Freedom Is the Goal
‘Though the forces of evil infecting whole nations and peoples are often hidden, complex, and elusive, we are called, as Christians, to unmask and expel them in the Name of the God of Love….’ Henri Nouwen – Meditation 13th September 2019
Read the full text at Henri Nouwen meditations
What sharp protestations might echo the prophets,
could mirror the actions of Christ and the cross?
We witness indifference, inaction and malice,
that break up communities, add to our loss.
But how can we counter political action
that builds upon selfishness slander and lies,
that blinds us to suffering, homelessness, hunger,
ignoring these needs as our barren earth dies?
While violence surrounds us, our dark contemplation
breeds hopelessness, helplessness, absence of light;
yet here in the darkness a spark might still smoulder,
that love might still fan to dispel hatred’s night.
Join hands now, God’s people, let love be our watchword,
let Christ be our model of life giving grace,
that those of each nation, the war torn, the migrant,
may find they are welcome right now in this place.
Andrew Pratt 31/8/2019
Words © 2019 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.
Tune: WAS LEBET, WAS SCHWEBET (or possibly THE ASH GROVE)
Written at a time when parliament was due to be prorogued.
We live in times of crime and violence
where guns and knives would seem to rule;
incarceration offers respite,
is prison now the only school?
We learn so slowly in this era,
how we should nurture love and care.
For still we model cold derision,
with disrespect, derisive stare.
Our politicians rage and stumble,
as racists bawl across the street,
then disagreements twist and tangle,
with language coarse and indiscreet.
God give us grace and apt discretion,
the skill of choosing words that skirt
around each tempting confrontation,
give words that calm instead of hurt.
Words (including alternatives below) © 2019 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.
Tune: ST CLEMENT (Scholefield)
Metre 9.8.9.8
The original first verse of this text is as follows and can be used if wished:
We live in sharp infested waters,
the law of Cain would seem to rule,
incarceration offers respite,
is prison now the only school?
In the second stanza, first line ‘era’ can be replaced with ‘country’.
At a time when knife and gun crime are rife this text may be seen to be pertinent either as a poem or a hymn.
Wrapped up in the silk that shines silver in moonlight,
the cycle of life will go on day by day.
The spider devours what is needed by nature;
for life to exist death must also hold sway.
The cancer that kills through an act of mutation,
the building of love, the destruction and strife;
the things labelled ‘evil’ are part of creation,
the earth’s moving surface is needful for life.
Our eyes are half open to vast constellations,
are blind to the particles light can’t resolve,
but in them and through them the mystery beyond us:
the one we name ‘God’ makes our wisdom dissolve;
for on through our living and final destruction,
beyond deep imagining, artists might hold,
this ‘God’, this enigma, the source of our being
will love through eternity, comfort, enfold.
Andrew E Pratt (born 1948)
Words © 2015 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.
12 11 12 11
Suggested tune: STREETS OF LAREDO
At a Hymn Society Conference some years ago I was asked for a hymn in response to ‘All things bright and beautiful’ which took ‘bad’ things seriously, things like cancer. This exploration of creation of ‘bad things’, technically theodicy, followed.
Published in More than hymns
You may well know Marjorie Dobson as a hymn writer and contributor of material to https://theworshipcloud.com/ . Stainer & Bell say this about her:
Born and raised in the mining district of County Durham, Marjorie Dobson became a Methodist Local Preacher at the age of twenty, with a particular call to seek out new paths of meaningful worship. Her writings have been fed by her experience of leading worship in a wide variety of churches in Durham, Bristol, Bradford and Scarborough, and reflect her concern for those who feel disconnected from faith by their image of the church as being outdated and irrelevant. Her hymns have been included in several collections, including Singing the Faith, and hymns, prayers, poems and other writings have been published on The Worship Cloud website, in Worship Live and in many anthologies.
You might have a copy of her book of worship resources: Multicoloured Maze (https://stainer.co.uk/shop/b882/). She has just published a completely new resource: Unravelling the Mysteries. You can get this from Stainer & Bell at: https://stainer.co.uk/shop/b959/.
hymnsandbooks 