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Our responsibility to be stewards of the earth – Hymn – The care of our planet

In between All Souls, All Saints and Remembrance Sunday we are witness to COP 27, the United Nations Climate Change Conference, beginning on the Sunday 6th November. This is an international meeting which the UK has chaired. We are handing the Chair to Egypt and for various reasons our Prime Minister has indicated he will not attend it. King Charles has been advised not to attend. This hymn, written in 2019 and used last year in Durham Cathedral emphasises our responsibility to be stewards of the creation (Psalm 8: 6-8).

1 The care of our planet, the threat of extinction, 
alerts us to need to be stewards of the earth: 
this place of great beauty, our God given tenure, 
the place of our nurture, the globe of our birth. 

2 This place we must guard for each new generation, 
to leave as we found it or, better, restored; 
to share each resource without greed or pretension, 
not barring the needy, not plunder, nor hoard. 

3 The banquet of God is for all of God's people, 
communion companions are both rich and poor, 
our ultimate end will remove all distinctions, 
no birth right or creed can obstruct heaven's door. 

4 God's commonwealth love can encompass all nations, 
but here in this place we must all make a start: 
a life of acceptance of sister and brother, 
the practice of loving, a God given art. 

Andrew E Pratt (born 1948) 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: STREETS OF LAREDO; ST CATHERINE'S COURT

Used at Durham Cathedral on Climate Sunday, 17th October 2021.

All Saints – All Souls – Remembrance



The 1st of November is All Saints Day; the 3rd All Souls Day. As we enter this period, culminating for many on the 11th November with Remembrance Day, and the 13th Remembrance Sunday, this hymn might be helpful for we who mourn, who remember those who have died. 

Some churches will recognise All Souls this coming Sunday. This hymn was originally requested for remembrance of people who had died of kidney disease and later included in a book: Hymns of Hope and Healing.



The lives we mourn have known their share of heartache, 
of human fear, uncertainty and shock,
and yet we also shared in love and laughter, 
our memories hold solid as a rock; 
for on through time remembrance will be treasured, 
we'll keep it close when joy is tinged with pain, 
we'll never lose the smiles that sign togetherness, 
and day to day we know that love will still remain.

 
We never know what waits in life's uncertainty, 
we never know what love, what joy, what fear, 
can build us up, or leave us lost and comfortless, 
afraid to face, again, the coming year, 
yet here are people who can hold their hands with us, 
can walk with us into the great unknown, 
and so together we can walk the path of life, 
and know that when we stumble love will still be shown.

 
So take my hand, my friend, my neighbour, walk with me, 
together we can face the passing storm, 
and know with God, in spite of tears and emptiness, 
there is a sense that new love can be born. 
In this we trust, for through our grief God held to us, 
and human arms have caught us when we fell, 
beyond this day each dawn will bring new hope for us 
that through God's love and grace and care all will be well.


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: 12 10 12 1012 10 12 12
Tune LONDONNERY AIR