Category: Hymns

New Year verse reposting – Ring out wild bells (adapted)

 1 Ring out, wild bells, to the wild sky,
 the flying cloud, the frosty light:
 the year is dying in the night;
 ring out, wild bells, and let it die.
 
 2 Ring out the grief that saps the mind,
 for those that here we see no more;
 ring out the feud of rich and poor,
 ring in redress for humankind.
 
 3 Ring out each slowly dying cause,
 archaic forms of party strife;
 Ring in a new regard for life,
 with open borders, fairer laws.
 
 4 Ring out false pride in birth and creed,
 the civic slander and the spite;
 ring in the love of truth and right
 ring in the end of human need.
 
 5 Ring out the curse of poverty.
 Ring out the grasping lust of wealth.
 Ring out those things that harm our health,
 Ring out old wars, bring unity.
 
 6 Ring in a time when all are free,
 a time when none will fear to stand
 when all are welcome in this land.
 Ring in the Christ that is to be.
 
 Alfred Tennyson (1809-1892) alt. Andrew E Pratt (born 1948)
 © 2014 Stainer and Bell Ltd.

An unmarried mother gave birth in a stable

 
  1 An unmarried mother gave birth in a stable, 
 some saw a fulfilment of all they had heard, 
 to others this story, the birth of the Godhead,
 was more than amazing, was frankly absurd.
 
 2 Some delved into scripture and said that a virgin, 
 was destined to carry a child who would grow 
 to be a Messiah, salvation for nations, 
 and others would question how history could know.
 
 3 So back to the story, now Bethlehem beckons, 
 a carpenter-pawn come to sign for the state, 
 the bureaucrats needing a list for taxation 
 and everyone hurries before it's too late.
 
 4 A legend would grow up of shepherds and magi, 
 no snow at this Christmas beneath a night's sky. 
 A man who would die as a crucified preacher 
 was born with sparse shelter as people passed by. 
 
 5 And so came the story of birth in a stable, 
 of Bethlehem's journey, a virgin and child. 
 And lost is the essence, the mystery and wonder, 
 of God born among us abused and reviled.
 
 6 Much later a soldier saw God in this prophet
 a man  who would love to his very last breath 
 the dying, the hopeless, those outside religion,
 and all those beside who had shared in his death.
 
 Andrew E Pratt (born 1948)
 © 2018 Stainer and Bell Ltd.
 12 11 12 11
 Tune: STREETS OF LAREDO; ST CATHERINES COURT