worship – Page 66 – hymnsandbooks

Just passing through – Philip and the Ethiopian eunuch – conversion? membership of the church? accepting others

Just passing through…

Although the title of the latest Methodist hymn book, Singing the Faith, suggests that there is just one faith the more people I meet the more I feel that there are almost as many expressions of faith as there are people. As you read this, reflect back on how you came to faith. Who influenced you? How did you learn? In what ways is your life different because of your faith.

The poet Dylan Thomas once said that he loved hearing about people’s stories, but they had better be quick or else he’d be talking about his. So excuse me if I indulge myself a bit. Though I didn’t go to Sunday School as a child I did go to church with my parents until I was eleven. I didn’t really go again with any regularity until I was in my twenties. In spite of this I remember two influences, impressions if you like, which have remained with me. Our head teacher was our RE teacher. I found him boring and not very sympathetic. On the other hand my botany teacher enthralled me. I still have little memory or knowledge of botany, but I do remember him saying, ‘I can see some good in any body’. We pushed him on that. He insisted that he could. Not only that, but he lived it out as an example to us.

Why do I bore you with this? Simply because that impressed me and made me have a different outlook on others. Though I came to faith through something of a mystical experience (more of that another time perhaps) my ‘conversion’ was as much ethical as religious. I changed paths, pulled out of biological research. Attending a new church as I began to re-train as a teacher, after one visit, I asked the minister how I might join that church. I was just passing through – a one year teaching certificate, living partly in a bed-sit, partly commuting 20 miles home each evening depending on my parents’ health.

Only later did I come across the story of Philip and an Ethiopian (Acts 8: 26-40). The Ethiopian was a government treasury official. He was also a eunuch. He would have assumed that, in a religious sense, he had no ultimate hope. But he was curious. As he travelled he had been reading Hebrew scripture, as we now know it. Philip explained something of what he was reading. It was a passage from Isaiah. It spoke of someone led to the slaughter, who would not open his mouth, to whom justice would be denied, whose life had been taken away from the earth. Hopeless.

Philip explained that this spoke of Jesus and that Jesus, in some way offered hope. If you read this passage in some translations verse 37 is missing. Let me explain. The Ethiopian, we do not know his name, asked what could prevent him from being baptised. The missing verse says this: Then Philip said, “If you believe with all your heart, you may. And he answered and said, ‘I believe that Jesus Christ is the Son of God.’” The reason that this verse is missing from, the New Revised Standard Version and other translations, is that it is not in all the original manuscripts from which our New Testament has been translated. Some scholars, and I would agree with them, feel that the original is just too scandalous to be accepted. How can anyone be baptised without a confession of faith? and, no certainty of the belief of the person? See how it reads without the missing verse:

v. 38 He commanded the chariot to stop, and both of them, Philip and the eunuch, went down into the water, and Philip baptized him.
v. 39 When they came up out of the water, the Spirit of the Lord snatched Philip away; the eunuch saw him no more, and went on his way rejoicing.

It has often passed through my mind that if Philip had been a Methodist he would surely have offered a course of study, have asked the Church Council whether they were accepting of this person. Of course, he’s black, that might have been a problem. I hear you saying ‘of course not’. Listen to black people sharing their experience of the ‘welcome’ they have so often experienced in our churches, not to mention the recent disclosures about racism in the church of England (a similar story might be told in many other churches). Don’t dismiss what has been said and what people say they have felt. But this story speaks of someone of a different language, colour, ethnicity, faith.

And so I return to a bedsit in Exeter and a minister sharing coffee with me, this student ‘just passing through’. We spoke for an hour, I suppose. Apart from attending one service we’d never met before. There was no confession of faith, not that you’d recognise as such. And what did the minister say, ‘Ok I’ll make you a member’. I asked what people of the church might think? He answered that what they thought didn’t matter, it was between me and God. I never did find out what they thought, or said to the Minister.

