Tag: care

Great prophet of pity – A hymn inspired by Romans 12: 1-8

Great prophet of pity - A hymn inspired by Romans 12: 1-8

Great prophet of pity, subversive in love,
unsettle our comfort, divert and reprove;
that, moved from self-interest, and shielded from pride,
we might yet embody the gifts of your bride.

O raise up your people and fit them to care
for all who are lonely or lost in despair.
The reed that is bending, the wick that burns low,
through grace and persistence, God, help them to grow.

From each generation, race, colour or creed,
Christ, gather together, united by need,
the ones that you value, and God, may we find,
in spite of ourselves that your welcome is kind.

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: 11 11 11 11
Tune: ST DEINIO

Can perfect love cast out the fear and hate – a hymn inspired by a text suggested by Gordon Taylor

Can perfect love cast out the fear and hate 
Words inspired by a text suggested by Gordon Taylor at a hymn workshop of the Hymn Society of Great Britain and Ireland in Lincoln July 2023. The theme is a response to the Government’s Illegal Immigration Bill.

Can perfect love cast out the fear and hate 
that festers in a hardened, ravaged heart, 
when lives abandoned to a savage sea,
have hope denied, grace drowned out from the start.

As cold officials act with callous power
we sing the words that plead and pray for care,
to see humanity in each new face
to wipe away the tears of rank despair.

How long, O God, will we discard the lives, 
that you have birthed that we should seek to save, 
who caught by circumstance, or course of life,
we destine to a swirling, watery grave.

Yes perfect love can cast out fear and hate 
that festers in each hardened, ravaged heart, 
when we reach out to others in their need.
Through gracious words, new hope has power to start.

© Andrew Pratt 19/7/2023 Words © 2023 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: 10.10.10.10
Tune: YANWORTH

New Year hymn, a resolution, perhaps – Infectious faith

1	Infectious faith we demonstrate by action,  
	when words are lived and people feel God's grace,  
	when platitudes are kept in quiet abeyance,  
	and love expressed through every human face.  

2	This is the witness we are called to offer: 
	the smile of welcome and the touch of care,  
	when every neighbour frames the Christ we honour,  
	the angel that we're greeting unaware. 

3	My friend, we cannot claim to grace the Godhead 
	when those who stand in tatters at our door 
	are turned away without a moment's notice,  
	while others sleep upon a stone cold floor.  

4	Our faith and love are nothing, simply empty,  
	just words we fling against a cloud filled sky,  
	when those we see derided, disregarded, 
	are left, without our protest, just to die. 

5	Are we to be just noisy, clanging cymbals,  
	or signs of hope upon this cold, dark earth?  
	Ours is the calling now to re-imagine 
	the love of God, to sign each person's worth. 

Andrew E Pratt (born 1948) Words © 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.
Metre: 11 10 11 10
Tune: INTERCESSOR

Idyllic beaches break the waves – a hymn relating to migration and asylum – sadly still pertinent..

These images will not be diminished by persecuting migrants, nor by making a false distinction between those seeking asylum and so called economic migrants. We need to welcome as fellow human beings people coming to our shores who are fleeing fear or poverty and to provide them with safe passage to our shores and a humanitarian reception.

1	Idyllic beaches break the waves 
	as bathers line the shore
	This view of peace is now disturbed:
	an aftermath of war.
	The ones who fled from lives they knew 
	have gone in fear and dread, 
	the ships that offered hope to them 
	are sunk with many dead.
 
2	And where is God amid the swell 
	where tides still ebb and flow,
	unfeeling of this loss of life,
	as others come and go?
	The commerce of the world goes on. 
	Can we ignore the pain?
	It is as though we're blind to see 
	Christ crucified again.
 
3	The ones who drown are ones we own 
	as neighbours we should love;
	how can we turn our eyes away, 
	avert our gaze above?
	For when our politics conspires 
	to shut the door to grace 
	it is as though we turn away 
	from Jesus' tortured face.

Andrew E Pratt (born 1948)
Words © 2015 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.

CMD
Tune: KINGSFOLD