Oh where is there love in a world that is tired,
across the year's threshold, where hope has expired?
We wait amid movement, to pause and to pray,
to nurture our God at the dawn of each day.
Our eyes have been opened, compassion unlocked,
the road has been cleared, and the future unblocked.
The narrative moment has fractured the storm,
the chill of the moment unfrozen, now warm.
Such newness is waiting with every new day,
the new year is dawning through danger and play.
The dance is still twisting through hate into light,
is spinning and turning creating new light.
We hold in our neighbour the broken and hurt,
those lost within living, God would not desert.
The frail and the fallen, the fraught or the free
are reaching for Jesus, will Christ be in me?
© Andrew Pratt Words © 2011 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: 11 11 11 11
DATCHET; CRADLE SONG (Kirkpatrick)
Category: worship
We dare not risk forgetfulness
We dare not risk forgetfulness,
the eyes where light has been extinguished,
the gathered limbs and shattered bones,
that hone the memory, shatter hope.
The shadows lengthen, colour fades.
What now?
The choice is ours.
This turning of the year:
forgiving fault
can we renew relationships
or, festering, lurch onward into hell?
The choice is yours, is ours, is mine…
choose life…perhaps?
Copyright Andrew Pratt 2023
Looking backwards, looking forwards – New Year Hymn
1 What clutter has the last year left,
what loving, laughing, sighing;
what things of worth to hold and keep,
what grace that we’re denying;
2 what battered fragments of the past,
things best left un-remembered,
what joys that we had once denied,
by hatred we’ve dismembered?
3 Great God, amid the light of Christ,
bring a discerning spirit,
that we might hold the things of worth
that others might inherit.
4 The things that we should treasure most,
God, sharpen in our vision,
that we might finely tune your love
to fight against division.
Andrew E Pratt (born 1948)
© 2016 Stainer and Bell Ltd.
8 7 8 7
DOMINUS REGIT ME
Words for Holy Innocent’s
1 Herod’s high and mighty stand
Showed the power at his command,
Slaughtered children in the land:
Kyrie, Lord have mercy,
Kyrie, Lord have mercy,
Kyrie, Lord have mercy on us.
2 Mary wept, she understood,
Wept as every mother should,
Ramah’s echo, death to good:
Chorus
3 Surely force has had its day,
Brutish whim and power’s display;
Yet our actions hurt betray:
Chorus
4 Seen on every paper’s page,
Words of hate and fists of rage,
Signs of greed in every age:
Chorus
5 Anger still inflicts the pain,
Each excuse is seen as lame,
Yet again we bear the shame:
Chorus
6 Till through this and every time
People cease from heinous crime,
Till with peace their actions rhyme:
Chorus
VERSION IN SONGS FOR A NEW MILLENIUM (7 7 7 D and refrain)
1 Herod’s high and mighty stand
Showed the power at his command,
Slaughtered children in the land:
Mary wept, she understood,
Wept as every mother should,
Ramah’s echo, death to good:
Kyrie, Lord have mercy,
Kyrie, Lord have mercy,
Kyrie, Lord have mercy on us.
2 Surely force has had its day,
Brutish whim and power’s display;
Yet our actions truth betray:
Seen on every paper’s page,
Words of hate and fists of rage,
Signs of greed in every age:
Kyrie, Lord have mercy,
Kyrie, Lord have mercy,
Kyrie, Lord have mercy on us.
3 Anger still inflicts the pain,
Each excuse is seen as lame,
Yet again we bear the shame:
Till through this and every time
People cease from heinous crime,
Till with peace their actions rhyme:
Kyrie, Lord have mercy,
Kyrie, Lord have mercy,
Kyrie, Lord have mercy on us.
Andrew E Pratt (born 1948) From: Whatever name creed, No.28 (1999) & Songs for the new millennium.
Words © 1999, 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: HOLY INNOCENTS (Ian Sharp) Whatever name creed, No.28
Christmas Eve & Christmas Day Hymns
CHRISTMAS DAY
1 Almighty God has done great things,
an angel proffers stunning news,
the news of human hope he brings,
her baby heaven and earth shall fuse;
and she will give her life for that,
O, Mary, sing magnificat.
2 A mother and her unborn child,
a man who ought to let her go
to save his face, stay undefiled,
as love and duty taunt and flow;
and Joseph will consider that
as Mary sings magnificat.
3 And all the greatness of a God,
distilled to love, sets captives free,
a single liberating Word:
those born in darkness now can see;
as human power considers that
let Mary sing magnificat.
Andrew E Pratt (born 1948)
Words © 2001 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: 8 8 8 8 8 8 Tune: MELITA
Incarnation © Andrew Pratt
CHRISTMAS DAY
1 We see the eyes of Mary shine,
for all the pain of birth is past.
She cradles Jesus in her arms,
her time of joy is here at last.
2 We look on Joseph's roughened hands,
his eyes are filled with tender joy
he gently reaches for the child,
this little scrap, this baby boy.
3 And can they know? And could they guess
at love's responsibility,
that hurt would mingle with the joy
of human possibility?
4 But on this night a single star
is just enough to signal grace:
a child is born in Bethlehe
and offered for the human race.
Andrew E Pratt (born 1948)
Singing the Faith 219
Words © 2008 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: LM Tune: TRURO
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