Author: Andrew Pratt

Andrew Pratt was born in Paignton, Devon, England in 1948.

God still needs prophets – old hymn perhaps for now?

God still needs prophets who will rage,

against discrimination,

who speak God’s words amid despair,

to this and every nation;

who reach again with nail scarred hands,

into the pain we’re feeling,

to hold us when we weep at loss,

who bring a hope of healing.

 

God still needs prophets who will hold

a mirror to our blindness,

to show us, each and everyone,

how hollow is our kindness;

how empty are our words of love

when shrouded in derision,

how clever words can’t justify

unloving indecision.

 

God still needs prophets who ignore

religions that confine us,

who magnify our words of love

through actions to refine us.

May we be prophets through our words

and in our hands of healing,

that others might see Christ in us

while Christ to us revealing.

 

Andrew Pratt 23/11/2008

Words © 2015 Stainer & Bell Ltd, London, England copyright@stainer.co.uk . Pleaseinclude any reproduction for local church use on your CCL Licence returns. All widerand any commercial use requires prior application to Stainer & Bell Ltd.

Great God, your love has held our lives – Remembrance Hymn

1	Great God, your love has held our lives
	through all the years down to this day.
	Your constant presence held us fast:
	remain with us we plead and pray.
	We've seen the ruins left by war,
	the tumbled buildings, street by street;
	some heard the voices that they loved
	and cried for those they'd no more meet.
	
2	As time moves on some memories fade,
	some griefs we shared lie in the past;
	for others pain is just as sharp,
	we know their hurt will always last.
	Some human acts have swept away
	our partners, parents, children, friends,
	some people we had never known;
	the memory lives and never ends.
	
3	Beyond this day we try to live:
	a sinew of each life survives,
	but where is God in hurt and hate?
	The questions stay to haunt our lives.
	Help us to build a better world
	not fuelled by vengeance, fed by greed;
	a world in which we all can live,
	what ever colour, race or creed.

Andrew E Pratt (born 1948)
Words © 2015 Stainer & Bell Ltd, London, England copyright@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: LMD
Tune: JERUSALEM

Other resources: Worshipcloud