Abram set out on a journey – Inspired by the call of Abram
1 Abram set out on a journey,
joined this new, uncertain, game.
Challenges bring new excitement,
no two days will be the same.
Life was settled, now it's shaken,
preconceptions turned around,
every day a new beginning,
every place uncommon ground.
2 Now it felt God moved the goal-posts,
playing by some other rules,
life and work had been uprooted,
staying home seemed just for fools.
Still today God calls the dreamers,
those with visions charged by grace,
those who move and travel onward,
bringing hope to each new place.
3 Will you join this pilgrim people,
finding new and different ways;
trusting God will walk beside you
now and in your future days?
Will you walk into the darkness,
trusting God and trav'ling light,
setting out to live the gospel,
always keeping God in sight?
Andrew Pratt (born 1948) based on Genesis 12 vs 1-4
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.
8 7 8 7D
Tune: BETHANY
Category: Hymns
Hymn: Who’s my mother, sister, brother – Inspired by Mark 3:20-35
Who's my mother, sister, brother - Inspired by Mark 3:20-35
1 Who's my mother, sister, brother,
when the odds are piled up high,
when the allegations clatter,
when the insults sing and fly?
Will you stand in strength beside me,
or will you deride, deny,
calling me the prince of devils,
will you hide behind a lie?
2 Or can I depend upon you,
trust your every word and prayer,
knowing that our bond, unbroken,
is love's sign that you are there?
Jesus knew his friends' betrayal,
knew his family's disbelief,
found his way through scorn and scourging,
dying like a common thief.
3 Yet though feeling God-forsaken,
grace would never lose its hold,
love as strong as death would keep him,
though abusers thought him sold.
And if in this present moment,
hope seems shattered, comfort gone,
know that love has sought and found us.
God gives grace to carry on.
Andrew E Pratt (born 1948)
Words © 2012 © 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: BETHANY
A hymn inspired by 1 Samuel 8: 4 – 11, 16 – 20 for Second Sunday after Pentecost perhaps still pertinent? – The warning went unheeded…
A hymn inspired by 1 Samuel 8: 4 – 11, 16 – 20
for Second Sunday after Pentecost perhaps still pertinent?
1 The warning went unheeded,
that power corrupts and fires
a need for domination,
that wealth and fear conspires
to elevate the powerful,
to subjugate the poor,
that those who have most riches
will always look for more.
2 The people pleaded loudly,
'most nations have a king',
and reason would not change them
from wanting such a thing.
As history unfolded
they learnt, as if in youth,
that kings are only human,
a long-forgotten truth.
3 So Saul was soon anointed
and feted by his peers,
his reign was sometimes blighted,
brought hurt and pain and tears.
That lesson we're still learning:
that power blinds to need,
and wealth is hoarded, hidden,
and selfishness a creed.
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: 7 6 7 6 D
Tune: AURELIA
As an election approaches a hymn (poem,song) – If love is foremost in our faith
If love is foremost in our faith
we have a choice to make
on this and every other day,
for all else is at stake;
we see a world that’s broken down,
where poverty and fear
are trampelling the weakest ones,
with hatred lurking near.
‘Today’, God said, I give a choice
where life and death compete.
The chance is now for us to take,
to finish, to complete,
the turning of the tables here
as Christ, one time, had turned
the temple tables, scattering greed,
to free those power had spurned.
Where selfishness can cripple lives,
or love can set them free,
what happens from this moment on
rests now with you and me:
if our audacious words of grace
can frame what we would pray,
then from this moment, in our time,
let love infuse each day.
Andrew Pratt 22/5/2024 on the announcement of a General Election
Words © 2024 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: CMD
Tunes: ELLACOMBE; COE FEN; KINGSFOLD
Audacious grace: a hymn for an Arminian, Wesleyan Pentecost
Audacious grace: to give without receiving,
to give expecting nothing in return
And through this grace, this moment still believing,
that love is something we can never earn.
This grace extends beyond our expectation,
for not a one is found outside its span,
this tender care, this steadfast loving kindness
has held the cosmos since all time began.
No word or action, prayer or contemplation
can lift us us from this earth to heaven’s height,
nor can the supernova’s startling brilliance
compete with God’s eternal, ceaseless light.
In faith we sing beyond imagination,
beyond the limits of our common sense.
We frame a vision out of time’s contention,
yet know its truth within our present tense.
Andrew E. Pratt (born 1948)
Words © 2024 © 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.
Tune: LONDONDERRY AIR
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