I wasn’t going to be involved in that church, not for long anyway. But I’ve been in the church ever since, moving from place to place, some more welcoming than others, some where I’ve felt at home. Some not. Strange though, those that have mirrored best that open, trusting attitude of Philip, not counting numbers or treasuring buildings, just accepting anyone even if they are just passing through, seeing something good in everyone; those places felt most loving, most Christian. And the others, so often, sadly, seemed to want people like themselves and to control who could belong, and who they’d prefer not to. I think it was Jesus, of all people, who said, ‘My father is the gardener’ the one who chooses, who prunes, who casts dead wood on the fire. Not you or me.

I thank God for the minister who welcomed me and who I learned much later, behaved like Philip with the Ethiopian. He didn’t know me or where I had come from, nor where I would go, but accepted me as I was. Without him I would not be writing this fifty years later. As the author of Acts records it, as the Ethiopian ‘came up out of the water, the Spirit of the Lord snatched Philip away; the eunuch saw him no more, and went on his way rejoicing’.

I’m still here in the Methodist Church. And I pray that we might continue to welcome strangers, no questions asked, no hurdles of belief or creed to jump over – something good in all of them, sending them on their way rejoicing…

And may the community where you meet be one of unconditional love…

A temple where all people will be welcome,
a city where all poverty will end,
a promise of an unexpected future,
a depth of love we cannot comprehend.

For love is all we ever need to offer,
no vast cathedral, pinnacles of light;
but shining love illumines every morning
while scattering the shards of dying night.

New every morning is this love's creation;
new every day, our hope will be reborn,
until Your people stumble from the darkness
and recognise that this is love's new dawn.

And seeing how such love infects our being,
transforming fear, eradicating hate,
we praise You for your loving understanding,
and pray our loving may not come too late.

A Prayer: May we see good in everyone, meet Christ in all and offer love without question to every person so that when we sing ‘All are welcome’ it will genuinely reflect what we live in our lives. Amen.

Poem/Hymn Andrew Pratt © 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.

Change us, God, into the likeness (hymn) – for times of debate and decision


Change us, God, into the likeness 

of yourself, through perfect grace; 

let your loving faith unite us, 

till in each we see your face.



If you are our common parent 

in whose image we are made, 

then our varied traits, our being, 

in your person are displayed.



In your presence all are welcome, 

welcome, just as we are formed, 

and where prejudice divides us 

let our vision be reformed.



In the tension of deciding 

may your gracious spirit lend 

openness and understanding, 

help our enmity to end.



Andrew Pratt 24/4/2021 Written in response to the Chester & Stoke on Trent Methodist Synod discussion on the report ‘God in Love Unites Us’.

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: 8.7.8.7

Tune: CHAPEL BRAE (Singing the Faith 610); LOVE DIVINE (Stainer)

Easter Day

Easter

Rainbow Cross

Suffocating night 
smothering, 
obliterating
the broken bloody body 
hammered hard, 
staining scarlet 
that cross 
of rough-cut wood

and thunder crashed 
the doom of death.

Then darkness fractured, 
light splintered, 
fragments of colour 
shot out into the brilliance 
of a multi-coloured Easter morning 
in a green garden.

And an empty cross 
rainbow-wrapped, 
images the promise 
of the death-defying dawn 
of new hope.

Marjorie Dobson © 2019 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 Unravelling the Mysteries, Stainer & Bell Ltd., 2019.

Quite early one morning © Andrew Pratt

A strange new day

This is the day
when perfume remained unopened,
spices were no longer needed,
cloths and sponges were unused.

This is the day
when stone was no barrier,
soldiers abandoned guard duty,
grave clothes and tomb were empty.

This is the day
when the unexpected became reality,
a man asked awkward questions,
uttered unlikely proclamations.

This is the day
when bewilderment ruled,
fear was ever-present,
obedience the only option.

This is the day
when women left hurriedly,
uncertain and warily,
to tell a strange story
to an unbelieving audience,

For they did not know it,
but this is the day
when everything changed:
death was defeated,
new life was beginning,
hope overwhelming despair.

