday is Trinity Sunday, and our Diocese in Europe is encouraging us to sing a hymn written by former Diocesan Bishop, Dr Geoffrey Rowell.
Why? This year the whole Christian world has been celebrating the 1700th anniversary of the first full ecumenical Council of Nicaea in AD325, when representatives of the entire church gathered at Nicaea, now in the modern Turkish city of İznik, under the chairmanship of Bishop Hosius of Cordoba. Attended by at least 200 bishops, the Council’s main aim was resolution of the issue of the divine nature of Jesus as God the Son and his relationship with God the Father. As a result, the first part of the Nicene Creed was agreed and formed a regular part of a Christian’s statement of faith.
The hymn reflects on the three parts of the Trinity – God the Father, God the Son and God the Holy Spirit, and how love binds them together as one God. It is sung to the tune Blaenwern by the choir of Holy Trinity, Geneva here.
Bishop Geoffrey’s hymn will also be sung at the Trinity Eucharist in Salinas this coming Saturday, to the well-known tune, Abbots Leigh. Details here.
Because of the central role played by the Bishop of Cordoba, the town’s mosque-cathedral is currently hosting an exhibition about the Nicaean Council, which is open until 5th July. Never visited Cordoba’s mosque-cathedral before? It is one of the most extraordinary buildings in Christendom. For further details click here. Read about the exhibition (in Spanish) in the Diario de Cordoba, here.
Read the full Diocesan Press Release here.
Final verse of Bishop Geoffrey’s hymn:
Triune God we bring our praises,
Low in adoration fall,
Awesome Wonder that amazes
As our hearts now hear your call,
‘Share in me the life of glory,
Lives transfigured by my Love!’
Saints on earth and saints in heaven,
In the Trinity above.
Picture above: image of the Council of Nicaea on display at Cordoba’s mosque-cathedral