Tag: creation

Our responsibility to be stewards of the earth – Hymn – The care of our planet

In between All Souls, All Saints and Remembrance Sunday we are witness to COP 27, the United Nations Climate Change Conference, beginning on the Sunday 6th November. This is an international meeting which the UK has chaired. We are handing the Chair to Egypt and for various reasons our Prime Minister has indicated he will not attend it. King Charles has been advised not to attend. This hymn, written in 2019 and used last year in Durham Cathedral emphasises our responsibility to be stewards of the creation (Psalm 8: 6-8).

1 The care of our planet, the threat of extinction, 
alerts us to need to be stewards of the earth: 
this place of great beauty, our God given tenure, 
the place of our nurture, the globe of our birth. 

2 This place we must guard for each new generation, 
to leave as we found it or, better, restored; 
to share each resource without greed or pretension, 
not barring the needy, not plunder, nor hoard. 

3 The banquet of God is for all of God's people, 
communion companions are both rich and poor, 
our ultimate end will remove all distinctions, 
no birth right or creed can obstruct heaven's door. 

4 God's commonwealth love can encompass all nations, 
but here in this place we must all make a start: 
a life of acceptance of sister and brother, 
the practice of loving, a God given art. 

Andrew E Pratt (born 1948) 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.

Tune: STREETS OF LAREDO; ST CATHERINE'S COURT

Used at Durham Cathedral on Climate Sunday, 17th October 2021.

Creator God: in lightning, clouds and thunder – a new hymn

Creator God: in lightning, clouds and thunder, 
I hear your voice, I sense the mountains shake.
But love is greater, causes me to wonder, 
and in this moment faith begins to wake.
 
    So I will sing in praise of all I see, 
    and in God's grace, I place my trust; 
    and through our lives may love confound our fear. 
    Sing praise to God, for God is love.
 
I look to stars, foundations of creation, 
reflections gleam from streams as I pass by, 
from mountain pass to shingle by the ocean,
the breath of God is moving with each sigh.
 
Within this world a human once embodied 
a depth of love beyond what had been known, 
a love that gave forgiveness once in dying, 
that we could find in life, that all could own.
 
And when my breath is ceasing as I’m dying
may grace confirm the hope that faith has given,
this human love that I have known in living 
grows firmer, deeper in the love of heaven.

© Andrew Pratt 29/9/2022

Searing incandescent spirit – A hymn reflecting on John 13: 34 – 35

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

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
For lyrics copyright see text above.

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

Hear the tune at –

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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