A hymn for the New Year, for Covenant
1 The year is new, do not resist,
for God is moving in our midst
who brings a covenant to birth,
of common wealth throughout the earth.
2 The atmosphere is cold and raw
and yet our God engenders awe:
is kneeling there to wash our feet,
to heal, to love, to kiss, to greet.
3 And in our healing we will find
a wholeness hidden, yet refined,
a God made known in every face,
each neighbour ministers God's grace.
4 And God says all is ready yet;
the meal prepared, the table set.
And will we come? And dare we share
the covenant that sounds God's care?
5 No complicated myth or sign
a simple meal of bread and wine,
speaks of the love that feeds us still:
come all who can, come all who will.
6 And when we rise and go our way,
remember who you met today,
who showed you love, who held, who healed,
who, in each neighbour, is revealed.
Andrew Pratt 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: LM
Category: Song
A hymn for New Year – Oh where is there love
Oh where is there love in a world that is tired,
across the year's threshold, where hope has expired?
We wait amid movement, to pause and to pray,
to nurture our God at the dawn of each day.
Our eyes have been opened, compassion unlocked,
the road has been cleared, and the future unblocked.
The narrative moment has fractured the storm,
the chill of the moment unfrozen, now warm.
Such newness is waiting with every new day,
the new year is dawning through danger and play.
The dance is still twisting through hate into light,
is spinning and turning creating new light.
We hold in our neighbour the broken and hurt,
those lost within living, God would not desert.
The frail and the fallen, the fraught or the free
are reaching for Jesus, will Christ be in me?
© Andrew Pratt 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: 11 11 11 11
DATCHET; CRADLE SONG (Kirkpatrick)
Looking backwards, looking forwards – New Year Hymn
1 What clutter has the last year left,
what loving, laughing, sighing;
what things of worth to hold and keep,
what grace that we’re denying;
2 what battered fragments of the past,
things best left un-remembered,
what joys that we had once denied,
by hatred we’ve dismembered?
3 Great God, amid the light of Christ,
bring a discerning spirit,
that we might hold the things of worth
that others might inherit.
4 The things that we should treasure most,
God, sharpen in our vision,
that we might finely tune your love
to fight against division.
Andrew E Pratt (born 1948)
© 2016 Stainer and Bell Ltd.
8 7 8 7
DOMINUS REGIT ME
Words for Holy Innocent’s
1 Herod’s high and mighty stand
Showed the power at his command,
Slaughtered children in the land:
Kyrie, Lord have mercy,
Kyrie, Lord have mercy,
Kyrie, Lord have mercy on us.
2 Mary wept, she understood,
Wept as every mother should,
Ramah’s echo, death to good:
Chorus
3 Surely force has had its day,
Brutish whim and power’s display;
Yet our actions hurt betray:
Chorus
4 Seen on every paper’s page,
Words of hate and fists of rage,
Signs of greed in every age:
Chorus
5 Anger still inflicts the pain,
Each excuse is seen as lame,
Yet again we bear the shame:
Chorus
6 Till through this and every time
People cease from heinous crime,
Till with peace their actions rhyme:
Chorus
VERSION IN SONGS FOR A NEW MILLENIUM (7 7 7 D and refrain)
1 Herod’s high and mighty stand
Showed the power at his command,
Slaughtered children in the land:
Mary wept, she understood,
Wept as every mother should,
Ramah’s echo, death to good:
Kyrie, Lord have mercy,
Kyrie, Lord have mercy,
Kyrie, Lord have mercy on us.
2 Surely force has had its day,
Brutish whim and power’s display;
Yet our actions truth betray:
Seen on every paper’s page,
Words of hate and fists of rage,
Signs of greed in every age:
Kyrie, Lord have mercy,
Kyrie, Lord have mercy,
Kyrie, Lord have mercy on us.
3 Anger still inflicts the pain,
Each excuse is seen as lame,
Yet again we bear the shame:
Till through this and every time
People cease from heinous crime,
Till with peace their actions rhyme:
Kyrie, Lord have mercy,
Kyrie, Lord have mercy,
Kyrie, Lord have mercy on us.
Andrew E Pratt (born 1948) From: Whatever name creed, No.28 (1999) & Songs for the new millennium.
Words © 1999, 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: HOLY INNOCENTS (Ian Sharp) Whatever name creed, No.28
Holy Innocents Hymn – sadly still pertinent?
Holy Innocents – 28th December
1 Herod waiting, Herod watching,
Herod grasping, holding power,
Herod fearful for the future,
Herod counting every hour.
2 Now the thing that he was fearing:
love and justice, peace and health
here embodied in a person,
God incarnate, heaven's wealth.
3 This was more than he could stomach,
human wine skins tear and rend.
Herod's dream had been confounded,
human power had met its end.
4 Many children now were crying,
temper triumphed, babies dead
Mary, Joseph made an exit,
every step was filled with dread.
5 Into exile they were driven,
fear would ripple through each life:
Jesus challenged vested interests.
Gracious love fuelled hate and strife.
6 And the children still are crying,
forced to war and harmed by hate.
Still our world is deaf to hear them,
still our loving comes too late.
Andrew Pratt 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: ALL FOR JESUS
hymnsandbooks 