God of all the nations

Decided to to the Cathedral of Saint John the Divine this morning, and the whole world was there. In many senses! I'd known that artist Luke Jerram's "Gaia" was suspended in its cavernous nave, but not that the Cathedral celebrates the opening of the United Nations General Assembly - and this was the day!

Jerram's illuminated globe is designed to make accessible the "Overview Effect" reported by the tiny number of human beings who've seen the earth from space. So beautiful, so integrated (no borders!), so small, so precious... The 7m wide sphere turns gently - one rotation every two and a half minutes. We found ourselves seated beneath it. How big Antarctica is! The other continents were mere ciphers: I noticed the southern edge of Australia, and the southern tips of Latin America and Africa sweeping by on the margins. At a greater distance, when the globe is seen from the side rather than below, the true size of Africa and South America are clear - and of course the vast Pacific Ocean! Those northern hemisphere countries which ruled the roost in the Mercator projection maps just replaced by the UN General Assembly? Hard to see from any angle in this configuration. A skullcap at best!

"Let us pray that we may not steal futures from generations to come," Dean Winnie Varghese said in a sermon on the invaluable work of the UN and of all committed to the right of every human to a life free of poverty, hunger or fear - including fear of climate disruption or genocide. You can find it here.

The music was suitably pleasing (the UN Orchestra was there, making a jolly ruckus), but I was brought to tears by one of the hymns, a setting from Sibelius' Finlandia called "This is my song," written by an American in 1934. It starts

This is my song, Oh God of all the nations, 

A song of peace for lands afar and mine. 

This is my home, the country where my heart is; 

Here are my hopes, my dreams, my sacred shrine. 

But other hearts in other lands are beating, 

With hopes and dreams as true and high as mine.