Formed in the image and likeness of God,
We rejoice;
Fired by violence and facing away,
We recoil;
Defaced, despairing, curved in on ourselves,
We cry;
Remaking, repairing, curved into the world,
You come, the Image of God.
With compassion, forgiveness, restoring the image,
You heal;
With powerfully piercing, incisive insight,
You teach;
With passion and proverb and practical story,
You preach.
Facing Jerusalem, challenging temple,
You suffer;
Surfacing from the depths of death,
You’re raised;
Infusing, renewing, the image refacing,
You pour out the fiery Spirit of God.
Being transfigured into your likeness,
From glory to glory;
With unveiled face, we face God’s Image,
Reflecting the light of the knowledge of God,
Seen in your face,
Jesus our Lord.
The Rt. Rev. Dr. Graham Kings, in his retirement in Cambridge, is honorary assistant bishop in the Diocese of Ely and research associate at the the Cambridge Centre for Christianity Worldwide, which he founded in 1995. He has served as Mission Theologian in the Anglican Communion; Bishop of Sherborne; and vicar of St. Mary’s Church, Islington, London, where he co-founded Fulcrum.
