Women's World Day of Prayer

The Day Thou Gavest Lord Is Ended

 

The day Thou gavest, Lord, is ended,

The darkness falls at Thy behest;

To Thee our morning hymns ascended,

Thy praise shall sanctify our rest.

We thank Thee that Thy church, unsleeping,

While earth rolls onward into light,

Through all the world her watch is keeping,

And rests not now by day or night.

As o’er each continent and island

The dawn leads on another day,

The voice of prayer is never silent,

Nor dies the strain of praise away.

The sun that bids us rest is waking

Our brethren ’neath the western sky,

And hour by hour fresh lips are making

Thy wondrous doings heard on high.

So be it, Lord; Thy throne shall never,

Like earth’s proud empires, pass away:

Thy kingdom stands, and grows forever,

Till all Thy creatures own Thy sway.

Prayer and praise 24 hours a day somewhere in the world - the church never sleeping. What a wonderful image, what a truly beautiful hymn, sadly mostly sung now at funerals, since the demise of the Evensong service for many of us.

On Friday we celebrated Women's World Day of Prayer across our local parishes. It was a wonderful happy service, the theme: "How Many Loaves Have You?" We were all called to reflect on our personal gifts and talents that we can offer and share in the service of God.
Every year the service focuses on a different country, and is written by women of that country. This year it was the turn of Chile, bread being an appropriate theme as this is eaten at every meal, being very much a part of everyday life for them.
And we closed the service with this my favorite hymn of all time. Just imagine women throughout the world focusing on the same prayer and praise throughout the day, starting "as dawn breaks over the islands of Tonga in the Pacific and continuing across each continent until the last services of this very special day are held back in the Pacific,on the islands of Samoa, circling the world in prayer for 36 hours."