Category: Poems

Harassed, haunted child of Mary – hymn/poem for Epiphany/Holy Innocents

1	Harassed, haunted child of Mary          
       [Haunted, harassed child of Mary]*
	ran before he learned to crawl,
	filled with horror, those who loved him,
	those who gave to him their all,
	tore him from his bed and birth place,
	blown before the sudden squall.

2	Doubt and danger dogged each footfall,
	normal sounds now raised their fear;
	noises in a cobbled courtyard:
	Herod's minions drawing near?
	Or the waking sounds of morning?
	Nothing now is safe or clear.

3	Out of this endangered childhood,
	rootless, no asylum found,
	grew the strength of God to greatness,
	yet with thorns his brow was crowned:
	clothes divided, scourged, derided,
	suffering without a sound.

4	Dare we beautify the image
	when Christ's heirs still walk this earth,
	when our children, harassed, hounded,
	suffer death before their birth,
	while their parents' haunted hunger
	speaks of their discarded worth?

Andrew E Pratt (born 1948) 
*Alternative first line suggested by Alan Gasser via Facebook to enable the rhythm to be better caught. Thanks Andrew. 
Words © 2000 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 8 7 Trochaic
Tune: PICARDY

Hymn in commemoration of Desmond Tutu

This day we have witnessed a man for all people,
a man who was human, held fast what is right,
for this he has lived with profound dedication,
he shone in the world, don't extinguish that light.

And we who are human stand now in remembrance,
frail shadows of all he has shown we can be.
He not only preached, but embodied the values
that showed through his living that all can be free.

The man we remember has died, will be buried,
yet while we live justly his theme will not fall.
His spirit is living, will not be extinguished,
the love he embraced will be ever for all.

Words: Andrew Pratt (born 1948) text originally written for Nelson Mandela alt by the author      © 2013/2021 Stainer & Bell Ltd, London, England, www.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.

Young Mary

1     	Young Mary, survivor, alone in the world, 
	for that’s how it seemed to the mind of this girl. 
	An angel had promised the birth of a son, 
	but Mary just wanted to hide or to run. 

2     	Much less of a blessing, less joy to the earth, 
	the sound to her ears of the promise of birth; 
	unmarried, herself little more than a child, 
	the thoughts in her mind were horrendous, ran wild. 

3     	Would Joseph abandon her now in her need? 
	Would he share the faith of our latter-day creed? 
	More likely to leave her alone to her end, 
	now wounded by bias, no longer her friend. 

4     	That God could conceive to abandon, mistreat: 
	a sordid beginning, a birth on the street; 
	that Mary should taste wrath at such a young age; 
	the cross threw its shadow across the world’s stage. 

5     	Before she could magnify God in her song, 
	she had to confront all the world in its wrong, 
	the things in her mind she could not reconcile, 
	the world’s misconceptions and Herod’s cruel guile. 

6     	We sing of a manger, we tell of a birth, 
	our sentiment colours its moment and worth: 
	as deity seems to collude with the state 
	sing glory, sing Mary… before it’s too late. 

Andrew E Pratt (born 1948) 
© 2015 Stainer & Bell Ltd. 
11 11 11 11

At the census in the city – We welcome Christmas Day

1	At the census in the city, 
	at the crossing place of life, 
	where the homeless and abandoned 
	share the scars of human strife; 
	mid the rubble and the ruins 
	shedding God's prophetic light
	see, a star is softly shining 
	through the horror of the night.

2	In the cross of shifting shadows 
	see a mother and her child, 
	see the wetness of his features, 
	freshly born, so not yet filed. 
	In a world of cold statistics 
	yet another mouth to feed, 
	for the parents' love holds tension 
	with a calling, crying need.

3	So from Bethlehem in history 
	to this present place and time, 
	God has entered human anguish, 
	sung in tune to human rhyme; 
	yes, the baby that we welcome, 
	yes, the Christ of Palestine, 
	are as one, we seal remembrance 
	in a feast of bread and wine. 	
        [signature of love's design.]* 

4	For the ruin of the manger, 
	this prefig'ring of the cross, 
	offers Christ as our relation 
	in our chaos and our loss, 
	puts the Christ into the present, 
	places God in human hands, 
	tests our loving and our living 
	here in this and every land.

*for use when there is no communion

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
Metre: 8 7 8 7 D
Tunes: BETHANY (Smart); ABBOTS LEIGH