Tag: carnage

A hymn published in 1997 still pertinent in a world torn by war and carnage – with tune by John Kleinheksel

Lives like yours and mine, contorted – as we live in a world contorted by war and hatred, during a week remembering Hamas action of 7th October 2023 and living with Israel’s response, together with war and carnage in so many places on our planet.

1	Lives like yours and mine, contorted:
	Genocide has been reported,
	Wrong seems right, it's all distorted;
	Christ! What would you do?

2	Seeing babies starving, bleeding,
	Hearing mothers' desperate pleading,
	Would you wring your hands, unheeding?
	Christ! What would you do?

3	Watching buildings ruined, burning,
	Hearing tank tracks rumble, churning,
	Would you walk on by, not turning?
	Christ! What would you do?
	
4	Sensing fear that chills the city,
	Families threatened without pity,
	Would you pray your prayers, so pretty?
	Christ! What would you do?

5	We have seen it, all the sorrow,
	We will see the same tomorrow,
	Must this pattern always follow?
	Christ! What should we do?

Andrew E Pratt (born 1948)	
Words © 1997 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. Originally published in Blinded by the Dazzle https://stainer.co.uk/shop/b840/ 
Metre: 8 8 8 5
Tune: THERE’S NO GREATER NAME THAN JESUS (Complete Mission Praise)


John R. Kleinheksel Sr has composed the following tune which may be used with acknowledgement. 
This tune is now to be acknowledged as Copyright Stainer & Bell Ltd address as for the text.
An audio file of the tune is at the link below.

Now hell is here

Now hell is here, and words are cheap,

a bloodied sheet, a shattered bed…

as women, men and children weep,

while prayer is silent, felt not said.

 

With seeds of vengeance sown not sought,

while roots in hearts of flesh, not stone,

bring carnage traced with quiet thought

as guilt will fester none will own.

 

And distantly, in muffled sighs,

of deep regret and dark despair

we wring our hands and harbour lies,

dare not admit the blame we share.

 

© Andrew Pratt 17/10/2023

Suggested tune: ROCKINGHAM

God is crying mid the carnage – a hymn at the time of Ukrainian Christmas

God is crying mid the carnage 
of a thousand broken bones; 
in the dust and fallen rubble 
of our long discarded homes.
 
Where our children play out stories 
of the visions they have seen, 
God is weeping over losses, 
knowing just what might have been.
 
What if love instead of horror 
filled the passion of our lives, 
could these stories be re-written 
where humanity survives?
 
God still with us, God among us, 
sow new seeds of love through grace; 
help us look at one another 
building hope in every place.
Andrew Pratt (8/1/2023)

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: 8.7.8.7
Tunes: CROSS OF JESUS (Stainer); LAUS DEO (Redhead)

Written after listening to the BBC Radio 4 Sunday Service on 8/1/2023 ‘The message that Ukraine is trying to convey to the world as it celebrates its own Christmas Day’.

The programme posed the question, 'Where is God' in this war?

See also We hear the news in anguish
- Thoughts on pacifism
- God's on our side