This is the day
of resurrection.

Marjorie Dobson © 2019 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 Unravelling the Mysteries, Stainer & Bell Ltd., 2019.

Come in the morning

Come in the morning.
Come see the dawning.
Come to the garden –
life has broken through.

Jesus, dead and buried.
To his grave they hurried.
Anxious women found that
life had broken through.
Chorus

Soldiers could not keep him
for they were found sleepiing
and the tomb was open –
life had broken through.
Chorus

Peter, unbelieving,
left, still full of grieving.
Nothing would convince him
life had broken through.
Chorus

Mary, greatly shaken,
thought he had been taken.
Heard his voice that told her
life had broken through.
Chorus

Where there was despairing,
grief and horror sharing,
now there is a rumour
life has broken through.
Chorus

So God’s word is spoken,
when our hearts are broken
there will come a time when
new life will break through.
Chorus

Mary Magdalene

My name is Mary,
common enough in my time
to need to be identified by place, or family.
Mine is such a name.
They call me the Magdalene.

People call me other names.
Some claim I was a prostitute,
perhaps because the town whose name I bear
is famous for that trade.

Others question my sanity
and ask why it was necessary for that exorcism
of troubling devils to be performed.
They probably call me mad.

The other followers, male, of course,
know me as ‘one of the women’,
useful for everyday tasks, but mainly disregarded.

So on that day -
when all hope had drained after his execution,
the future seemed bleak and empty
and even the tomb appeared to have been raided
and his body stolen –
it was hardly surprising that the men ignored me,
ran back to the city and left me to weep alone.

The voice was kind and questioning
and I sobbed my story, not expecting help.
But it came, in one word.
‘Mary,’
from one who spoke my name as if it mattered.

My name is Mary.
His name was and is and always will be,
Jesus.

Safe, locked inside that upper room

Safe, locked inside that upper room,
too scared to let the truth be known,
disciples had to see their Lord
before that truth could be their own.

And Thomas, still so full of doubt,
would not believe the tales they told
till Christ appeared, to show his wounds -
then his conviction made him bold.

Yet doubts and fears returned again.
Once more they locked themselves away
until the Holy Spirit came
on that inspiring, vital day.

The truth is now a living fact.
The love of God can never die.
So bold apostles stood their ground –
their living Lord is not a lie.

We have not seen, but we believe
and we must witness by our faith
to living truth we have received,
awakened by the Spirit’s breath.

Poem: When what we thought was mystery

When what we thought was mystery
is rooted in the common place,
and God is found in those who love,
and those we love by grace;
then we have grasped the Christmas story,
reached its heart, beheld its glory.

When scourge and cross are recognised
in images from round the earth.
When we admit complicity
and gauge compassions' dearth;
then we have grasped the Easter story,
reached its heart, and felt its glory.

When love and justice magnify
and even mercy has no end;
when hostages find liberty
and enemies are friends;
then we have grasped the Spirit's story,
reached its heart, expressed its glory.

Andrew Pratt © 2004 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.

Easter Eve – Saturday – Vigil

Easter Eve – Saturday

Grey skies like molten lead… © Andrew Pratt

Infinite disappointment?

Infinite disappointment
for only rain comes
from grey skies
like molten lead.
And it seems
that hope is dead
until that metal,
soft,
is knife-cut
and a sheen shines out,
like light
slant through cloud
making it seem
that hope might
just
be
possible…

Poem: On that day

On that day,
between death
and the dawn of new hope,
there was despair and dread
from those who had heard his predictions,
but discarded them
as doom-laden prophecies
not to be fulfilled in their time.

On that day,
between victory
and defeat,
there was triumph and rejoicing
from those who had plotted to kill
another dangerous, psuedo-Messiah,
and no premonition
that they could possibly be wrong.

On that day,
between the burial
and the anointing,
the women wept
because they had been prevented
from performing their ritual caring
for the body of a Son,
a Master and a Lord.,
by those who feared
that the body would be taken
and the authorities made to look like fools.

