Category: Thoughts

Who rules the world just like a king?

Who rules the world just like a king
within our present time and space?
Who has the power of life and death,
of healing or withholding grace.

As politicians seek our votes,
exposing or obscuring truth,
sometimes their language loses rhyme,
while arguments become obtuse.

Just what is truth and where is love,
and what would Jesus do or say?
And how are we to follow faith
within our present time and day?

Who rules our wills, who charms our lives,
the powerful, or those hid from sight;
the weak, denied, or those abused
who hide away within the night?

The least is Jesus in our midst.
The least of these is Christ the King.
Then let the world turn upside down
the poor must rise and rule and sing.
© Andrew Pratt 27/10/2012
Tune: FULDA, GONFALON ROYAL
Metre: LM
CHRIST THE KING
Words © 2015 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.

Austerity = poverty

www.theguardian.com/politics/2018/nov/19/amber-rudd-un-poverty-report-return-frontline-politics

Amber Rudd condemns UN poverty report in combative return to frontline politics – Philip Alston got his evidence from real experts – those who have suffered directly from the effects of austerity which incontrovertibly was instigated by the government.

Shame!

www.theguardian.com/society/2018/nov/16/uk-austerity-has-inflicted-great-misery-on-citizens-un-says

From the report quoted in the Guardian (see above link) –
The results? 14 million people, a fifth of the population, live in poverty. Four million of these are more than 50% below the poverty line,
and 1.5 million are destitute, unable to afford basic essentials.
The widely respected Institute for Fiscal Studies predicts a 7% rise in child poverty between 2015 and 2022, and various sources predict child poverty rates of as high as 40%.
For almost one in every two children to be poor in twenty-first century Britain is not just a disgrace,  but a social calamity and an economic disaster, all rolled into one.

I feel shame in the light of this to be thought of as British.