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As summer ends a hymn to challenge us – The Christ was a vagabond

As we begin (for Methodists, a new Methodist year this hymn challenges us, not to look at others, but to be honest about our own faithfulness to the example of Jesus.

The Christ was a vagabond, penniless stranger, 
or so some would style him, deriding his call. 
And those who would follow, were they any nearer 
the total self-giving, of giving their all? 

And we at this moment, are we any better? 
Our silver excuses, have we got it right? 
The poor are still with us? Then love of our neighbour 
is vacuous, meaningless, blinding our sight. 

The wealth of this nation is at our disposal, 
yet few hold the purse strings, have power to decide, 
while others are crippled. Iniquitous ‘sharing’ 
will leave them impoverished, nowhere to hide. 

With wages and taxes we barter for people, 
define what is poverty, pity the poor, 
but then, when the homeless and helpless come knocking, 
we bar them from pavements while locking the door. 

We bathe in hypocrisy, claim to be righteous, 
great God will you open our eyes to the plight 
of those we have damaged, derided, diminished: 
the Christ in the other, still hid from our sight. 

Andrew E Pratt (born 1948)
© 2017 Stainer & Bell Ltd.
Words © 2017 © 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: 12 11 12 11
Tune: STREETS OF LAREDO

A hymn in support of the the RNLI

1 Swirling winds and raging oceans
add to hazards we know well,
jagged rocks and crashing breakers,
currents swinging with the swell,
into such a tortured maelstrom
boats are launched and lives are saved,
human beings loved and treasured
where the waters heaved and raved.

2 Broken buildings, flooded rivers
add a challenge to be met,
nature compounds human carnage,
sights we never will forget;
here where homes had offered comfort
devastation meets our eyes
while the thunder of the waters
drowns the sound of human cries.

3 God, we cry, as lives are wasted,
hold us in this living hell,
where the floods and rising waters
bring destruction, hold us well.
Lift us out of dereliction,
help us reach to those in need,
love them till all fear has foundered,
till they know they’re safe and freed.

Andrew E Pratt (born 1948)
Words © 2017 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 7 8 7 D Tune: HYFRYDOL

Look! The love that was unspoken

Look! the love that was unspoken

Look! the love that was unspoken
shines with colour, power and light,
love that never can be broken 
forging justice, putting right.
Here we live in grace and wonder owning God’s diversity.

Praising shards of light that glisten 
with the truth that sets us free, 
multitudes clasp hands of friendship,
all who claim humanity:
nothing can divert our purpose, one in our diversity.

All our art and music woven 
with divinity and grace 
has its origin, incarnate,
born within our human race,
disagreement cannot break our Spirit of diversity.

So the future opens for us:
galaxies beyond our glance, 
bound forever to each other,
held by more than cosmic chance.
Nothing now will fault our spirit: CELEBRATE DIVERSITY!!!

Words © 2025 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: 87 87 87
Tune: WESTMINSTER ABBEY; RHUDDLAN
Words commissioned to celebrate PRIDE

‘Jesus’ open love would lead him’ – a hymn inspired by a healing on the Sabbath

Jesus' open love would lead him

The unexpected healing by Jesus on a Sabbath of a crippled, and hence alienated, woman inspired these words:

1	Jesus' open love would lead him 
	into conflict with the law. 
	People then, and now, believing, 
	they know wrong, of this they're sure.
	
2	Such aggressive condemnation:
	not the way we should behave, 
	we have rules and regulations 
	plotting how our God can save.
	
3	These are rules that God has given, 
	rules that we must strive to keep, 
	yet it seems that Jesus challenged 
	norms that made the path too steep.
	
4	Rules he offered changed perceptions, 
	moved from punishment to grace, 
	showed a way of loving, living, 
	we might risk within this place.
	
5	Love beyond imagination, 
	love to heed and to enthral,
	love not bounded by rejection, 
	love that reaches out to all. 

Andrew E Pratt (born 1948)
Words © 2013 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 7 8 7 Trochaic
Tune: ST CATHERINE (Jones)