Category: Uncategorized

Hurricane Melissa – hymn-iPad art

Fraught with danger, dark foreboding,

fear is lurking in the wings, 

swirling thund’rous winds uplifting, 

cosmic forces, shattered things. 

Buildings lifted, structures sundered,

lives are broken, swept aside, 

God where is your promised presence

when there is no place to hide?

Take us, hold us, mother, fold us

in the harbour of your love, 

guide us through this present moment, 

quell this torment peaceful dove.

Andrew E Pratt (born 1948)
Words © 2025 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: ALL FOR JESUS

A hymn in support of the the RNLI

1 Swirling winds and raging oceans
add to hazards we know well,
jagged rocks and crashing breakers,
currents swinging with the swell,
into such a tortured maelstrom
boats are launched and lives are saved,
human beings loved and treasured
where the waters heaved and raved.

2 Broken buildings, flooded rivers
add a challenge to be met,
nature compounds human carnage,
sights we never will forget;
here where homes had offered comfort
devastation meets our eyes
while the thunder of the waters
drowns the sound of human cries.

3 God, we cry, as lives are wasted,
hold us in this living hell,
where the floods and rising waters
bring destruction, hold us well.
Lift us out of dereliction,
help us reach to those in need,
love them till all fear has foundered,
till they know they’re safe and freed.

Andrew E Pratt (born 1948)
Words © 2017 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 Tune: HYFRYDOL

Look! The love that was unspoken

Look! the love that was unspoken

Look! the love that was unspoken
shines with colour, power and light,
love that never can be broken 
forging justice, putting right.
Here we live in grace and wonder owning God’s diversity.

Praising shards of light that glisten 
with the truth that sets us free, 
multitudes clasp hands of friendship,
all who claim humanity:
nothing can divert our purpose, one in our diversity.

All our art and music woven 
with divinity and grace 
has its origin, incarnate,
born within our human race,
disagreement cannot break our Spirit of diversity.

So the future opens for us:
galaxies beyond our glance, 
bound forever to each other,
held by more than cosmic chance.
Nothing now will fault our spirit: CELEBRATE DIVERSITY!!!

Words © 2025 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: 87 87 87
Tune: WESTMINSTER ABBEY; RHUDDLAN
Words commissioned to celebrate PRIDE

Good God what are we doing? – a hymn in a time of war and remembrance of Hiroshima

Good God what are we doing? – a hymn in a time of war and remembrance of Hiroshima

Good God what are we doing 
upon this harrowed earth, 
with children  starved, or banished, 
a hell has to come to birth?
And even now the mid-wives
see nurtured babies die, 
while politicians hunker
and hide behind a lie.

If God is good the image 
that we uphold and bear 
is marred beyond cognition, 
humanity lacks care. 
A spark of holy presence   
becomes a fading shard
while hopeful grace is damaged,
love’s clarity is barred.

Good God forgive indifference 
that lets our children die, 
raise up again a spirit 
of grace beyond a sigh, 
until we cradle babies 
and nurture them with love, 
until war’s hawks are banished, 
peace settling like dove.

Andrew E Pratt (born 1948)
Words © 2026 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: 7.6.7.6 D
Tune: PASSION CHORALE

Choices…part of a previous post on loyalty…

In every choice, every decision, every vote if we see ourselves as Christians we will ask, does this choice, this decision, enhance or diminish the way those affected by it are LOVED. They may well be vulnerable with less wealth or power than ourselves.YOUR CHOICE…AND MINE…EVERY TIME…don’t point the finger, don’t blame the other person, the other party, the other side… YOUR CHOICE…AND MINE…EVERY TIME…but lets us prioritise LOVE.