{"id":62,"date":"2008-07-22T10:03:56","date_gmt":"2008-07-22T14:03:56","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.therowboat.com\/?p=62"},"modified":"2022-04-11T23:51:33","modified_gmt":"2022-04-12T03:51:33","slug":"the-certainties-of-ascension","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/nathanschneider.info\/2008\/07\/the-certainties-of-ascension\/","title":{"rendered":"The Certainties of Ascension"},"content":{"rendered":"
At the Church of the Ascension<\/a> in Manhattan, two things can be counted on in every service (the English ones, at least): words of welcome will be made with explicit mention of sexual orientation and Sibelius’s “Finlandia” will be sung, using the words by Lloyd Stone:<\/p>\n This is my song, O God of all the nations, My country’s skies are bluer than the ocean, Every time it nearly brings me to tears. These certainties in the words are so obvious, yet every time I hear them it sounds, in this world, like a great discovery: other people have lives too that are worth living and worth keeping.<\/p>\n “Finlandia” is particularly moving to me after having lived at a co-op house<\/a> at Brown University by that name.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
\nA song of peace for lands afar and mine.
\nThis is my home, the country where my heart is;
\nHere are my hopes, my dreams, my holy shrine;
\nBut other hearts in other lands are beating
\nWith hopes and dreams as true and high as mine.<\/p>\n
\nAnd sunlight beams on cloverleaf and pine;
\nBut other lands have sunlight too, and clover,
\nAnd skies are everywhere as blue as mine.
\nO hear my song, thou God of all the nations,
\nA song of peace for their land and for mine.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n