Gaza – poem – ‘A velvet spiral clothed the earth’
A velvet spiral clothed the earth
where dust and ashes fluttered down.
While tear stained eyes foresaw the dawn:
the shadow of a dearth of love;
and fear is all we own…
© Andrew Pratt 2025.
As shorter days prevail – a hymn inspired by Luke 18:9-14
1 As shorter days prevail
We know as we are known:
We face the truth of our deceit
Within God’s judgement zone.
2 We see as we are seen,
As God and truth conspire,
A panorama of our lives
Confronts each wild desire.
3 Then at the darkest hour
A laser sears the night,
As sharp as any spirit’s sword
That cleaves our wrong and right.
4 As we discern ourselves,
Deride, despair, regret,
Compassion moves God’s love to us:
Love will forgive, forget.
Andrew E Pratt (born 1948)
Words © 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: SM
Tune: CAPEL
All the praying, all the pounding inspired by Luke 18: 1-8
1 All the praying, all the pounding,
all the crying at God's door
cannot make God more attentive,
cannot make God love us more.
2 Here through our persistent waiting
we will find a present grace,
grace for patient expectation,
till we meet God face to face.
3 Then our God will meet and greet us,
understand our every need,
change our heartache into gladness,
wake to life faith's dormant seed.
4 See the covenant on offer,
God will write it in our hearts,
from now on we are God's people,
this is when our new life starts.
5 All that's broken will be mended,
all that's fallen be set right,
God will honour every promise,
lead us onward into light.
Andrew Pratt (born 1948)
Words © 2010 Stainer and 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: ALL FOR JESUS
At the centre of each city
…for our nation now (alluding to Jeremiah 29: 4 – 7; Luke 17: 11-19)
1 At the centre of each city,
here where commerce drowns out tears,
hear the cry of Christ, forsaken,
people lost in debt or fears.
2 Different languages will mingle,
cultures bringing life to light,
yet the foreign raise new questions,
shaking what we thought was right.
3 Here new neighbours rubbing shoulders,
help to make us look anew
at the way we live together,
testing if our love is true
Andrew E Pratt (born 1948)
© 2014 Stainer and 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: GOTT WILL’S MACHEN; CROSS OF JESUS
Humanity in harmony?
Human in harmony?
Yet we have broken peace with our anger,
best left unspoken.
God, help us share as one in humanity
Cool us, calm us centre our sanity.
One earth:
our cradle of nature and nurture.
Sharing one goal,
each neighbour, each searcher:
home of existence destroyed at our peril:
Crisis? Destruction? Goodness or evil?
God, give us the courage to love one another,
sister and mother,
father and brother;
now hold us in anguish and catch those who fall,
Ground of our being and parent of all.
© Andrew Pratt 4/10/2025 Please use freely with acknowledgment.
Use for reflection or responsorially.
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