‘Drones, not angels herald horror’ a hymn for 2024
from Remembrance through Advent to Christmas
Drones, not angels herald horror,
children shelter without hope,
singing now, but hell will follow.
God, through grace, give strength to cope.
Here where human hearts are broken,
all cried out, no tears to shed,
prayers are held, for fear, unspoken,
shrouded now in clouds of dread.
God reach deep through hateful anger
bent on vengeance, recompense;
listen through our warring clangour,
re-enliven common sense.
Guide us through the dust and rubble,
where our blood has stained the earth,
turning fields where all is stubble,
seeding love that signs new birth.
Andrew E Pratt (4/11/2024)
Words © 2024 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
Tune: HYFRYDOL; SCARLET RIBBONS or, perhaps, BLAENWERN
A completely new hymn for 2024 reminding us how different war is now but, nevertheless, with comparable suffering. Suitable, perhaps, for Remembrance and through Advent to Christmas given the continuing situation in the Middle East, Ukraine/Russia and many other places.
Tag: faith
When life juggles with our learning – musing on … art – doubt – faith
When life juggles with our learning – musing on … art – doubt – faith
1 When life juggles with our learning,
with the things we thought secure,
then it seems the artist’s palette
spins and faith becomes obscure.
In the wash of different colours,
as we seek for shape and form,
others paint their faith by numbers
forcing God to fit some norm.
2 But when life has torn the canvas,
when the numbers twist and slip;
then we need to find an image
that will help our hope to grip:
Holding us, when we’re past holding,
grounding when we’re insecure,
till we find a faith, not drifting,
still dynamic, free, yet sure.
Andrew Pratt (born 1948)
Words © 2011 © 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: NORMANDY (Bost)
For Holocaust Memorial in a broken world – a hymn – The day will come….
The day will come, must come, and soon – Holocaust Remembrance in a broken world
1 The day will come, must come, and soon,
when we will sing a song of joy
with sisters, brothers, not like us,
who share the image of one God.
2 Whatever name, whichever faith,
at heart we share a common bond,
a shared humanity in God,
whose name and character is love.
3 That love will drive us to the day
when every wall is broken down,
when love and joy and song are one:
that day will come, must come, and soon.
Andrew E Pratt (born 1948)
Words © 2001 © 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: LM
Tune: TALLIS’ CANON
A perfect storm – hymn Mark 4: 35 – 41
A perfect storm, as Galilee June 23rd Lectionary Mark 4 35 – 41
Hymn: A perfect storm, as Galilee
A perfect storm, as Galilee
became a foaming maelstrom,
the boats were spun and tossed like corks,
no more a sluggish doldrum.
And through it all their friend had dozed,
the chaos found him sleeping
while panic reigned, fear took control,
as crashing waves were sweeping.
A desperate cry, 'we perish, Lord',
they shook him to his senses.
Then at a word the storm was stilled
disarming their defences.
'What little faith you have, my friends,
why let such fear possess you?
See how the wind and waves obey,
how peace has come to bless you'.
What they had seen disturbed those men,
it rocked things sure and tested;
to meet with God upon that lake,
left doubt and fear arrested
Andrew Pratt
Words © 2012 © 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: 8.7.8.7
Metre: ST COLUMBA (Irish); DOMINUS REGIT ME
As an election approaches a hymn (poem,song) – If love is foremost in our faith
If love is foremost in our faith
we have a choice to make
on this and every other day,
for all else is at stake;
we see a world that’s broken down,
where poverty and fear
are trampelling the weakest ones,
with hatred lurking near.
‘Today’, God said, I give a choice
where life and death compete.
The chance is now for us to take,
to finish, to complete,
the turning of the tables here
as Christ, one time, had turned
the temple tables, scattering greed,
to free those power had spurned.
Where selfishness can cripple lives,
or love can set them free,
what happens from this moment on
rests now with you and me:
if our audacious words of grace
can frame what we would pray,
then from this moment, in our time,
let love infuse each day.
Andrew Pratt 22/5/2024 on the announcement of a General Election
Words © 2024 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: CMD
Tunes: ELLACOMBE; COE FEN; KINGSFOLD
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