Category: Bible

Magnificat challenges the status quo in a  topsy–turvy, upturned world

Magnificat challenges the status quo in a  topsy–turvy, upturned world

A topsy–turvy, upturned world, 
where values are distorted, 
the first is last and last is first 
with everything contorted.
The rich are begging at the door 
while ones they were despising
are given charge of Godly wealth, 
in stature they are rising.
           
Magnificat has come to stay,
the proud have been extinguished; 
the humble poor are lifted high, 
their poverty relinquished. 
The reign of God has come to pass 
rebutting our world’s choices, 
each one that we would count as last 
within this time rejoices.
           
And will we ever find a place 
with pride and wealth rejected, 
or will hypocrisy deny 
our need to be accepted? 
The choice is ours, the crisis dawns, 
the time to make decisions, 
to stand with God or walk alone 
within this world’s divisions.

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: 8 7 8 7 D Tune: CONSTANCE (Sullivan)

Crazy, ragged, ranting prophet – hymn on John the Baptist

Crazy, ragged, ranting prophet – John the Baptist

Crazy, ragged, ranting prophet, 
least that’s how some people saw him, 
eating locusts and wild honey, 
sweeping hypocrites before him.
Standing by the raging river, 
raging at unrighteous forces, 
calling weak and powerful to him, 
sending them on different courses.

This is one the prophets spoke of, 
one to clear the way for Jesus;
humble, man of God proclaiming 
judgment, grace and mercy for us.
Would we wander to that river? 
Hear that vagabond still preaching? 
Or would we not want that judgment, 
plug our ears to his beseeching?

And today and yet tomorrow 
will we take that path and follow, 
one who lived through joy and sadness
who would suffer pain and sorrow?
Would we shirk the call of Jesus, 
tied to selfishness or borrow, 
his audacious loving kindness, 
setting free to build tomorrow?

Andrew E Pratt (born 1948)
Words © 2018 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 D 
Tune: CLONMACNOISE

A Local Preacher once asked me what hymns there were relation to John the Baptist. Since than I have written a number. This sees John as the forerunner to the Messiah referred to in Hebrew prophecy.

The sound of history humming – ‘a thief within the night’?

The sound of history humming – but what next, ‘a thief within the night’? 
Matthew 24: 43

1	The sound of history humming,
	as light and matter form,
	as galaxies are clustered
	within a cosmic storm;
	philosophers imagine
	while science gathers facts,
	we reach for understanding,
	yet what we know contracts.

2	We delved beyond the present
	through interstellar gas;
	we fathom, seek to measure,
	a sub-atomic mass.
	The God that we conceive of,
	a thief within the night,
	we cannot gauge this treasure
	beyond the scale of light.

3	As yet the mystery blinds us,
	confined by birth and death,
	but human exploration
	will not discard the quest;
	as yet we live in tension:
	the only earth we know
	is where all skill and science
	must help our love to grow.

Andrew E. Pratt (born 1948)
Words © 2006 © 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: 7 6 7 6 D
Tune: AURELIA; VICTORY PARADE (Ian Sharp)


Hope is built in present moments – hymn inspired by Isaiah 65: 17 – 25 (now with tune)

Hope is built in present moments – hymn with tune - inspired by Isaiah 65: 17 – 25 

1	Hope is built in present moments, 
	times of visions, times of dreams, 
	times when love transcends the present, 
	long outlasting human schemes.
	
2	Hope will open gates of promise, 
	herald dawns of glorious light, 
	help us live within this moment, 
	lead us onward from the night.
	
3	Hope is more than mists of fortune, 
	hope is more than fear or fate, 
	here through faith's imagination, 
	love transforms our present state.
	
4	We will find a new beginning 
	built on truths instead of lies, 
	built on love of every neighbour,
	love that will confound the 'wise'.

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
Tunes: LAUS DEO; ST OSWALD

New tune written by Frances S. Drake reproduced with permission -

Enquiries for use of music to Hymncat@gmail.com

One day, I dream, our children will not hunger – hymn – inspired by the story of Zacchaeus

One day, I dream, our children will not hunger – inspired by Zacchaeus 

One day, I dream, our children will not hunger:
when I have put aside my grasping greed,
when neighbours are true friends we love and cherish,
when hand in hand we meet each human need.

I long to greet that day when human crying
is heard no more upon this ravaged earth,
when children grow in hope and not in horror, 
not fearful of food’s scarcity or dearth.

I scan the distance, glimpsing heaven’s embers, 
an afterglow of all that might have been, 
reminding of what still might be before us 
if we can act with love within this scene.

Andrew E Pratt (born 1948)
Words © 2023 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 10 11 10
LORD OF THE YEARS
O PERFECT LOVE
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