Where are the voices for the earth?

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Where are the voices for the earth?

Author: Shirley Erena Murray
Tune: PORTENT
Published in 1 hymnal

Representative Text

1 Where are the voices for the earth?
Where are the eyes to see her pain,
wasted by our consuming path,
weeping the tears of poisoned rain?

2 Sacred the soil that hugs the seed,
sacred the silent fall of snow,
sacred the world that God decreed,
water and sun and river flow.

3 Where shall we run who break this code,
where shall tomorrow's children be,
left with the ruined gifts of God,
death for the creatures, land, and sea?

4 We are the voices for the earth,
we who will care enough to cry,
cherish her beauty, clear her breath,
live that our planet may not die.

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Author: Shirley Erena Murray

SHIRLEY ERENA MURRAY (b. 1931) is a hymn text writer, born in Invercargill, New Zealand in 1931. Her texts have appeared in more than 100 collections worldwide and have been translated into several languages. She has been an editor with the New Zealand Hymnbook Trust and received international acclaim for her writing, including being made a Fellow of the Royal School of Church Music (2006) and becoming a Member of the NZ Order of Merit (2001) for services to the community through hymn writing. She is the first citizen to be so honored. Most recently, she has been honored by the Hymn Society in the United States and Canada at its July 2009 annual conference by being named a Fellow of the Society in recognition of her contributions as a hymn… Go to person page >

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