Poems – hymnsandbooks

If all the world could live as one – A hymn for ALL SAINTS DAY

If all the world could live as one – A hymn for ALL SAINTS DAY

1           If all the world could live as one
              respecting each and every need,
              to be as neighbours sharing all,
              then God’s commands could be our creed.
              Much less a law to bind and tie,
              but more descriptive of the life
              we share in common care and love,
              where there would be no sense in strife.

2           In such a world of harmony
              our highest aim would be the good
              of those we know who think like us
              and those who we’ve misunderstood.
              The fruit of action, word and thought
              would demonstrate itself to be,
              the keeping of God’s gracious law,
              the birth of human liberty.

3           Our common task would be to share
              the joy of hope, the pain of grief,
              to live in humble faith and love
              with those constrained by disbelief;
              to show impartial grace to all,
              to greet as brother, sister, friend,
              the ones with whom we share this world,
              to live the love that will not end.

Andrew Pratt (born 1948)
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.

Metre: LMD Tune ST PATRICT
Created by HymnQuest.com

A hymn – ‘Investing in a monolith’

Some thoughts reflecting on Matthew 22:34-46 – a hymn – ‘Investing in a monolith’

1           Investing in a monolith
              that reaches to the sky
              can blind us to our neighbour’s loss,
              we’re deaf to hear their cry.
              The infrastructure that we crave,
              carves scars across the land,
              where food and beauty once was found,
              but can no longer stand.

2           The monuments we build to power
              that sap a nation’s wealth,
              will crumble as they leech the poor,
              yet wreck our moral health.
              When will we learn a quiet way,
              not strident in its speech,
              of love for neighbour, knowing peace
              is not beyond our reach?

3           When will we till this common ground
              we share through human birth,
              that all its riches, love and joy,
              may show our common worth;
              each one a child, a neighbour, friend,
              a partner in this life?
              Then let us share in Christ-like love,
              and harbour no more strife.

Words: Andrew Pratt © 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: CMD Tune: VOS DILECTI
Created by HymnQuest.com

If love…a hymn

If love…a hymn

Deuteronomy 30:19 says, ‘I call heaven and earth to witness against you today that I have set before you life and death, blessings and curses. Choose life so that you and your descendants may live…’ Jesus, again and again, sought that we should love one another, that love is life enhancing…so, as this hymn says, we have choices to make, day by day as to how we live…

1 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.

2 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.

3 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.

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 Tune: KINGSFOLD

Created by HymnQuest.com

A morning hymn – What a morning! Sunlit, glorious

Philippians 4

⁸… siblings, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable—if anything is excellent or praiseworthy—think about such things. ⁹Whatever you have learned or received or heard from me, or seen in me—put it into practice. And the God of peace will be with you.

1           What a morning! Sunlit, glorious,
              sign of providence and grace,
              as the light shines on our shoulders
              feel the spirit warm this place.
              Warm the words we speak together,
              deep the love in which we’re held,
              fine the fellowship we’re sharing,
              peace that cannot be excelled.

2           Peace that fosters common purpose
              in the service of our friends,
              reaching out to every neighbour
              with a love that never ends.
              Love our source and contemplation,
              love the motivating power,
              love the end of prayer and praising,
              shared within this morning hour.

Andrew E Pratt (born 1948) Words © 2014 © 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: CALON LAN

Historic creativity – a hymn

Historic creativity – a hymn with allusions to Genesis 1 and Matthew 21:43

1         Historic creativity
           has brought us to this day,
           the ground of all we have or are
           has set our present way.

2         When cosmic forces from the past
           flung stars out into space,
           the scene was set for human life
           and super-human grace.

3         The lives we live within this frame
           give challenge, hope and choice,
           and how we walk upon this earth
           will shape the love we voice.

4         God, come and strengthen our intent
           to work with all our heart
           in co-creative acts of love.
           Now is the time to start.

Andrew E Pratt (born 1948) © 2015 Stainer and Bell Ltd. 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 6 8 6
Tune: WESTMINSTER NEW
Created by HymnQuest.com