Hymn – O Mother Earth
A hymn for Biodiversity COP15 taking place in Montreal this December 2022. The hymn, to the tune “O Danny Boy” was originally written by Audrey Bryant for Climate COP15 in Copenhagen in 2009
Left: Flowers by Lizzie May from the Visual Arts Section of the website
COP means “Conference of the Parties” and representatives of governments of nearly all countries of the world come to these. There have been a series for Climate, and a series for Biological Diversity.
Audrey was an inspirational and founder member of Green Christian, then called Christian Ecology Link.
It is sung to the music of “O Danny Boy” – the Londonderry Air
See other hymns in the Green Christian Hymns section of the website
Oh mother earth,
obedient to God’s calling,
your mountain glaciers and your rivers long,
your swelling oceans, many waters falling
to thirsty lands –
for you we raise our song:
God’s precious globe, our glowing blue-green jewel
set in the bounds and mists of outer space
to be our home, our labour and renewal
where we, your men and women, find our trusted place.
Oh mother earth,
God’s joy in ever seeing
his handmaid and his ever-fertile spouse
in whom he birthed life’s many ways of being;
the birds and beasts
in you, our living house.
We know the inspiration of your beauty,
we mine the riches of your million years,
we have explored, but failed in our duty
to care for you, your other children and our peers.
Oh mother earth,
to Montreal we’re taking
our final and our deepest hope of all:
to live within our means, no more delaying;
Gone are the days
when men could steal and stall.
Now look ahead, you delegates of nations,
and see our children, what their lives are worth –
to live at last in knowing we’re relations,
Christ’s family and offspring of our mother earth.
Audrey Theodosia Bryant (1927-2015)
* Original words : “we take to Copenhagen”
have been replaced by “to Montreal we’re taking”
( the suggested replacement phrase “we take to COP15 Montreal” was replaced by the suggestion given lower down in the comments by John Barnett)
Or you could try the words:-
“we take to Nature-COP15”
In between 2070 and 2007 we had lost 30 percent of the worlds biodiversity globally and 60% in the tropics. (The 2008 Living Planet Report by WWF). Now the WWF 2022 Living Planet Report states that the average decline between 2070 and 2018 is 69% . – more precisely: “an average 69% decline in the relative abundance of monitored wildlife populations around the world between 1970 and 2018. Latin America shows the greatest regional decline in average population abundance (94%), while freshwater species populations have seen the greatest overall global decline (83%).
Next: Green Christian joins call to reconsider Cumbrian coal mine
Previous: Let’s stand United For Nature!
Comments on "Hymn – O Mother Earth"
John Barnett:
What about changing the second line of the last verse to "to Montreal we're taking". It scans better and avoids the superfluous rhyme of "Montreal" and "all".
Add your own comment to "Hymn – O Mother Earth"
This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.
Leave a Reply