Category: Poems

Holocaust Memorial Day – Poem

1 As we remember holocaust,
in horror disbelieving
the history of the human race,
we share each other’s grieving;
God purge us of hypocrisy,
of all our self–deceiving.

2 Our language is inadequate,
unfit for the expression
of hatred that we visualise,
humanity’s confession;
we hurry headlong into hell,
we witness love’s regression.

3 The deepest, distant agony
that throbs through all creation,
the silent tears that quietly fall
in every generation,
are signs of our humanity,
our need for re–creation.

4 God give us strength to make a pledge
to move beyond contention,
to see, in each, humanity.
Through greater good intention,
God, move us toward a purer love,
a gracious intervention.

Andrew E Pratt (born 1948) Words © 2003 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
8 7 8 7 8 7

A towel and a basin? – Marjorie Dobson’s hymn for Maundy Thursday

1	A towel and a basin?
	This caused them great unease.
	Their Master, now a servant?
	The Christ upon his knees?
	In washing feet made dirty 
	out on the city street, 
	he showed the power of action 
	where love and duty meet.

2	Yet Peter made his protest 
	and missed the point again, 
	till Jesus told him gently 
	that he must share his pain.
	They hardly understood him, 
	although his words were clear 
	and soon his wise example 
	would be wiped out by fear.

3	But later they remembered 
	and took his words to heart: 
	in sacrifice and service 
	they gave the church its start,
	and we who follow after 
	take up the task today, 
	to show, in love and service, 
	we also walk Christ's way.

Marjorie Dobson (born 1940)
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
Metre: 7 6 7 6 D
Tune: PASSION CHORALE

This hymn is available in Marjorie's most recent collection of worship items: Unravelling the Mysteries and also Hymns of Hope and Healing, both available from Stainer & Bell Ltd - click here 

More of Marjorie's hymns will follow here.

Lent & Holy Week – Looking ahead – A calendar will call us…other hymns will follow on this blog

A calendar will call us to share with Christ in Lent,
to walk within the darkness: some drawn, yet others sent; 
and here we sense contrition, an ashen cross we bear, 
reminder that the fire of love of God is everywhere.

In many different places God’s people bear the strain
of human expectation as cruel norms constrain;
for each convention sealing another person’s fate,
forgive, release, give freedom before it is too late.

We witness acts of hatred dressed up as self-defence, 
where vengeance is the motive hid deep in self-pretence; 
great God, forgive those moments, when hate and human pride 
lead to the domination of those we might deride.

As Christ you suffered torment, the torture and the hate,
yet on the cross forgave them, the ones who sealed your fate, 
so as we kneel confessing complicity, we pray, 
great God, forgive humanity when selfishness holds sway.

Andrew E Pratt (born 1948)
Words © 2020 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: 13 13 13 13
Tune: CRUGER

God loves a scandal…a hymn for our times…

1	God loves a scandal, look at Christ, 
	his crying indignation 
	will turn our tables round again, 
	infect our generation.

2	And those of us who hold some power, 
	our influence diluted, 
	will sense the end of all we love, 
	our treasured schemes uprooted.

3	What will we do? What can we say? 
	Bow down in adoration?
	Or rage with words, then crucify 
	the ground of our creation?

4	The crisis looms, the choice remains: 
	the cross or selfish grasping; 
	the denigration of the poor 
	or love that can be lasting?

5	God give us strength that we might take 
	the risk of Christ-like living, 
	this gracious way of selfless love,
	of sacrificial giving.

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: DOMINUS REGIT ME