A hymn reflecting on John 13: 34 – 35 takes us, perhaps, toward Pentecost… I give you a new commandment, that you love one another. Just as I have loved you, you also should love one another. By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another. Searing incandescent spirit, melting rock and churning foam, turning chaos into comfort formed the planet where we roam. Now we recollect the story of the cosmic photo-call when the universe was forming earth, the cradle of us all. By this spirit prophets speaking challenged power and brought down thrones, pointed people to the Godhead, moved them from their comfort zones; turned their minds from selfish pleasure, marking wrong and putting right, led them from each ego's desert, from their introspective blight. Now the spirit doused all people, no-one could escape this shower; sons and mothers, fathers, daughters, felt this rhythmic, dancing power; soon all nations heard the clamour, every language known on earth called to every nation living, join with love and find new-birth. Andrew E Pratt; Words © 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 Tune: LUX EOI
Tag: creation
Such a fragment, just a remnant – On hearing John A Bell preaching at Comberbach Harvest
Such a fragment, just a remnant, nothing wasted, nothing lost; all creation has its value, has its purpose, place or cost. Things we count of little value have inestimable worth; every grain of soil we’re tilling, in each land upon this earth. We must treasure earth’s resources and each moment of our time, life and all we have for living, bound in loving’s endless rhyme. On hearing John A Bell preaching at Comberbach Methodist Church Harvest Andrew Pratt 26/9/2021 Words © 2021 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

Tune composed by Frances S. Drake (USA) in the week following the composition of the text. Frances can be contacted by emailing – hymncat@yahoo.com
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Hymns responding to Christopher Walsh’s Seminar for Bramhall Methodist Church Climate Change Series
Pre-meeting text Is it time to pause the picture, freeze the frame until we learn. Listen more to one another, as we focus to discern differences of our perspectives, how our neighbours live and grow, till in Christian understanding, Jesus’ love begins to show? Accidents of birth have placed us into poverty or wealth, having access to possessions, bringing peace? Destroying health? When will humans learn together how to meet our common need? How to live with one another, nurture love, that precious seed. God enable us to treasure those with whom we share this earth, those whose lives are marked by difference, yet who share our human birth; bring a clearer understanding of the planet that we share, till we grasp the trust that’s given, measured out for all to care. Andrew Pratt 15/5/2021 Words © 2021 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 Tune: BETHANY (Smart) Hymn responding to Christopher Walsh PhD Student, Tyndall Centre, University of Manchester How we trust and work together with our partners on this earth, will sustain, or damn our planet, place of nurture, home of birth. Yet removed and isolated we have not been stewards of faith, as we pray with understanding may we channel active grace. May our prayer inspire our actions, not just words or empty rhyme, all our lives are interactive, interwoven threads in time. With a common understanding sisters, brothers work as one, reap the value of creation as our time on earth is run. Metre: 8.7.8.7 Tune: ALL FOR JESUS Andrew Pratt 18/5/2021 Words © 2021 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.
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‘Is this the day’ – poem – reflection on Coronavirus inspired by thoughts of Simon Sutcliffe – link below
Is this the day that dawns today, when all the world stands still,
when human lives are challenged in their arrogant, self-will?
Is this a time to sound again the grace which from our youth
Has brought us to this point in time to face eternal truth?
We wonder at the rhythms of creation we observe,
the genesis of all we see, the laws we sense and serve,
yet when we read in scripture of the wonders of this course,
we tend to shut our eyes to one last day of rest at source.
Now is the moment action takes the place of hollow sighs,
the sighs that speak of emptiness, of loneliness and lies;
great God, within this Sabbath rest we question and explore,
is this a time when you recede, a tide drawn from the shore?
Now is a time of deep compassion, caring and concern,
when every person needs the love that money cannot earn.
This is a time when values shift and search for solid ground,
to put aside our selfishness to go where grace is found.
© Andrew Pratt 17/3/2020
https://www.facebook.com/search/top/?q=simon%20sutcliffe&epa=SEARCH_BOX
I have already found the political emphasis on economics in the face of the Coronavirus to be rather tiresome. Surely care of one another ought to be foremost and enabling the security of every person ought to take priority over all else.
Human searching started early – https://bramhallmethodists.org.uk/scienceandprayer/
Human searching started early,
when our mortal race began.
Curiosity was questing:
was life caused by chance or plan?
Science, like a lens, can focus
on components of God’s grace,
guiding us to ask more questions,
help us on the path we trace.
Scientific understanding
offers insight that can stun,
change perspective, alter meaning,
help imagination run.
How we read religious scripture,
things our context has imbued,
can enhance or muddle insight,
warp the way our faith is viewed.
Even tangled vegetation
smoth’ring ground on which we tread,
or the stars that light the cosmos
heighten wonder as they spread.
At our best God’s spirit shows us
from the earth, beyond the sky,
all creation’s awesome wonder,
filled with praise, while we reply!
Andrew Pratt 5/10/2019
Tune: CALON LAN
Metre: 8.7.8.7 D
Written in response to Dr Ruth Bancewicz’s seminar on ‘All creation praises God’.
Words © 2019 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.