Reflecting on the Good Samaritan – ‘All the power that fuelled creation’
1 All the power that fuelled creation,
cosmic force that fired the stars,
still leaves people in the darkness
when we grasp for 'us' and 'ours'.
All the emptiness and sorrow
we dispel with just a glance,
eyes averted from our neighbours
giving them no second chance.
2 All we cling to, all we cherish,
stands as nothing in God’s light,
yet our attitudes deny it
holding all as if by right.
All the wealth at our disposal
could bring hope, transfigure care;
even candles lit in darkness
bring new hope when none is there.
3 All we need is love and kindness,
costly kindness to dispel
fear and poverty, while bringing
deepest love to counter hell.
All God’s love, when shared among us
shatters poverty with grace,
even now transfiguration
could be felt within this place.
Andrew E Pratt (born 1948)
© 2016 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
Tunes: SCARLET RIBBONS; ABBOTS LEIGH
For another text relating to the Good Samaritan click here
Category: worship
A hymn for going out – Now let us go from our praise and our worship
A hymn for going out - Now let us go from our praise and our worship
As the Methodist Conference recognises new Deacons and Presbyters might we all consider our own commitment to faith, love and justice - a hymn : Now let us go from our praise and out worship'....
Now let us go from our praise and our worship
out through these doors with the light of the world,
where we can share with our friends and our neighbours
love given freely to have and to hold.
There let us reach to the ones who seem distant,
those we might shun or see pushed to one side,
people less valued than those set around them,
those who the world would accost or deride.
Here is God’s grace and the power of God’s spirit,
here is the love that was seen on the cross,
these we will offer as our obligation,
giving our all, never counting the loss.
Then hand in hand with the neighbours around us,
seeking companionship all of our days,
we’ll follow after the one who has named us,
sharing our bread as we offer God praise.
Andrew Pratt, Words © 2014 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.
Metre: 11 10 11 10
Tune: EPIPHANY HYMN
A challenge to Christian commitment – at ordination perhaps – In places where there is no church
1 In places where there is no church,
where hope is hard to find,
we touch the hands made rough by life
to seek a common mind.
We go where others would not go,
perhaps would fear to tread,
to go beyond our walls and ways
wherever we are led.
2 Where commerce rules we ply our trade,
our currency is grace,
and all we have to offer is
God's love to fill this place.
In prisons where we sit with those
whom justice has condemned,
we seek to mirror Jesus' love
that fear might have an end.
3 And while a person lives in pain
a quiet voice can say,
this time will pass, love holds you still,
we'll see another day.
In searing heat or arctic cold
where lives are ripped and torn,
or where a family waits in fear
we share another dawn.
4 And is it arrogant to say
we look with Jesus' eyes?
We seek to see his face in all,
to hear him in their sighs.
And so our calling is to serve,
to go where Christ has led,
go out, go all, go to the world,
God's people must be fed.
Andrew E Pratt (born 1948)
Words © 2015 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: CMD
Tune: WORKING FOR CHRIST (by Camilla Cederholm who I met in Finland – see More than hymns, No.70)
How do we imagine beauty – Against a bleak backdrop a contrast…helpful? …a new text.
How do we imagine beauty - Against a bleak backdrop something of a contrast...helpful? I hope...a completely new text. How do we imagine beauty, wonder, words cannot express? Something felt, beyond our vision, love incarnate, nothing less? Here and now all life is timeless, here we're lifted out of self, now beyond all expectation, human sense, or worldly wealth. Can eternity be fathomed? Glimpse the feeling, sense the sound, breathe the spirit of creation, ground of being, sought and found. Here a mystery unravels, yet withheld from human sight: simply trust, with faith the given, God is beauty, love and light. Andrew Pratt written 22/6/2025 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: 8.7.8.7 D Tune: CALON LAN
‘When those whose thoughts are crystal clear’ – A man who had demons met Jesus…a hymn…
When those whose thoughts are crystal clear - Luke: 8: 23-39 A man from the region of the Gerasenes, who had demons met Jesus…a hymn…
1 When those whose thoughts are crystal clear
meet those who are confused,
reality can seem disturbed
and sense can feel abused.
We stand upon a sheer abyss
while vertigo takes hold:
the air above, the sea beneath,
our actions uncontrolled.
2 Was that the way that man once felt,
as though he was possessed;
estranged from all the world around,
undignified, unblessed?
And then when Jesus spoke to him,
that contact self-assured,
like raging swine his fever left,
his sanity restored.
3 And still we find we need the help
of those who stand as friends,
when in the nightmare of distress
none hears or comprehends.
God stand beside us, let us be
the channels of your grace,
that we might set each other free
from feelings that debase.
Andrew E Pratt (born 1948)
Words © 2015 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: CMD
Tune: COE FEN
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