On that day,
creation held its breath
and all was still.

But, the next morning …
what a difference!

©Marjorie Dobson

How can God, condemned, be hanging?

How can God, condemned, be hanging?
False messiahs meet such ends,
and the ones then testifying,
have no need to make amends.
Educated folk were laughing,
they foresaw what was to come,
saw disciples hiding, crying,
feeling both distraught and numb.

But that early Easter morning
brought another scene to bear,
Jesus mission had not ended,
he was risen, standing there.
Still the story, more than foolish
soon gave rise to talk and doubt.
'Surely God could never suffer?'
taunting people tease and shout.

Signs and wisdom are confounded
by that stumbling block, the cross.
Things that we once saw as wisdom
now dismissed as foolish dross.
God had shown such strength in weakness.
Those who shared Christ's dying breath
now at last could claim dominion,
love defeating hate and death.

Words: Andrew E Pratt (born 1948) © 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 D
Tune: CALON LAN

Maundy Thursday – Passover Agape / Lovefeast

Passover Agape / Lovefeast for Maundy Thursday (From the book Nothing Too Religious by Marjorie Dobson and Andrew Pratt - click to see)

Explanation: An Agape or Love Feast is a meal celebrated in some traditions which is similar to communion, but which has the potential to be more inclusive. Bread and water are used rather than bread and wine. The atmosphere is informal, more like an ordinary meal.

The order of service which follows uses this idea, but is also inspired in part by the Jewish Passover. It is based on a service for ecumenical worship which was held during Holy Week which, because of its informal nature, attracted some people from the fringe of the church, who came out of curiosity.

The following hymn or ‘Alleluia! Sing to Jesus’

This is the point of our faith for the future

This is the point of our faith for the future,

pooling our knowledge of love and of life,

bringing together the world and its people,

working for freedom, an ending of strife.

This is the God that we share, that we worship,

source of all cultures, the ground of all peace,

God in a unity dwelling within us,

growing between us and bringing release.

This is the way we will walk with each other,

walk hand in hand to the end of the way,

sharing each moment, each hope for the future,

bringing to being this dawning new day.

11.10.11.10

Tunes: EPIPHANY HYMN or IN THE BEGINNING GOD PLAYED WITH THE PLANETS

Words: Andrew E Pratt (born 1948) © 2007 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.

Introduction: This is the season of Passover, Pesach. Today we meet as Christians, but we remember our heritage and shared inheritance with the Jewish people. As we share this Agape, this Love Feast, this communion, it is appropriate that we identify with them and so our words are formed from our own scriptures, but also as an echo of the liturgy for the Passover. For Jews, memory is all important. In memory they are united with those who suffered and lived, loved and rejoiced before them. We echo this as we ‘do this in remembrance’ of Jesus. And so we share:

We remember tonight that long ago, on a night like this, the people with whom we share our tradition set out on a journey.

They knew enslavement and oppression, but they remembered a happier past.

God called them from slavery and offered them the courage to seek freedom.

Boldly they left Egypt, crossed the Sea, and headed into a desert. They believed that God would bring them to a far off Promised Land.

The memory of this journey they recounted and we share. It has been passed down from generation to generation. The story was told to children and to children’s children, reiterated and re-enacted from year to year.

We, too, give thanks for our freedom; we, too, imagine or remember what it means to be a slave.

And so we pray for all who are still in slavery, still denied their human rights.

As we meet at this table, we affirm that there is a place at God’s table for all people of all ages and all nations.

Here we share a cup of blessing, which speaks of deliverance, here we eat the bread of life, which speaks of freedom and unity.

May we be united with our neighbours of whatever race or creed.

May all people be free from bondage

and from oppression,

from hunger

and from want,

from hatred

and from fear;

may we all be free to think

and to speak,

to learn

and to love;

may God give us hope

and the reason to rejoice;

soon, in our days.

Amen.

