'Lament & Hope' Book

Lament & Hope: 40 Prayers for the Climate and Ecological Emergency (Book)

Endorsements

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“I have been impressed with Jon Swales’ leadership and prophetic voice in our city of Leeds as we both lament the ecological crisis our world is in and call for urgent action. In this anthology of poems, which Jon has written, you will find a range of resources which are able to prompt us all into adoration, confession, thanksgiving and urgent supplication.  I commend it to you.”

- The Right Reverend Paul Slater

Bishop of Kirkstall

(Area Bishop for the City of Leeds)

Climate crisis is here now, destroying and threatening all life, in all parts of the world. Urgent action is required to ensure a safe and healthy future,  and sustainable peace for all. I as a Christian have been motivated with this prophetic voice of Rev. Jon Swales’s prayers for the Climate and Ecological Emergency. I really support this project. God the Creator of all, who is in control will move many hearts to ponder and to act. These prayers call all of us to take urgent action. I have already made a commitment to take action in my surroundings and I commend it to you.

-Naureen Aktar,  Human Rights Activist in Pakistan

“We live in a very beautiful but broken world. Rampant consumerism is devastating God’s world. It is vital to rediscover the biblical teaching that humans are called to care for this amazing creation project. The coming of the Lord Jesus offers us not only individual salvation but the restoration and healing of this groaning world. One day the whole earth will be full of the knowledge of God as the waters cover the sea (Isaiah 11:9). Jon Swales’ poignant anthology of poems will both inspire and challenge you.”

-Mark Roques, Director of RealityBites

‘If we love the natural world, of which we are part, it must hurt when we face what is happening to this earth. Can we keep the flame of hope  alight, that all will not be lost, and that a new balance will eventually be secured? Surely it takes faith to hold love and hope together? This is what Jon Swales can help us to do with his valuable anthology of prayers for the climate and ecological emergency. To pray in this world is to be open to God's gifts of faith, hope and love - despite everything. ‘

-Andrew Norman, Co-Chaplain of Green Christian

‘This poetic and modest collection of prayers brims with hope and wonder at the beauty, as well as the fragility, of creation.  Extended reflection on the meaning of the Hebrew and Christian Scriptures for this time of environmental and climate crisis clearly stand behind the prayers included in this collection.  I have no doubt that they will helpfully supply words to many of us who seek to offer lament, repentance and hopeful trust to the Creator God in these days of crisis and action.

-Rev’d Dr. Darrell D. Hannah , Chair of Operation Noah

Jon Swales has written a series of unflinchingly honest, yet hopeful prayers, addressed to the loving Creator and Redeemer of our broken world. These robustly Trinitarian prayers follow the biblical pattern of praise, confession, and petition, and may be used in personal devotion or communal liturgy. When read meditatively, as a means of Christian formation, these articulations of trust and pain, hope and grief, have the potential to align us with the heart of God.

-Dr J. Richard Middleton, Ph.D.Professor of Biblical Worldview and Exegesis, North Eastern Seminary

“We need Jon Swales at this time – pastor, servant, prophet, provocateur. Jon has the kind of gifts that can stir us out of complacency and paralysis on this defining issue of early 21st century discipleship – climate change. Class after class of our students have found Jon’s Old Testament teaching nothing short of inspirational, and his insistence on reclaiming the language of lament to be an epiphany. In these contemporary Psalms, Jon enables us to connect our deep fears and anxieties about the environment with the loving and listening presence of God. They are born out of a deep conviction that the Living God can hear and will act, but they also call us to a lifestyle of ongoing repentance which we are only just beginning to scope out. It’s important that these prayers are now getting an increasingly wider hearing.”

-Rev’d Canon Dr Mark Powley, Principal, St Hild College

“These prayers are not to be read on paper. They are not for a dusty shelves nor to sit in a library. These prayers are to be lived. These words are to be embodied. These prayers are to be chanted on the streets. Sung while locked-on, glued-on, or sitting-in. Whispered while on trial. These prayers are to put our bodies where Christ is found so we might be Christ’s body in ways that move the mountains of injustice and usher in the beauty of God’s healing reign on earth. These prayers should come with a warning, they won’t leave our world the same.”

-Jarrod McKenna, Pastor and Activist