Tag: Advent

A hymn in anticipation of Advent – The crash of constellations

A hymn in anticipation of Advent - The crash of constellations

1	The crash of constellations, 
	where prejudice divides, 
	where love is torn and broken, 
	where hatred still resides, 
	is where we meet as equals 
	and share what God has given, 
	diversity in concord,  			
	a foretaste of God's heaven.
	
2	This is the time for praying,
	yet prayer is not the end, 
	for reconciliation
	needs grace that God will send.
	And in that grace our vision, 
	our eyes are opened wide,
	to see Christ in the other, 
	and then we must decide:
	
3	Is love of God yet greater 
	than human words and creeds?
	Is love of neighbour furnished
	by human loving deeds?
	And can we live together
	or must we be apart,
	because of human diff'rence
	though we are one in heart?
	
4	God give us grace to fathom 
	the riches of your care,
	and then the strength to shoulder
	the ministry we bear;
	that working with each other
	acknowledging the worth
	of love we share together
	we'll spread your peace on earth.

Andrew Pratt (born 1948)
Words © 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.
Metre: 7 6 7 6 7 6 
Tune: THORNBURY


As we tread this Advent pathway – new poem/hymn

Travelling through Advent, a poem or, if you wish to sing, a hymn

As we tread this advent pathway – a reflective poem

As we tread this advent pathway 
stepping through this mystery, 
wonder fills each human heartbeat, 
carves new ways through history.
Others walked this way before us, 
in a different time and space, 
spoke a language foreign, distant, 
delving deeply through God's grace.

Now within imagination 
art and science visualise 
things beyond our comprehension, 
truths we've yet to realise.
Here all language strains and fractures,   
struggles to describe, inform 
what our senses lay before us, 
fail to offer shape and form.

Yet, in faith, while frail, we fumble 
reaching through the mists of time, 
finding still, within this season,
cosmic love, incarnate rhyme.


As we tread this advent pathway – an Advent hymn

As we tread this advent pathway 
stepping through this mystery, 
wonder fills each human heartbeat, 
carves new ways through history.

Others walked this way before us, 
in a different time and space, 
spoke a language foreign, distant, 
delving deeply through God's grace.

Now within imagination 
art and science visualise 
things beyond our comprehension, 
truths we've yet to realise.

Here all language strains and fractures,   
struggles to describe, inform 
what our senses lay before us, 
fail to offer shape and form.

Yet, in faith, while frail, we fumble 
reaching through the mists of time, 
finding still, within this season,
cosmic love, incarnate rhyme.
Andrew E Pratt 30/11/2024
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
Tunes: CHAPEL BRAE; SHIPSTON; STUTTGART

Advent in uncertain times – Active love, not fearful frenzy – a hymn

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)


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

‘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.