Category: worship

The world is burning – Advent after COVID & COP 26 – hymn

The world is burning, twinkling lights betray 
a damaged conscience, we have lost our way.
Our neighbours drown, we build on solid ground, 
as Jesus weeps while songs of praise resound.

Within this season darkness clouds each mind, 
consumption numbs the pain we ought to find 
when hearing news of hunger and of drought, 
a stable’s birth should soon erase all doubt:

the Christ we claim to know, born in the dirt, 
while at our doors our neighbours starve and hurt.
So put aside this carolling and praise
until compassion drives our words and ways.

Andrew Pratt 19/11/2021
Words © 2021 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.
Tune: WOODLANDS
Metre: 10.10.10.10

Hymn responding to Greta Thunberg ahead of and following COP 26 – Blue planet, rising, soaring through the cosmos – Now with a new tune by Frances S. Drake

Blue planet, rising, soaring through the cosmos,
was lent in trust for us to tend and care
while children, young in wisdom, call in anguish, 
for all they see now fills them with despair.
The wonder of the sky has drawn us upwards, 
our eyes diverted by the moon and stars, 
and as we dream we lose our moral compass, 
and in our greed we grasp creation, call it ours.


Time runs away, our life on earth is finite, 
young prophets calling, needing us to act 
are crying out, lamenting for our planet, 
while ‘adults’ sleep, denying fear and fact.
Still others stand, immune, ignore the future, 
absolved from fault for all that comes to pass.
When will we grasp the need for urgent action, 
see clearly, not net curtained, or through frosted glass?


While sands of time run down, are gone and finished, 
in fear of change we hanker for the past, 
but life on earth is threatened by inaction, 
as lethargy and greed resist and last. 
Good God forgive us for each fault and faction, 
unwillingness to change to save this earth. 
God give us ears to hear the words of wisdom 
that we might save this planet, cradle of our birth.


Andrew Pratt 29/10/2021 – Responding to Greta Thunberg 
ahead of and following COP 26.

Words © 2021 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: 11.10.11.10.11.10.11.12
Tune: BLUE PLANET RISING; LONDONDERRY AIR
BLUE PLANET RISING – AUDIO – Copyright Frances S. Drake

Hidden Saints – a hymn for All Saints

1	She had sewn her life with sadness
	Of the thread that joined each part;
	Now she weaves the song of gladness,
	Now rejoices in her heart.
	Though her fingers, bent, were crippled,
	Though her mind was taught with pain,
	Now as heaven's ether ripples,
	She has grasped a greater gain.

2	He had plumbed the shafts of wonder,
	Dug the coal from earth's dark veins;
	Now the darkness ripped asunder,
	Tells that more than life remains.
	Though his were lungs were torn with crying,
	Though his flesh was bruised and scarred,
	Now he soars, to glory climbing,
	Shares the loud angelic chord.

3	He had worked and toiled and worried
	At the tasks he undertook,
	He had hurtled, rushed and hurried
	Giving life no second look.
	Now at last the task is finished,
	Now the day is dead and gone,
	Urgency has been relinquished,
	Satisfied he joins the song.
	
4	We had seen a body lying,
	One we loved, as still as death;
	Now by faith, that death defying,
	Through God's resurrection breath
	Heaven now is more than story,
	Love is more than want or gain.
	Saints are carolling the glory
	Of the God they know by name.
	
Andrew E Pratt (born 1948)
Words © 1997 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 7 8 7 D Trochaic
Tune: HYFRYDOl

On the sidewalk [pavement] – for Homelessness (Sunday)

1          On the sidewalk, by the shop-front
            I laid down my mat to sleep;
            tears of sadness welled within me,
            thoughts of all that might have been.

2          Lost within this hidden city
            where the subway hums and groans,
            left unnoticed and defenceless,
            God forsaken and alone.

3          Can you sense my thrumming heart-beat,
            can you feel a reason why
            in your wealth you’re just as lonely,
            waiting for your time to die?

4          Maybe I should look more clearly
            through the eyes of given hope,
            maybe you could stoop more lowly
            that together we may cope.

Andrew E Pratt (born 1948)

Words © 2002 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., from Whatever name or creed & Reach by Peter Sharrocks
Tune: RECONCILLIATION (HOPSON)