This is the story that they recounted:

Exodus 12.21–27

The following hymn or ‘Sanna, sannanina’

The sacramental waiting Hymn

The sacramental waiting

for love that is to come

is like God's constant heart beat,

the thrumming of a drum.

The things that really matter,

that keep us safe or sane,

are like God's bread that's broken,

like rainbows after rain.

The hope that holds us captive,

the grace that seals our worth,

are God's firm confirmation

that love is ours on earth.

We watch the sunbeams scatter.

The shadows flicker fast.

Yet God's love is a constant,

we know that love will last.

7.6.7.6

Tune: KNECHT

Those people continued their reflection. Whether or not this is our experience, we continue to identify with the Jews as we pray:

Our ancestors were wandering Arameans;

they went down into Egypt and lived there as aliens,

few in number.

In time they became a great nation.

The Egyptians treated them harshly and afflicted them,

by imposing hard labour on them,

they cried to God and God heard their voice and saw their oppression.

God brought them out of Egypt with a terrifying display of power,

and with signs and wonders.

He brought them to freedom and gave them a land flowing with milk and honey. (based on Deuteronomy 26.5–9)

Since then our parents in faith have been wanderers, without a home. Again and again, they have been fugitives and refugees.

Through them we share the pain of the outsider, the hopelessness of the oppressed, the distress of the homeless, the dislocation of the refugee.

They have experienced the fear that we see in those around us who come to our shores for refuge.

They were used and abused.

And now we pray to God to help us to remember our own heritage as we meet our neighbours in the strangers on our streets.

We pray for courage to trade fairly and to work for freedom.

Help us to be trustworthy and just in all our relationships and dealings with every person.

Fire our hearts with your love, that we might always strive for freedom and justice.

We make our prayer for the sake of our neighbours and in memory of all who have suffered. Amen.

The following hymn or ‘Be known to us in breaking bread’

I vow to love my neighbour, whatever race or creed

I vow to love my neighbour, whatever race or creed,

to join her in her suffering, to plead with him in need.

This love will always question, will search out right and wrong,

will give itself for justice, for those who don't belong.

This love will never falter, till every soul is free,

till nations held in bondage can sing of liberty.

Through scenes of devastation, through famine, drought and war,

we'll work in ways of gentleness, work hard till we restore

the vision of the people, the hope of human grace,

till nations dwell in peacefulness together in this place;

till all the world together can sing in joyful praise

till all have found communion together in our days.

13.13.13.13.13.13

Tune: THAXTED

Words: Andrew E Pratt (born 1948) © 2004 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.

And we now move to our remembrance:

Mark 14.10–25

The following hymn or ‘Author of life divine’

Bread of life and cup of blessing

Bread of life and cup of blessing,

taken in humility,

help us stand in need together,

strengthened by humanity.

Here the bread is taken, broken,

while our broken lives display

need of love from one another,

need of comfort in this day.

As the wine is poured in blessing,

common cup to pass and share;

equally, we offer gladly

patient love, attentive care.

Held by bonds that can't be broken,

strong in solidarity;

bread of life and cup of blessing,

symbolize our unity.

8.7.8.7

Tune: ALL FOR JESUS

Words: Andrew E Pratt (born 1948) © 2009 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.

The sharing – Bread and water are shared with people serving one another.

The following hymn or ‘Because thou hast said’

The stranger is welcomed, the enemy blessed

The stranger is welcomed, the enemy blessed,

a scandalous gospel that Jesus professed;

but can we adopt such a dangerous stance,

forgetful forgiveness, love caught in a glance?

We harbour resentment and hatred is rife;

the past shades the present and fractures each life;

we love to be certain, to cage or constrain,

the people who challenge we view with disdain.

God let us be Christ to the ones that we meet,

as willing to serve as to sit at your feet.

God give us the courage to see in each face,

the Christ who has shown how to live with your grace.

11.11.11.11

Tune: DATCHET

May God who has led his people through the ages lead us on the paths of peace out into the world to serve and to work in his name. Amen

After the blessing an ordinary informal meal may be shared while conversation continues.