Advent in uncertain times - Active love, not fearful frenzy
1 Active love, not fearful frenzy,
Is the path that we pursue,
Counterblast to alienation,
Struggle making all things new.
Facing up to common conflict,
Meeting arrogance with prayer,
Seeking to be one with Jesus,
Dignified amid despair.
2 Torture, fear and desecration
Paint the canvas of our lives;
But the picture, deeply woven,
Demonstrates that love survives.
Systems that would seek to scar us,
Mould us blindly to their trends,
We will overthrow with kindness,
Not be subject to their ends.
3 We will take the cross of Jesus
Into every sphere of life,
We will stand for peace and justice,
We will not succumb to strife.
We must meet this tribulation,
Live our lives, if need be, die;
Take no refuge in abstraction,
Take the cross and lift it high!
Andrew E Pratt (born 1948)
© 1997 Stainer & Bell Ltd
Words Andrew Pratt © 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: 8 7 8 7 D Trochaic
Tune: BETHANY (Smart)
Category: worship
A different Advent Candle Lighting Hymn – Deep in darkness
1 Deep in darkness we begin,
dark outside and deep within.
Now ignite a single flame,
shadows form, let light remain.
2 As they gleaned the word of life,
narrative of love and strife,
people through each age have known
yet more light: God's glory shown.
3 John the Baptist spoke out loud,
challenged that discordant crowd,
called each one toward the light,
see it growing, gleaming bright.
4 Mary wondered at her lot,
blessed? Or cursed? Or loved? Or not?
Angels came and glory shone,
feel the love, let light shine on.
5 Look! a star is shining there.
See the stable stark and bare.
Christmas dawns, all darkness gone!
Christ has come, the light shines on!
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
Metre: 7 7 7 7
Tunes: LAUDS (Wilson); ORIENTIS PARTIBUS
Life is tough but God will hold us…
Life is tough, but God will hold - us inspired by Psalm 132: 1 – 12 (13 – 18)
1 Life is tough, but God will hold us
through each hardship of our lives,
when our hope is torn to ribbons
grace is present, love survives.
2 God will feed us bread of heaven,
finest wine to slake our thirst.
Those who grieve will know God's comfort,
those who waited will be first.
3 Hear the faithful offer praises,
here the poor will shout for joy,
grace and hope will give forever
love that nothing can destroy.
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 7 8 7
Tunes: CROSS OF JESUS; LAUS DEO (Redhead)
This towering edifice – inspired by Mark 13:1-8
Temples now and then – This towering edifice of shining glass – inspired by Mark 13:1-8
1 This towering edifice of shining glass
which speaks of power, of status and of class.
will one day fall, a glittering shower of shards,
will flutter like the children's house of cards.
2 These temples of our vanity and pride
like expectations of the crucified
will lie in dust and rubble that we raze,
not like the Christ who, later, God might raise.
3 We need to hear that sharp prophetic cry
reminding of the ones we would deny.
Self-righteous hypocrites will meet their end.
Neglected people find in Christ a friend.
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: 10 10 10 10
Tunes: CHILTON FOLIAT; GO FORTH
‘Drones, not angels herald horror’ – a hymn for Remembrance in a new millennium through Advent to Christmas
‘Drones, not angels herald horror’ a hymn for 2024
from Remembrance through Advent to Christmas
Drones, not angels herald horror,
children shelter without hope,
singing now, but hell will follow.
God, through grace, give strength to cope.
Here where human hearts are broken,
all cried out, no tears to shed,
prayers are held, for fear, unspoken,
shrouded now in clouds of dread.
God reach deep through hateful anger
bent on vengeance, recompense;
listen through our warring clangour,
re-enliven common sense.
Guide us through the dust and rubble,
where our blood has stained the earth,
turning fields where all is stubble,
seeding love that signs new birth.
Andrew E Pratt (4/11/2024)
Words © 2024 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: HYFRYDOL; SCARLET RIBBONS or, perhaps, BLAENWERN
A completely new hymn for 2024 reminding us how different war is now but, nevertheless, with comparable suffering. Suitable, perhaps, for Remembrance and through Advent to Christmas given the continuing situation in the Middle East, Ukraine/Russia and many other places.
hymnsandbooks 