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
Category: Poems
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
Preparing for Christmas…a hymn…Christmas is real…
Today (Monday 20th of December) as I prepared to post this hymn it seemed especially pertinent. Though written over twelve years ago I still need the help of the revelation of Christmas to erase my selfishness. Then I heard the news of rising COVID being interrupted by reports of dead children, the reminder of killings in Myanmar and a typhoon having caused many deaths in the Philippines some days ago. News I’d rather not hear, but in all my celebration, ought not to ignore. Christmas is real when the cost that we measure reaches the manger and touches the skies, shop fronts give way to divine revelation, God is among us and selfishness dies. Christmas is real when the gifts that are given mirror the love of this God upon earth, God who is known in self-giving and loving crowning our poverty, coming to birth. Christmas still echoed when screams of the children, slaughtered by Herod inflamed people's fear. Christmas remains when the trees and the tinsel make way for news that we'd rather not hear. Christmas is real when we enter the squalor mirrored in Bethlehem so long ago; off'ring the love that was seen in the God-head, total self-giving not baubles and show. Andrew E. Pratt Words © 2008 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: EPIPHANY HYMN As we celebrate Christmas may we be open to the need around about us, and let us continue our journey through Holy Innocents, Epiphany and Jesus’ Presentation in the Temple.
A tension stalked the stage – another Advent/Christmas hymn
The gospel reading of the Fourth Sunday in Advent tells of the meeting of Mary and Elizabeth and Mary’s prophetic song which we know as the Magnificat (Luke 1: 39-55). This Sunday’s hymn reaches further than this. It has for its background an occupied country, a census involving a journey and the song of a young woman which anticipates the birth of a child who will bring radical challenge and change to the world – if only we would hear and follow him… A tension stalked the stage, an occupying force, and in this context Mary sang. The world could alter course. Once humbled by her God, demeaned, yet she felt blessed, her life now mingled joy and pain, from now she'd never rest. And those in every age are challenged by her song, the paupers free to pray again - for those who did them wrong; while princes are appalled, for those who once held power will find their status racked right down, and that within this hour. For where injustice meets with worship lived and prayed, the social order swings around, the powerful are dismayed; and that includes us all, our power is sapped away, while genuine humility at last will have its day. 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: DSM Tune: LEOMINSTER
‘With tender conviction’ – Wesley’s Catholic Spirit – a poem (or a song seeking a tune?)
Catholic Spirit
With tender conviction I sense love is calling,
no grace is withheld, nor forgiveness repressed,
all people are held in unfathomable comfort,
this love is eternal, forever expressed.
The judgment some fear is a human construction,
for grace is a scandal for those who would judge,
they see it as fair to condemn, exact hatred,
while mercy is something they want to begrudge.
For me none is distanced from love by an action,
a word or a deed, we might not understand,
yet God’s love is wider, beyond comprehension,
if you share this creed, my friend, give me your hand!
[For me none is distanced from love by an action,
compassionate grace, could not set us apart,
for God’s love is wider, beyond comprehension,
if you share this creed, then we are of one heart.]*
*Alternative last stanza after conversation and critique by Pesky Methodists, thankyou!
© Andrew Pratt 5am 29/11/2021 - 4/12/2021
Link to A version of John Wesley’s sermon
hymnsandbooks 