What news is good? A hymn inspired by: Luke 5: 1-11

What news is good? A hymn inspired by: Luke 5: 1-11

1 What news is good? What words give hope?
What sense of value do we feel
when meeting with our God in Christ,
what gives the sense, provides the seal?

2 This seal of perfect love and faith,
this hope of holiness and grace,
the knowledge that our path is right,
is given in our saviour's face.

3 A face seen in a neighbour there,
in one who calls across the street,
a foreign tongue may frame Christ's call
to honour him in all we meet.

4 And as the first disciples heard
a challenge they could not resist,
may we respond and give our lives,
the call of love must not be missed.

Andrew E Pratt (born 1948)
Words © 2012 © 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
Tune: FULDA

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