In between All Souls, All Saints and Remembrance Sunday we are witness to COP 27, the United Nations Climate Change Conference, beginning on the Sunday 6th November. This is an international meeting which the UK has chaired. We are handing the Chair to Egypt and for various reasons our Prime Minister has indicated he will not attend it. King Charles has been advised not to attend. This hymn, written in 2019 and used last year in Durham Cathedral emphasises our responsibility to be stewards of the creation (Psalm 8: 6-8). 1 The care of our planet, the threat of extinction, alerts us to need to be stewards of the earth: this place of great beauty, our God given tenure, the place of our nurture, the globe of our birth. 2 This place we must guard for each new generation, to leave as we found it or, better, restored; to share each resource without greed or pretension, not barring the needy, not plunder, nor hoard. 3 The banquet of God is for all of God's people, communion companions are both rich and poor, our ultimate end will remove all distinctions, no birth right or creed can obstruct heaven's door. 4 God's commonwealth love can encompass all nations, but here in this place we must all make a start: a life of acceptance of sister and brother, the practice of loving, a God given art. Andrew E Pratt (born 1948) Words © 2019 Stainer & Bell Ltd, London, England, http://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. Tune: STREETS OF LAREDO; ST CATHERINE'S COURT Used at Durham Cathedral on Climate Sunday, 17th October 2021.
Category: Theology
Hymn at a time when people feel excluded – God, save us from the platitudes
God values all – Joel 2: 28 – 29 – hymn at a time when people feel excluded. The prophet Joel said: 28 Then afterwards I will pour out my spirit on all flesh; your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, your old men shall dream dreams, and your young men shall see visions. 29 Even on the male and female slaves, in those days, I will pour out my spirit.
1 God, save us from the platitudes,
the empty prayers and hollow praise
that blind us to hypocrisy
of every thoughtless word or phrase.
O take us, mend us, make us one
until your work on earth is done.
2 When pride and selfishness demand
our rights when others suffer hurt,
when greed and use of wealth exploit
and push our neighbours in the dirt
yes, take us, mend us, make us one
until your work on earth is done.
3 Within a world of fear-built walls
of colour, social class or creed,
God, help us look with Christ-lit eyes
for Christ within another's need;
O, take us, mend us, make us one
until your work on earth is done.
4 O God of fundamental grace
in which your church has grown and stands,
great God of self-denying love
may hatred die in every land.
Yes, take us, mend us, make us one
until your peace on earth is won.
5 Then graceful hospitality
may welcome angels unaware,
until your all inclusive love
spans through all time, is everywhere,
for by your grace we now are one,
your hope is gained, your work is done.
Andrew E 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: 8 8 8 8 8 8
Tune: ABINGDON
Out beyond our understanding – a hymn inspired by Graham Adams’ book – Holy Anarchy
Rev Dr Graham Adams, of the Luther King Centre, has written a book entitled Holy Anarchy. Graham summarises the book here. The heart of Jesus’ vision is a reality he called the kingdom of God - 'a realm in which all dynamics of domination, not least in the church, are subverted'. So this is Holy Anarchy of which Adams writes and in this hymn/poem I have been inspired by this vision. Out beyond our understanding Out beyond our understanding, holy ‘truths’ that have us bound, Holy Anarchy is waiting: shakes, disturbing what we’ve found. Strands beyond our human measure test what’s certain, where we stand, draw us out beyond our treasure to an unknown holy land. Far from what we thought was certain, bound by darkness, hid by light, dare we risk this strange adventure, dream-like drifting, endless flight? Might we yet glimpse sense and purpose, seeming distant, yet so near, here within our present context, such a love as casts out fear? More than we at first envisaged, broader than our widest scope, challenging our firm conceptions, thoughts on which we’ve placed our hope: this will strain imagination, take us from our comfort zone, seem like some incarnate chaos, nothing like we’ve ever known. Andrew Pratt Words © 2022 Stainer & Bell Ltd, London, England, http://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. Tune: DIM ON IESU (a Welsh tune to reflect Graham's background) Words inspired by Holy Anarchy, SCM, Graham Adams (2022).
Reclaiming ‘How great Thou art’
When Carl Boberg wrote the hymn that we know as How great Thou art’ it was, I believe, written in Swedish. Some of the wonder and beauty of that hymn has survived in the English translation which is most widely used. Sadly, for me, some of that English version has unaccountably veered into a penal substitutionary mode. Having lost a son aged 22 I cannot sing verses which speak of a God as ‘great’ who has sacrificed his son. If this is how a ‘Father God’ behaves I want none of it. In addition it rides light to the incarnation, to God dying, Jurgen Moltmann’s crucified God.
I am aware of the theological gymnastics that people employ to get round this, but why when Atonement theories, are just that. Why not simply return to a translation that more clearly reflects Boberg’s original? Thanks to Hymnary.org for offering E. Gustav Johnson’s translation
When I behold His Son to earth descending,
to help and heal and teach distressed mankind;
When evil flees and death in fear is bending
before the glory of the Lord divine,
With rapture filled, my soul Thy name would laud,
O mighty God! O mighty God!
With rapture filled, my soul Thy name would laud,
O mighty God! O mighty God!
When, crushed by guilt of sin, before Him kneeling
I plead for mercy and for grace and peace,
I feel His balm and, all my bruises healing,
He saves my soul and sets my heart at ease.
Author: Carl Boberg; Translator: E. Gustav Johnson
Translation by E. Gustav Johnson (1893–1974) From Hymnary.org http://www.hymnary.org/text/o_mighty_god_when_i_behold_the_wonder accessed 9/6/2014.
A time for decisions – a hymn – What are the gifts we would treasure most highly
John Wesley once referred to the Methodists as ‘a peculiar people’. One of our peculiarities is treating September as the beginning of a New Year.
At another level we live in a world in conflict and, in the UK with a government with a new Prime Minister.
All of us together are faced with decisions.
At a time of decision for the people of Israel Moses challenged them – ‘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’. (Deuternomy30: 19)
The following hymn asks what choosing life might mean for us today.
1 What are the gifts we would treasure most highly:
freedom or justice or money or wealth;
food for the hungry, or drink for the thirsty,
love for our children, or power, or health?
2 Once God had given a choice to the people:
they could decide to choose life or choose death.
They were encouraged towards life's enhancement,
shunning the ways that would quench life and breath.
3 What does it mean for ourselves at this moment,
challenged by God, as to what we should choose?
What does ‘life’ mean, for each friend, for each neighbour,
what will encourage and never abuse?
4 Now at each crisis, each time of decision,
save us from selfishness, things that oppress;
help us, O God, to be wise, never grasping,
help us to cherish those things you would bless.
Andrew Pratt (born 1948)
Words © 2011 alt by the author 2022 © 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.
alt 2022 by the author.
Metre: 11 10 11 10
Tune: EPIPHANY HYMN
