Likeness Litany

Date added: 29/05/2020

LIKENESS LITANY

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.

© Graham Kings, Nourishing Connections (Canterbury Press, 2020).

First published as ‘Facing the Image’ in News of Liturgy 1997, Transformation 15.1 (1998), Mission Theology Advisory Group, Anne Richards (ed.), Transparencies: Pictures of mission through prayer and reflection (Churches Together in Britain and Ireland and Church House Publishing, 2002), also on Fulcrum, Spiritual Journeys and Mission Theology in the Anglican Communion.