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
Category: Poems
A hymn for this time and context -when a world calls out for healing – Christ’s Body has been broken
Toward Pentecost – when a world calls out for healing - Christ's body has been broken
1 Christ's body has been broken,
not bread but human lives,
each family has scattered,
just memory survives;
the parents cry in anguish,
the children cry in fear,
we label them as migrant,
not wanted over here.
2 These are our human neighbours,
relations from our birth,
each sister, child or brother,
as one on this wide earth.
If we claim God as parent,
'our Father' as we say,
when will we own the the meaning
of empty words we pray?
3 God, help us welcome others,
God break the barriers down,
that tears may turn to laughter,
and smiles displace each frown;
then may we live together,
forgiven by your grace,
the Pentecostal promise,
one Godly human race!
Andrew E Pratt (born 1948)
Words © 2018 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
God’s commandments link together – hymn for Easter 5
A hymn for the fifth Sunday of Easter – ‘God's commandments link together’
1 God's commandments link together
justice, mercy, love and grace;
elements to guide the framing
of our laws within this place.
Yet the laws and legal judgments
that we form through human thought,
all too easily diminish
values that the Christ had sought.
2 As we follow in his footsteps
as disciples, let us find,
ways to live in peace together,
ways that bring God's grace to mind;
ways of gracious peaceful living,
that might spread throughout the earth,
ways of God's audacious giving:
let the spirit find new birth.
Andrew E Pratt.
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: BETHANY
Earth day hymn
Earth Day is an annual event on April 22 to demonstrate support for environmental protection. First held on April 22, 1970, it now includes a wide range of events coordinated globally by Earthday.org including 1 billion people in more than 193 countries.
The following hymn, previously blogged, was written in response to a Seminar given by Dr Michael Morecroft, Principal Climate Scientist, Natural England
Called to be partners with God in creation,
stewards of the biosphere, what can we do?
How can we work with the land as it’s changing,
working more flexibly, alter our view.
Here with a climate that’s moving, evolving,
summers are drier, but winters more wet,
storm, drought and flood, matched with wildfire, erosion,
raising the question how great is our debt?
Help us to learn how to live with each species,
neighbours to share with our planetary store.
Earth has a cycle, a sensitive balance,
ours to care fairly, destroy or restore.
God infuse learning, respect for creation,
give us humility, channel your grace;
all earth’s resources are precious, yet finite,
help us to value all life in this place.
Andrew Pratt 12/5/2021
Words © 2021 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: 11.10.11.10
Tune: STEWARDSHIP(Ruddle); EPIPHANY HYMN; SPEAN
Hymn: It seemed as though the Lord lived still
It seemed as if the Lord lived still
It seemed as if the Lord lived still,
expressed his will, the lame could walk,
and all assumed the blind would see,
the silent ones would start to talk!
Yet all they saw when looking round,
were Galilean fisher folk,
a zealot and some other men,
some hazarded it was a joke.
So Peter had to put them right,
the crucified, the buried dead,
the very Christ, their God was raised,
yet now they acted in God’s stead.
And everywhere the spirit blows
the living Christ and God’s own grace
is manifest by human means
in every later time and space.
Plain ignorance and human zeal,
had nailed their God, had knocked love down,
but that could never be the end,
and love still lived to wear the crown.
So everywhere God’s people meet
through prayer and action God is there,
and even in this time and place
our lives can tend and bring God’s care.
Andrew Pratt 17/3/2012
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
Tune: BEFORE THE THRONE StF 717
Metre: DLM
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