W H Vanstone: Poetry of the Passion

Around the time Moltmann's The Crucified God was published, a slim book of pastoral and constructive theology was published, with the telling title, Love's Endeavour, Love's Expense. Some of Moltmann's finest insights into the love of God were anticipated in this slim volume. Canon William Hubert Vanstone (whose contribution to church economic theory was to sell the vicarage furniture to pay for the repair of the church roof!) wrote of his ministry in a commuter estate in the sixties and seventies, and of his search for a theology that would sustain the church in its mission, and himself in his vocation. I've read this book several times through, and countless times revisited some of its finest passages. I'll blog on this book later, but on Good Friday I again turn to Vanstone's book, and the hymn with which it concludes. He speaks of the precariousness of love, and insists love can have no guaranteed outcome, and that the love of God is expressed precisely in this risk-filled vulnerability of self-giving - the cross is Love's Endeavour, Love's Expense.

“Morning glory, starlit sky”

W H Vanstone (1923-1999)

1. Morning glory, starlit sky,

soaring music, scholar’s truth,

flight of swallows, autumn leaves,

memory’s treasure, grace of youth:

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2. Open are the gifts of God,

gifts of love to mind and sense;

hidden is love’s agony,

love’s endeavor, love’s expense.

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3. Love that gives, gives ever more,

gives with zeal, with eager hands,

spares not, keeps not, all outpours,

ventures all its all expends.

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4. Drained is love in making full,

bound in setting others free,

poor in making many rich,

weak in giving power to be.

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5. Therefore he who shows us God

helpless hangs upon the tree;

and the nails and crown of thorns

tell of what God’s love must be.

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6. Here is God: no monarch he,

throned in easy state to reign;

here is God, whose arms of love

aching, spent, the world sustain.

Comments

[Deirdre Ashton]

This beautiful and dense poem was read at a carol service, Christmas 2012. I made a note of its author and title, because it struck me so forcefully. In its celebration of the incarnation it has a place in Advent in the same way as, say, Christina Rossetti's 'Love Came Down at Christmas'. But of course, the image of open arms on the cross make it appropriate for Easter, too. I look forward to hearing a musical setting.

[Kathryn Rickert]

This is the hymn that I am going to bring for "Tea and Singing" this afternoon. It's music (by Dorothy Sheets) along with these strong words go where I do not so easily go on my own. I don't pretend to fully grasp this text, but it has drawn my appreciate for many years.

[Jim Gordon]

Hello Kathryn - thank you for visiting and for your comment. The post is now 7 years old - which is a generation in blogging terms, but I;m still recommending Vanstone's book as a gem of Christian thinking. Hope the Tea and Singing went well. Shalom, Jim

[Eileen jorgensen]

My childhood memories of mr vanstone are magical. I was born on kirkholt in 1957 and lived next door to the church, st thomas. What a figure mr vanstone was, that's what we all called him.
He brought all the community together what with the gang shows, whit walls, cleaning his coverage when we were small children for some plums and listening to his ghost stories. I remember one especially about a dog with a man's face!
The good times we had, brownies, find, guides, scouts and rangers. Playing in the old church hall when it was raining. Me vanstone used to say " do not go on the piano and do not go down the cellar" but being children we did.
My brother went to all the camps with me vanstone and we all sang in the church choir.
We had brilliant times going Carol singing each Christmas with me vanstone, singing in the stairwells of flats and always finishing up at Mrs Morgan's house for supper.
Best memories of a lovely, down to earth, community gentleman. What fantastic work he did.
Eileen

[Keith Geiselman]

Thank you for posting. I first read "Morning glory, starlit sky...." in my teacher William Placher's lectures then book, "Narrative's of a Vulnerable God" (1998) and the simple melody of Gibbon's Song 13.
I found my way here when I searched for information on the author(as www.hymnary.org has none).
Rev. Vanstone's obituary in the Independent https://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/obituary-canon-bill-vanstone-1079750.html is lovely the comment about equally moving.
I too often impressed and moved by the devotion and personal humor and tenderness of that generation of war experience pastor/scholars, such as, H.C. Read, and Earnest Gordon (both Scotsmen who immigrated to the US).
Thank you.

[Heather Scott]

We sang "Morning glory, starlit sky" at St. Francis Anglican Church, Simon's Town, during the 3-hour service yesterday. I think that it is the first time that I have sung it, although it is in our hymn book. I found it deeply moving. I saw that the hymn writer was W.H. Vanstone, and wondered whether it was the same Vanstone who was quoted in one of the books that I am currently reading, "The Last Freedom", by Mary Craig. So I googled "Vanstone" this evening, and am delighted to have come across Living Wittily, and the information about W.H. Vanstone from the obituary. Hopefully our parish priest has a copy of "Love's Endeavour" in his well-stocked library. Thank you for being here.

[Malcolm Drummond]

I think all of Bill's books are still available through Amazon links. If you want reminiscences of him, Canon David Wyatt at St Paul's Salford is your man. I was Bill's curate in Kirkholt from 1971-74. He used to bin all his parish sermons after use. To this day, I wish I had raided the bins on Monday morning. I could have had a treasury of spiritual insight and learning

[Jim Gordon]

Thank you Malcolm. This is helpful - and yes, the bins should have been raided!