One week on from Easter Sunday, a hymn with echoes of the story: Such enchantment, sudden strangeness... 1 Such enchantment, sudden strangeness, Power and love, by God, distilled; Then they recognise his presence, By his words their fears are stilled. 'Peace be with you', Simon Peter, John, you need not be afraid; 'Peace be with you', doubting Thomas, Don't be anxious or dismayed. 2 In the garden he saw Mary, Talked with her, unrecognised; Naming her drew back the curtain, Opened tear-stained, blinded eyes. Others walking to Emmaus Talked, depressed, their sadness showed, Till at last, their journey ended, Broken bread their Lord disclosed. 3 Fishing, from a boat, some saw him, They had trawled, had felt forlorn; Recognition added savour To their breakfast at the dawn. As we go about our business Bring enchantment to our lives; Open eyes that we might know the Love from which our peace derives. Andrew E Pratt (born 1948) Words © 2000 © 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. 8.7.8.7.D Tune: HYFRYDOL
Category: Easter
Easter hymn – We cannot speculate, or glance
An empty tomb is just empty. It took a meeting with Jesus to convince a woman, then a group of men that Jesus, who had died on a cross, was alive. It is still difficult to believe. Yet after two thousand years, whatever we believe, as Geoffrey Best has written on Facebook, ‘…in this (hi)story is the revelation of the very nature of God, a God who takes all that we throw and absorbs and transforms the dead and deadly into life abundant .... if we let it!’ Amen! 1 We cannot speculate, or glance into the well of history. Nor can we look beyond this time with any sense of certainty. We only have our faith and hope, to make us stand, to help us cope. 2 Great God we grasp at straws of faith, of things we hope will point to you. We read the ancient texts and scan those distant myths to make them new. And all the time we live between these metaphors and what is seen. 3 The past is gone, we cannot hear more than an echo down the age. And what is still to come we fear; we see each other's pent up rage. Yet what we need is close at hand, your present love in every land. 4 True resurrection brings to bear the things that heal, create, unite. Love launches its triumphant praise and builds on joy and will delight. The former things are passed away, dead night transformed to brightest day. Metre: 8 8 8 8 8 8 Tune: ABINGDON 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.
Art © Andrew Pratt 2022
Palm Sunday Hymn – As Jesus came riding
As Jesus came riding along on a donkey, the pavement was holy, he hallowed the ground. The stones will cry out if the people are silent, a day filled with joy and with praising is found. Then those who had followed and those who came after sang loudly while waving their palms in the air; these palms they laid down on the ground like a carpet, some joined celebration, while some stood to stare. Then loud the hosannas that rang round about him, this man of humility, heading for death; and would we sing with them, hosannas and praising, or cry for the cross that would take his last breath. And now in this moment the trial and the testing for you and for me, and for each and for all, is sharing God's sacrifice, selflessly loving, to stand beside Jesus, respond to his call. Andrew E Pratt (born 1948) Words © 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. 12 11 12 11 STREET OF LAREDO
Always missing, never grasping – hymn for the Third Sunday of Easter
Always missing, never grasping, hope amid this shifting sea, coast and haven seem remote now, too far off to harbour me. Yet those fishermen are telling news that I can't comprehend, news that Jesus is still living, hasn't met his final end. But I saw his body hanging silhouetted like a sail, blood was draining, rigor rising, movement quietened, life gone pale. Now they say that sail is filling, spirit billows drive him on, Christ is cresting all disaster, life returns and death is gone. Yet unless I see the bow wave, feel the tiller in my hand, sense the tautness of the lanyard, I can hardly understand. Source of wind and wave, my sailor, give me faith to grasp this news, you are living, death defying, heaven, earth and joy will fuse. 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: LEWIS FOLK MELODY
What is this love?
What is this love? Just this we know that love transcends all pomp and show, that love exists, above below, love was and is and is to be, by grace we are both loved and free.
What is this love? It precedes life, it overcomes all dark and strife, love is the Spirit’s keenest knife, pure love has brightness in its eyes, yet breathes forever, never dies.
Love is the interface of change, no difference rests beyond its range, its nature gracious, other, strange, it holds birth, death and all between, here all is safe: both hidden, seen.
Love is the point where hell is breached, where joy is glimpsed and heaven reached, the outcasts find they’re unimpeached, on this wide earth the lost are found for love is safe, is solid ground.
Andrew Pratt 17/4/2022
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