Receive the stranger in your midst

Receive the stranger in your midst with welcome and with grace;

For you are strangers in this world, and living out of place.

The world may splinter and divide by race or creed or clan,

But there are no dividing lines within God’s loving plan.

There are no aliens in Christ’s eyes, exempt from God’s full love;

But all are children of our God on earth just as above.

Receive the stranger in your midst as Christ has welcomed you,

And be Christ’s welcome in this world in all you say and do.

TEXT: CSF, after Leviticus 19:33-34, 2011
MUSIC: Tune LAND OF REST, American folk melody

(Other possible tunes: CAITHNESS, DETROIT, TALLIS’ ORDINAL, ST. PETER, McKEE)