Andrew Pratt

Words for our time…3

Our words…the hushed silence of a library whisper

…lest God might hear our prayer?

No alleluia breaks the silence,

no footstep on the stair.

Over the wall…toward the sunset

Filled with fear may love surround us

Filled with fear may love surround us

Filled with fear may love surround us,

spirit ground us, in that love,

drench us with this expectation

here on, earth not just above.

May each day extend a welcome,

open hands and open hearts,

open homes that offer shelter,

love that never more departs.

God enfold us, always hold us,

may our human love extend

’til all people, every nation

know your love can never end.

Words: Andrew Pratt (born 1948) © 18 August 2026 Stainer & Bell Ltd, London, England, http://www.stainer.co.uk. Please include any reproduction for local church use on your CCL Licence returns. All wider and any commercial use requires prior application to Stainer & Bell Ltd.

Metre: 8.7.8.7 Tune: ALL FOR JESUS

Beyond the crime of crippled conversation…in spite of degradation

Beyond the crime of crippled conversation

1	Beyond the crime of crippled conversation, 
	that thunders when diplomacy is dead, 
	a still small voice will whisper in the darkness 
	dispelling what was once a living dread.

2	Here love, like feathers, scatters in a moment, 
	the breeze of war is reaching hatred’s height, 
	yet love is not forgotten or extinguished, 
	still bids us walk within the dying light.

3	And dawn will come again, another morning, 
	to shed its colours on a new found way, 
	and hope will rise in spite of degradation, 
	and still our praise will wake this dancing day.

Andrew E Pratt (born 1948)
© 2016 Stainer and Bell Ltd., London, England, www.stainer.co.uk. Please include any reproduction for local church use on your CCL Licence returns. All wider and any commercial use requires prior application to Stainer & Bell Ltd.