Gaza – poem – ‘A velvet spiral clothed the earth’
A velvet spiral clothed the earth
where dust and ashes fluttered down.
While tear stained eyes foresaw the dawn:
the shadow of a dearth of love;
and fear is all we own…
© Andrew Pratt 2025.
A challenge to the church to change – ‘When the church, afraid of changing’
Hymn writers sometimes ask questions of the church and then flesh out the consequences of the actions they have described. Fred Pratt Green’s - ‘When the Church of Jesus shuts its outer door’ is one such hymn (perhaps too challenging, or near to the bone, to be in Hymns & Psalms or Singing the Faith?) As we live out the time through lectionary readings from resurrection to Pentecost we have a chance to reflect on what the church is, and what it might be expected to be. Remember that Jesus death was partly a consequence of his challenging people to change their perspectives of faith.
When the church, afraid of changing,
clings to glories of the past,
holding fast to long lost memories,
sure that it will always last,
lost in time, devoid of spirit,
know this truth, its fate is cast.
When the church no longer welcomes
people other than it's own,
when it thinks its understanding
stands complete, is fully grown,
love is rarely seen in action,
grace is only, thinly, sown.
Jesus challenged expectation,
turning tables upside down,
those who once were thought as holy
he confronted with a frown.
When, then, will we learn the lesson,
own that cross, that thorny crown?
Andrew Pratt 3/5/2025
© Words Andrew Pratt © 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
Tunes: PICARDY; RHUDDLAN
When life juggles with our learning – musing on … art – doubt – faith
1 When life juggles with our learning,
with the things we thought secure,
then it seems the artist’s palette
spins and faith becomes obscure.
In the wash of different colours,
as we seek for shape and form,
others paint their faith by numbers
forcing God to fit some norm.
2 But when life has torn the canvas,
when the numbers twist and slip;
then we need to find an image
that will help our hope to grip:
Holding us, when we’re past holding,
grounding when we’re insecure,
till we find a faith, not drifting,
still dynamic, free, yet sure.
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 7 8 7 D Tune: NORMANDY (Bost)
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*Embracing Age is a Christian charity working towards a world where older people are valued, connected and full of hope, by combatting loneliness, mobilising volunteers, equipping churches and speaking out.
In simple, suffering love
a man looks down, on all the world
as empathetic tears drench cheeks that child-like,
once had filled with laughter.
The shadows lengthen,
heighten the beam’s intersection,
as muscles, taut with strain crack, as a whip,
and feel the course of pain.
Finished? Is it finished?
But still the thunder grumbles
and lightning slashes dark and cloud.
A drift of rain disperses yet a diminishing crowd.
© Andrew Pratt 2024
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