{"id":504,"date":"2026-07-16T21:49:36","date_gmt":"2026-07-16T21:49:36","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/pilgrims.org.uk\/wp\/?p=504"},"modified":"2026-07-16T21:49:36","modified_gmt":"2026-07-16T21:49:36","slug":"our-mother-and-father","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/pilgrims.org.uk\/wp\/2026\/07\/16\/our-mother-and-father\/","title":{"rendered":"Our mother and father"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Common Ground Song 81 \u2018Loving Spirit\u2019
<\/strong>Words: Shirley Erena Murray \/ Music: David Dell \u00a9 Hope Publishing Co.
YouTube recording: https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=vDDiUSyctPU<\/a>
Featured image: Parents with their baby. From mamazing.com (original copyrightunknown)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This is an interesting one. The theme of this song from New Zealand is, seemingly, the love of God. But the theology is not quite that of the Trinitarian mainstream churches. Let\u2019s start with the positives: God is here compared to a father who protects and teaches us (totally uncontroversial), and I like the image of him hoisting us on his shoulders so we can see things more clearly.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

God is also addressed as a mother from whose flesh and bone we are formed, and who feeds us from her own body. That would be controversial in some Christian circles where feminine imagery of God is regarded with suspicion, but not in others. After all, Genesis tells us we are made in God\u2019s image, and Eve was said to be formed from one of Adam\u2019s bones. Jesus used mothering imagery of God, and as for being fed from God\u2019s body, well, that is the Eucharist\/Communion as practised by most churches.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the first and last verses (the last is simply a repeat of the first), the Spirit is invoked as the one who chooses us, draws us to his\/herself (no gender specific language is used here) and sets their sign on us. That last phrase seems to echo the line in the Song of Songs, \u2018set me as a seal upon your heart\u2019. Paul uses similar imagery in his letters to the Corinthians and Ephesians.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What is lacking, though, is any reference to the second person of the Trinity (Jesus, Christ, Word, Saviour, or any other of his titles). It is this that I find awkward.  And in fact, the name of God or Lord is also lacking anywhere in the lyrics. I assume<\/em> that the author meant God when addressing someone as \u2018Mother, Father and Spirit\u2019 \u2013 but her conception of God may well be somewhat different from that of most Christians. And finally, in verse 4, the person being addressed is \u2018friend and lover\u2019. Jesus certainly invited his followers to address God as \u2018Father\u2019 using the family word \u2018Abba\u2019 rather than anything more formal. But the intimacy of the \u2018lover\u2019 is an analogy that, again, many Christians would say is going too far in understanding our relationship with the ineffable, infinite Creator.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In summary, then, I would not choose to use this hymn in a public service in a mainstream church, for theological reasons. But some people may find it helpful in private devotion.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Once again, I was unable to find on YouTube a performance of this song with the same tune by David Dell as used in the Common Ground book. There seem to be several more popular alternatives, of which  V. Earle Copes\u2019 melody is the most performed, and that is linked above. As for David Dell\u2019s melody, it can be heard (without the words) here<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Common Ground Song 81 \u2018Loving Spirit\u2019Words: Shirley Erena Murray \/ Music: David Dell \u00a9 Hope Publishing Co.YouTube recording: https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=vDDiUSyctPUFeatured image: Parents with their baby. From mamazing.com (original copyrightunknown) This is an interesting one. The theme of this song from New Zealand is, seemingly, the love of God. But the theology is not quite that of […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":505,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"pagelayer_contact_templates":[],"_pagelayer_content":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[71],"tags":[237,238,239],"class_list":["post-504","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-common-ground","tag-father","tag-mother","tag-spirit"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/pilgrims.org.uk\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/504","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/pilgrims.org.uk\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/pilgrims.org.uk\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pilgrims.org.uk\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pilgrims.org.uk\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=504"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/pilgrims.org.uk\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/504\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":506,"href":"https:\/\/pilgrims.org.uk\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/504\/revisions\/506"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pilgrims.org.uk\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/505"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/pilgrims.org.uk\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=504"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pilgrims.org.uk\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=504"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pilgrims.org.uk\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=504"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}