existence – hymnsandbooks

O River Mother, spirit of creation – hymn – the motherhood of God

1           O River Mother, spirit of creation,
              flowing so freely since the dawn of time,
              source of all life and onward propagation,
              summer’s bright warmth and winter’s frozen rime.

2           Once from a riven altar, out through history,
              your source of life flowed on to all the earth;
              then cosmic letters formed the timeless story,
              charged with your passion, grace and love and worth.

3           Now at the point in time of our existence,
              through faith and science we discern our place.
              We understand your gentle, calm persistence
              folding around us with your love and grace.

4           O River Mother, flowing to the future,
              on past the present that we see and feel,
              take us, flow with us, kindly love and nurture,
              virtues that make your presence strong and real.

Andrew E. Pratt (born 1948)
Words © 2006 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: O PERFECT LOVE
Genesis 1:26-28; 2:22-23; Revelation 21; 1-5

In the beginning was the Word – a Hymn

The Gospel according to John says nothing about Jesus’ birth. It talks of ‘The Word’ becoming flesh. We can translate that today as ‘the energy, the source of all creation becoming human’. In shorthand God becoming human. This hymn echoes John Chapter 1.

1 The logic, the life-blood, the source of creation,
the word that had spoken when all came to be;
the ground of existence, of love and emotion,
this God is incarnate, the light is set free.

2 This light in the darkness could not be extinguished,
it shone through the cosmos, was coming to birth;
the great conflagration of stars in their forming
condensed to humanity, born on the earth.

3 The person of Jesus who walked in the desert,
who argued and struggled, who hungered and wept,
was one with that God-head, yet totally human,
was growing and learning, could know or forget.

4 So here in this person our God is illumined,
the word that is spoken, the love that is lived,
are clues to the nature, a window beyond us
to things we have doubted, to One we believed.

Andrew Pratt (born 1948) based on John 1
Words © 2010 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: 12 11 12 11
Tunes: ST CATHERINES COURT; STREETS OF LAREDO

No insurance – for Australia

These crazy flames lick and lap at all that ranges round us,
the trappings of our wealth,
experience and existence.
At birth we can’t anticipate our existential ending,
the length of life not ours to count or measure.
But then we face eternity,
or nothingness,
depending on belief.
Like night’s thief, flames hotter than hell’s painting are not some distant image,
but sharpened fronds dissembling each dwelling.
And if we leave reality says,
‘there is no return’.
Can faith uphold us through this conflagration?
Survival walks naked of all that we have known,
valued or possessed.
That is the option open to us.
Our Hobson has no choice.
So if we die we will know what rests beyond this life.
Remaining so much is loss or lost.
Whichever path we walk pray this,
pray only this,
that now and on beyond this moment
the love a letter writer once described
will hold,
enfold
and keep us still through all that is to come.
And no insurance…just the faith…