Category: Uncategorized

Candlemass Hymn

Candlemass – the Presentation of Jesus in the Temple (Singing the Faith 229)

 

1             Mary and Joseph
                Came to the temple
                Brought the boy Jesus,
                Offered him there.
                People were waiting
                Wanting to greet him,
                Long had they sought him,
                Solace for care.

2             Anna had prayed there,
                Widowed, long waiting;
                Worshipping God by
                Day and by night.
                Now she is praising,
                Filled with elation;
                Here is God’s promise,
                Christ is her light.

3             Simeon sings now
                God proffers blessing,
                Brilliantly gilding
                Dawn of his day;
                Light in the darkness,
                Never extinguished,
                Light of all nations,
                Light up our way.

Andrew E Pratt (born 1948)
Words © 1997 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: 5 5 5 4 D

Tune: BUNESSAN

 

Holocaust Memorial Day – Poem

1 As we remember holocaust,
in horror disbelieving
the history of the human race,
we share each other’s grieving;
God purge us of hypocrisy,
of all our self–deceiving.

2 Our language is inadequate,
unfit for the expression
of hatred that we visualise,
humanity’s confession;
we hurry headlong into hell,
we witness love’s regression.

3 The deepest, distant agony
that throbs through all creation,
the silent tears that quietly fall
in every generation,
are signs of our humanity,
our need for re–creation.

4 God give us strength to make a pledge
to move beyond contention,
to see, in each, humanity.
Through greater good intention,
God, move us toward a purer love,
a gracious intervention.

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
8 7 8 7 8 7

God loves a scandal…a hymn for our times…

1	God loves a scandal, look at Christ, 
	his crying indignation 
	will turn our tables round again, 
	infect our generation.

2	And those of us who hold some power, 
	our influence diluted, 
	will sense the end of all we love, 
	our treasured schemes uprooted.

3	What will we do? What can we say? 
	Bow down in adoration?
	Or rage with words, then crucify 
	the ground of our creation?

4	The crisis looms, the choice remains: 
	the cross or selfish grasping; 
	the denigration of the poor 
	or love that can be lasting?

5	God give us strength that we might take 
	the risk of Christ-like living, 
	this gracious way of selfless love,
	of sacrificial giving.

Andrew Pratt (born 1948)
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: DOMINUS REGIT ME

Sunlight glinting on the water – a hymn of hope

 

For all its beauty snow and ice can be dangerous, or keep us in our homes. This week’s text looks back to memories and forward to hopes, to sunlight glinting on the water

1          Sunlight glinting on the water,
            moonlight filtered by the trees,
            nature constantly reminding,
            spirit moving with the breeze,
            God is present in creation,
            God is here in such as these.

2          Holding visions in our memories,
            cherishing all we have known,
            things of beauty, scenes of wonder,
            gifts of grace we cannot own,
            all the joys that God has given,
            all the love that Christ has shown.

3          Now we come to offer worship
            for each heart and mind’s delight,
            for all human care and friendship,
            for the soaring spirit’s flight,
            God we offer praise each morning
            for your living, dancing light.

Andrew E Pratt (born 1948)
© 2015 Stainer and 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 8 7
Tune: RHUDDLAN

When the weeping of the nations – a hymn at the turning of the year

1	 When the weeping of the nations 
	fills our hearts with holy dread, 
	when a devastated city 
	cannot bury all its dead, 
	God is in the conflagration, 
	crying where our children bled.
 
2	 Dust will settle on the dying 
	cradled in a mother’s arms, 
	fearful faces meet the camera 
	knowing human hatred harms, 
	knowing only humane kindness 
	brings the peace that heals, disarms.
 
3	 God remove our warring blindness, 
	give us grace that we might see 
	through the mists of mortal malice 
	how we fuel life’s agony, 
	how inaction, sullen silence,
	marks our own complicity.

Andrew E Pratt (born 1948)
© 2016 Stainer and Bell Ltd. 
8 7 8 7 8 7

Tunes: GRAFTON; PICARDY