creation – hymnsandbooks

Star strewn garments clothe the heavens – hymn, for harvest or creation season

Hymn inspired by the 1 Timothy. Suitable, perhaps, for harvest or creation season worship or reflection.

A song of creation inspired by 1 Timothy

Star strewn garments clothe the heavens,
robes of beauty, source of awe;
Spirit God transcending hist’ry,
way beyond where pulsars soar.

Mountains rise up from the valleys,
folded like a gathered cloak
seas and rivers, great sierra,
lofty cedar, ageing oak.

God beyond our understanding,
God of wisdom, Lord of days;
God of miracle and wonder,
You deserve our life-long praise!

Metre: 8 7 8 7
Tune: STUTTGART

Andrew E Pratt (born 1948)
Words © 2017 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.

Hymn inspired by Romans 5 – God of consistency

Hymn inspired by Romans 5 - God of consistency - Suitable for Aldersgate Sunday

1	God of consistency, love without limits, 
	ground of all being and all that will be, 
	compass us round with compassionate kindness, 
	higher than mountains, as deep as the sea.

2	God of all graciousness, walking beside us, 
	there at our birthing, yet on beyond death,
	God of transcendence, unrivalled, majestic, 
	God beyond knowledge, yet closer than breath.

3	God in all being, yet ground of existence, 
	God beyond grasping, unbounded by law,
	while we are moved to sing loud alleluias,
	here would we worship in silence and awe.

Andrew E Pratt (born 1948)
Words © 2014 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: STEWARDSHIP (Ruddle)

Giver of life, of breath, of bread – a hymn by a friend who describes it as ‘perennially topical’

Giver of life, of breath, of bread - Doug Constable

Giver of life, of breath, of bread,
from whose self-giving souls are fed,
from whom we learn the priceless worth
of every creature born on earth:

hear the poor prayers of aching hearts
weighed down by conscience-piercing darts;
for You command Your love’s good will:
no ifs no buts, Thou shalt not kill.

Self-sacrificing Christ, you grieve
 both for the dead and folks who leave
their hearts at home, who take up guns,
who let bombs fall on helpless ones.

Spirit, whose strength springs fresh from High,
comfort all victims marked to die;
relieve each soul found in distress;
curb all who’d rather curse than bless.

On those, unmoved by war’s alarms,
who profit by the sale of arms,
drop fires of purging faith, to burn
all fears to ash in love’s safe urn.

Merciful God, Beginning, End,
Saviour-Redeemer, sinner’s friend,
war-ending Spirit, breathing peace:
 weep with us till death-dealing cease ...

© Doug Constable  17.9 to 15.6.2024

Suggested tune: RIVAULX

Thank you Doug - sadly needful

Resurrection Hymn – Here on the crest of the wave of creation

Here on the crest of the wave of creation

Here on the crest of the wave of creation,
roaring and rolling beyond time and place;
God is transforming through quiet resurrection,
challenging hopelessness, offering grace.
	
Now we will follow the steps that will lead us
on through the horrors and hatred of life,
on through the angst ridden pain of bereavement,
on through the cross to the ending of strife.
	
Here at faith's edge where our peace is beginning,
God soaring free through our chaos and pain,
here is the meaning of loving and living,
here is the place of our rising again.

Andrew Pratt (born 1948)
Words © 2008 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: EPIPHANY HYMN

Watercolour and Luminar © Andrew Pratt

Why earthquakes? – a reflective poem

If God created all that is,

then earthquake, wind and fire

are just as much laid at God’s door,

the stakes could not be higher.

I questioned once, and just like Job,

the answer was unclear.

It seems existence on this globe

is allied to our fear.

Without a moving, fragile crust,

this earth could not bear life;

no mountains, canyons, rivers seas,

we’re balanced on a knife.

These earthquakes challenge love and hope,

can undermine our grace,

yet this our existential need:

to build love in this place.