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)
Tag: grace
We stand to sing – a hymn inspired by Luke12: 32-40
We stand to sing, the fearful lose their chains inspired by Luke 12: 32-40
1 We stand to sing, the fearful lose their chains,
the key might change, yet harmony remains,
for here is love and loving grace will blend
with grace to comfort, strengthen and to mend.
2 What once we were, now damaged and worn down,
contains the essence of a seed once sown,
a seed, that nurtured, still might rise to life
beyond this hurt and harrowed, faulted strife.
3 God values every bruised and bending reed;
God sees a nascent flower and not a weed;
and so will raise us up from where we are,
the faintest, feeble spark becomes a star.
Andrew E Pratt (born 1948)
Words © 2017 Stainer and 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: HIGHLAND CATHEDRAL
If love could be the centre of the lives we seek to live – a hymn inspired by Luke 11: 4 (The Lord’s Prayer)
If love could be the centre of the lives we seek to live – inspired by Luke 11: 4 (The Lord’s Prayer) - 'forgive us our debts' Lectionary 26-7-2025
1 If love could be the centre of
the lives we seek to live,
if we could learn to measure wealth
by debts that we forgive;
then Christ would be incarnate in
all love that we could give
2 Our lives would then be measured by
our depth of love and grace,
the way in which we looked on Christ
in one another’s face.
Then Love would come to live again
within this time and place.
Andrew E Pratt (born 1948)
Words © 2014 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 6 8 6 8 6
Tune: SHELTERED DALE (used in the Methodist Hymn Book[1933] to set 'Awake, awake to love and work')
A challenge to the church to change – ‘When the church, afraid of changing’
A challenge to the church to change – ‘When the church, afraid of changing’
Hymn writers sometimes ask questions of the church and then flesh out the consequences of the actions they have described. Fred Pratt Green’s - ‘When the Church of Jesus shuts its outer door’ is one such hymn (perhaps too challenging, or near to the bone, to be in Hymns & Psalms or Singing the Faith?) As we live out the time through lectionary readings from resurrection to Pentecost we have a chance to reflect on what the church is, and what it might be expected to be. Remember that Jesus death was partly a consequence of his challenging people to change their perspectives of faith.
When the church, afraid of changing,
clings to glories of the past,
holding fast to long lost memories,
sure that it will always last,
lost in time, devoid of spirit,
know this truth, its fate is cast.
When the church no longer welcomes
people other than it's own,
when it thinks its understanding
stands complete, is fully grown,
love is rarely seen in action,
grace is only, thinly, sown.
Jesus challenged expectation,
turning tables upside down,
those who once were thought as holy
he confronted with a frown.
When, then, will we learn the lesson,
own that cross, that thorny crown?
Andrew Pratt 3/5/2025
© Words Andrew Pratt © 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.
Metre: 87 87 87
Tunes: PICARDY; RHUDDLAN
Persistent God, your gracious understanding – God’s grace at Easter
Persistent God, your gracious understanding
1 Persistent God, your gracious understanding
returns the love that often we with-hold.
When met with our resistance and denial
you greet with peace and draw us from the cold.
2 Three times you challenged Peter's frail commitment,
that stemmed from reasoned nervousness and fear.
Three times he answered that he really loved you,
you held him though he'd seemed so insincere.
3 You see beyond our actions and our motives,
you read the hope that's written in each heart,
and in this knowledge welcome home your children
by showing each and all a place and part.
Andrew E Pratt (born 1948)
Words © 2013 © 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
Tunes: HIGHWOOD; INTERCESSOR
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