God disarm us from the language
God disarm us from the language
that will harm, or dispossess,
that disparages our neighbour
words that hurt, or bring distress.
God bring love instead of hatred,
tear down barriers we have built,
bring your grace among all nations,
takeaway our fear and guilt.
Take us, use us, in this purpose,
so our actions emulate,
all that brings us peaceful living,
not just tools of chance or fate.
Build between us bonds of friendship,
bridges in the place of lies,
till we’re bound with one another:
held by love that none denies.
Andrew E. Pratt (born 1948)
© 2026 Stainer and 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
Metre: 8.7.8.7
Tune: SHIPSTON
Tag: fear
Filled with fear may love surround us
Filled with fear may love surround us
Filled with fear may love surround us,
spirit ground us, in that love,
drench us with this expectation
here on, earth not just above.
May each day extend a welcome,
open hands and open hearts,
open homes that offer shelter,
love that never more departs.
God enfold us, always hold us,
may our human love extend
’til all people, every nation
know your love can never end.
Words: Andrew Pratt (born 1948) © 18 August 2026 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.
Metre: 8.7.8.7 Tune: ALL FOR JESUS
Hurricane Melissa – hymn-iPad art
Fraught with danger, dark foreboding,
fear is lurking in the wings,
swirling thund’rous winds uplifting,
cosmic forces, shattered things.
Buildings lifted, structures sundered,
lives are broken, swept aside,
God where is your promised presence
when there is no place to hide?
Take us, hold us, mother, fold us
in the harbour of your love,
guide us through this present moment,
quell this torment peaceful dove.
Andrew E Pratt (born 1948)
Words © 2025 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: ALL FOR JESUS
Gaza – A velvet spiral clothed the earth
Gaza – poem – ‘A velvet spiral clothed the earth’
A velvet spiral clothed the earth
where dust and ashes fluttered down.
While tear stained eyes foresaw the dawn:
the shadow of a dearth of love;
and fear is all we own…
© Andrew Pratt 2025.
If God in love invests us with a voice – a Christian response to war?
At at a time of continued war in Israel/Palestine and Ukraine/Russia as people seek, or fear, to protest what might our Christian response be?
If God in love invests us with a voice,
and given hell on earth, a human choice,
we cannot cry our tears into this night
if we are silent with our people’s plight.
Don’t say that they are foreign, not our own,
these faces greeting rocket, tank or drone,
for as these people flee towards our shore
they seek for care and safety, nothing more.
Humanity, the common life we share,
is all that’s left that we can hold and bear,
so as we look into each human face,
see Christ and through God’s Spirit offer grace.
Andrew Pratt 7/9/2025
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: 10.10.10.10
Tune: EVENTIDE; ST AGNES (Langran)
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