Category: Other People’s Words

Lent 1 – Three hymns and a poem

 He could have walked the easy road 
  
 He could have walked the easy road 
 to fortune and to fame.
 He knew he could work miracles, 
 to heal the blind and lame.
 He could have fed the starving poor 
 with fish as well as bread.
 But Jesus knew that life held more 
 and chose God’s word instead.
  
 He could have trusted angels’ wings, 
 up on that Temple tower. 
 To save him from a fall to death 
 was well within God’s power.
 The people would have marvelled then 
 and guessed this was God’s son.
 But Jesus would not take the test 
 to prove he was that one.
  
 He could have taken full control, 
 the world lay at his feet.
 He only had to say the word: 
 his rule would be complete.
 The mountain view had caught his breath..
 Power was a word away. 
 But Jesus turned back from it all 
 and God had won the day.
  
Marjorie Dobson 
Words © 2019 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: CMDTune: KINGSFOLD
  
Poem: The time has come
  
 As John had said, 
 ‘the time has come.’
 So Jesus, 
 bowing to the Jordan’s waves 
 and rising to the words 
 ‘beloved Son’ 
 and ‘well pleased,’ 
 was willing to be made ready, 
 by desert trial, 
 to take his place 
 in the unfolding story 
 of God’s love.
  
 But John 
 was soon in prison 
 for speaking out 
 too loud and long 
 for the comfort of the king.
 And Jesus, 
 fresh from temptation 
 and life-changing choices, 
 set off for Galilee, 
 knowing that now was his time 
 to spread good news 
 and bring the kingdom of God 
 to the people for whom 
 it had always been intended.
  
 No more waitng.
 No more preparation. 
 Time to go …
 ©Marjorie Dobson
  
 Jesus met supreme temptation 
  
 Jesus met supreme temptation, 
 countered subtlety with skill; 
 ever faithful to one purpose, 
 still committed to God's will.
             
 With no food he soon was famished, 
 hunger racked him, filled his mind, 
 then a voice had come to taunt him, 
 'bread is there for you to find'.
             
 Each illusion he would parry, 
 each temptation run to ground; 
 all the world was for the asking, 
 yet his faith was strong and sound.
             
 Every miracle and wonder 
 he was tempted to perform
 he rebutted, held the tension;
 he would live beyond this storm.
             
 And when we meet with temptation, 
 save us from each trial and test; 
 strengthen faith, God, give us courage, 
 help us strive toward the best.
 
Andrew Pratt (born 1948)
Words © 2010 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
Tune: LOVE DIVINE (Stainer)
  
 As glass will take the light – FOR COMMUNION
  
 As glass will take the light
 and focus all its heat;
 here in the water, wine and bread
 we find God's grace complete.
 
 We met God's presence here,
 our promises were sealed;
 but all is lost, is null and void,
 if love is kept concealed.
             
 So in God's peace we go,
 and in the Spirit's power,
 to offer love in word and deed
 in every coming hour.
 
Andrew E Pratt           
© Words © 1997 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: SM
Tune: CARLISLE
  
  
  

ASH WEDNESDAY – Ashes come from crosses

The first of a selection of items by myself and Marjorie Dobson for Ash Wednesday, Lent, Holy Week and Easter to appear regularly over the coming weeks.

 Ashes come from crosses
  
 Ashes come from crosses, 
 symbolically palm-leafed 
 for joyful jubilation, 
 yet shaped 
 for betrayal and condemnation.
 Crosses carried last Lent 
 as emblems of enlightenment 
 and hand-held holiness, 
 now tired and tainted 
 by a year of faults
 and failing to follow 
 the sacrificial example 
 set by the crucified Christ.
  
 So ashes of symbols 
 become badges of repentance 
 to be warily worn, 
 not as a display of duty 
 to be proudly presented 
 as an outward sign 
 of hollow holiness, 
 but as a reminder of those times 
 when our hopes turn to ashes, 
 as our welcoming 
 of Christ’s kingdom 
 is overwhelmed 
 by the opinions of the crowd 
 and easily influenced 
 into denial and defeat.

 © Marjorie Dobson

Words, Images and Imagination – Reviews

Singing the Faith plus – https://www.methodist.org.uk/our-faith/worship/singing-the-faith-plus/posts/a-break-from-hymns-a-new-collection-from-andrew-pratt/

Northwich Guardian – https://www.northwichguardian.co.uk/news/18942916.retired-minister-comberbach-releases-book-poetry-art/

Methodist Recorder / ArtServe Magazine –

Poems, Pictures and Photos – produced during Lockdown

Andrew Pratt, ‘Words, Images and Imagination’ – Poems Watercolours Photos, Upfront Publishing, 2020, ISBN: 97-178456-740-8, p/bk, 71 pages. Click here to buy.

This is a beautifully produced collection of 40 poems, 10 photographs, and 14 watercolour paintings all created by Andrew and collected together during these strange Covid-19 times. It vividly and powerfully bears witness to the huge wave of remarkable creativity currently breaking onto our world during this uncharted and unprecedented pandemic.

A large proportion of these poems, pictures and photos have been inspired by nautical imagery, reflecting the author’s long-standing connection with the sea, from early childhood.

The poems have the clear stamp of a seasoned and experienced hymn writer. (He has already over 1500 in print).  They are remarkable for the way they encourage the reader to make full use of her imagination, and for the many hints and resonances with familiar famous words and phrases which readily come to mind. The very first poem ‘The suck of surf through shingle’ might remind us of Matthew Arnold’s famous ‘Dover Beach’, and the alliteration produces striking sounds which resemble Gerard Manley Hopkins. This poetry cries out to be spoken and heard.

Other notables, including Dietrich Bonhoeffer, are occasionally referred to by name, and their influence is unmistakable in our poet’s phraseology and skilful word painting.

Many poems draw on feelings and emotions all too familiar during these trying times, even though we are aware that not all of them were written out of the pandemic experience. But ‘Loneliness is a passing place’, ‘Things we know are never wholly certain’, and ‘Firm foundations shift and crumble’, could well reflect our current psychological disruption. There are poems resonating with the sounds of two World Wars, and there are commissions from JPIT (the Joint Public Issues Team of UK churches) which reflect the struggling search for truth and justice in a society still obsessed with, and hidebound by, traditions and ‘doctrines’. As a consequence, every minister should carefully ponder ‘Must this clerical obsession…’, and in ‘After the vote’ we have a powerful reminder of the problems we all face when we listen to the cries of refugees clinging to our shores.

Our author comes across as one who longs for openness and inclusivity, honesty and the need to face up to the reality of pain and death, and the more we read aloud these skilfully crafted lines the more likely are we to hear the strains of this sense of longing. It’s like the fluid tones of the waves and the echoing sound of the sea.

The Watercolours and Photos, which are interspersed among the Poems, add fresh dimensions to the words of this moving collection. Andrew is clearly a skilled painter and photographer, as well as a powerful word-smith. His sense of proportion, his restrained and delicate shading, his unique eye for colour, and his experienced view for composition, all contribute to this splendid poetic treasure-house, this realm of possibility which opens up before us. We can see, hear and feel something of the adventure, mixed with anticipation, which we experience when we cast off and set out on our ‘sea of faith’.

‘Words, Images and Imagination’ is a gift in every sense.

Harvey Richardson – November 2020

Letter to United Methodist Church from UK Methodists

Letter to United Methodist Church – from the President and Vice President of the Methodist Church UK

https://www.methodist.org.uk/about-us/news/latest-news/all-news/at-a-time-of-political-transition-for-the-us-the-presidency-writes-to-the-united-methodist-church/