Hymns – Page 55 – hymnsandbooks

When will we see all people just as people

When will we see all people just as people
devoid of labels, prejudice and fear?
When can we love our neighbours without limit,
not loving just the ones to whom we’re near?

When can we share the grace of God more simply,
not clouded by theology or fudge,
in order that the world may sense the presence
of Christ in love, and not some frowning judge?

God give to us audacity and courage
to grasp each nettle, risking others’ sting,
until the love that binds us all together
will hold us in one vast unbroken ring.

Andrew Pratt

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.

Written in response to the Methodist Conference Marriage and Relationships Report having been delayed, as we were informed at Synod due to ‘unforeseen circmstances’.

Dysfunctional people? The state of society witnessed by politics

Dysfunctional people still seeking direction,
still blindly pursuing our selfish desires,
we’re longing for certainty, vision distorted,
embers of hate blown to wild, raging fires.

Struggling persistently, stirring up prejudice,
fuelling the hatred that labels the poor;
storing our wealth, yet more grasping than giving,
hoarding what’s worthless in life’s endless store.

When will we learn that our Godless humanity
faults every plan, undermines every hope,
leaving us desolate, fearing the future,
putting the love that we crave beyond scope?

Good God forgive us, restore and renew us,
knit a community woven with grace,
help us to live held by love for each other,
here, in this moment, right here in this place.

Andrew Pratt (7/11/2018)

Reflecting on the state of society in the UK and USA following mid-term elections in the USA.
Words © 2018 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.

How can we sing of that sad conflagration

How can we sing of that sad conflagration:
cauldron of misery, mud, gas and fire?
Young men had gone, some inspired and excited,
then all too soon hanging dead on the wire.

Here amid blood tattered, writhing humanity,
can we find Christ? Is this glorious, this death?
Here, where the best of a whole generation
gave of their all and had breathed their last breath?

They lived and died through the lie of their ‘betters’,
others had said that this war would end war.
Subsequent history unfolded the story,
showing humanity hankers for more.

God let us learn how to love every neighbour,
living our lives in the style of the cross,
valuing others as sisters and brothers,
giving our all, never counting the loss.

Then is the Spirit of Christ found among us,
then are we worthy to stand in his name,
then we can say that we truly are Christian,
love is the evidence, this is our claim.
Andrew E Pratt
Tune: STEWARDSHIP
Words © 2018 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.
11 10 11 10

In response to the Grenfell Tower fire

Through a glass darkly the smoke is obscuring
flames that are burning – hell come upon earth;
hell made by hands with a human intention –
housing? entrapment? a prison of death?

People of all faiths cry out in their anguish,
horror and anger inflamed by their grief;
others reach out through the fierce conflagration,
risking their lives just to offer relief.

This is salvation in practical action,
not some theology – heartless – obscure;
hands reaching out like the strong hands of Jesus,
offering love, but can hope be secure?
© Andrew Pratt 15/6/2017

In every face that stares out from the manger

In every face that stares out from the manger,
each person bears the image of our God,
in Christ is human flesh affirmed and honoured,
for God has walked where human feet have trod.

In every face of youth, of age, each baby,
uplifted by the earth life of the Christ:
the stable bed, the cross of common torture,
marked off his life, these markers once sufficed.

And this we show, when we live incarnation,
to make God’s presence real for humankind,
the wine we drink, the bread so freely broken
speak of the love of God so richly mined.

And those who live and suffer in this moment,
the dispossessed, oppressed throughout the earth,
are raised beyond frustration and existence,
to know, in living, their uncommon worth.
© Stainer & Bell Ltd Please include on CCL returns if you have one. Andrew Pratt 28/11/2011
Tunes: O PERFECT LOVE or INTERCESSOR