Now hell is here, and words are cheap,
a bloodied sheet, a shattered bed…
as women, men and children weep,
while prayer is silent, felt not said.
With seeds of vengeance sown not sought,
while roots in hearts of flesh, not stone,
bring carnage traced with quiet thought
as guilt will fester none will own.
And distantly, in muffled sighs,
of deep regret and dark despair
we wring our hands and harbour lies,
dare not admit the blame we share.
© Andrew Pratt 17/10/2023
Suggested tune: ROCKINGHAM
Challenged about the rightness of paying taxes, Jesus showed the Pharisees a coin and then
said to them, “Whose head is this, and whose title?” When they replied correctly he
responded, “Give therefore to the emperor the things that are the emperor’s, and to God
the things that are God’s.”
So what do we owe to the State? And what to God?
1 What is our ultimate concern?
Where is the centre of each soul?
What are the things that matter most?
What single sense will make us whole?
2 We recognize the depth of love,
the grace that held us from our birth,
but all too soon we lose our grasp
and other things have greater worth.
3 The things we own, the clothes we wear,
usurp the place that God should hold,
become our idols, cloak our minds
as if our faith was lost or sold.
4 The God that we purport to serve,
to love with heart and soul and mind,
is lost within our self concern
yet still is there to seek and find.
5 So God, we come to start again;
to clear the clutter from our lives,
to see you in each neighbour’s face,
to find the faith that holds and strives.
Andrew Pratt (born 1948)
Words © 2011 © 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: 8 8 8 8
Tune: MELCOMBE
We must never forget the power of words
for evil
or for good,
hate
or love,
death
or life.
Choose good,
choose love,
choose life.
From season to season,
through death and re-birth,
this world, through its phases,
shows love has no dearth.
Such love is for sharing,
to do good to all,
to nurture well-being,
to echo God's call.
Through sensitive reason
we fathom the need
of neighbours, of nature;
we subjugate greed.
We offer each other
the kiss of God's peace,
embracing earth's harmony,
hatred will cease.
Through summer and autumn,
through winter's release,
we welcome spring's coming
with nature's increase.
All praise for the gifting
of harvest and life,
all power to the ending
of all human strife.
Andrew E Pratt (born 1948)
Words © 2002 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: 11 11 11 11
Tune: DATCHET
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