Les Cotils

This is as it happened, a diary entry of a weekend on the Channel island of Guernsey when something magical happened to make a thin place between heaven and earth and five friends found themselves sharing a four day Church, a long mystical moment of grace. Les Cotils is a Conference centre on the island. Two of our number Paul and Claire Chambers were our hosts. A saint and an angel who carried us to somewhere else. Thank you God! "Hope is coming out" is quoted from a Sarah Masen song as sung on the weekend by the stupendous Julie Lee.

In the heart of St. Paul and angel Claire
The weight is falling off my soul
And out there, beyond the summer yachts
I’m glimpsing clear visions of either pole
And blue has never looked more like herself
Around those islands like little sketches
And I am tasting the fruit of the silence
Where the far side of heaven stretches
The blue bells are singing, "hope is coming out"
The ocean is echoing her arrival back
Bladder campions like Tiffany lamps
Are shining light across the narrow track
They call this the Galilee of Europe
And I sense someone standing by the sea
Without judgement and with invitation
His hand kindly beckoning to me
Where the broken are built into beauty and truth
And the grass dances at the Spirit’s whim
In the unforced rhythms of these high places
It’s impossible not to bump into Him
And the water he once turned into wine
Is being turned into something else again
We are carving grace into this mosaic
And giving up any reason to pretend.

Guernsey, May 7th, 2001

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