If this book is as insightful as the review suggests then it ought to, not simply make us think but, change our ways within the church. The only condition I add is that I have not read the book. The review in itself ought to be recommended reading.
Tag: grace
When strangers are unwelcome – those needing asylum
When strangers are unwelcome When strangers are unwelcome the church’s heart beats slow, the lost who run from danger have nowhere left to go. No words of grace are spoken while, looking on the world, the heart of God is broken: love’s banner tightly furled. The people at our borders who need compassion now, reach out for care and shelter, but rules will not allow these ones to seek asylum: we put up legal walls. Before we’ve even met them we disregard their calls. Then images from scripture speak judgment on the church, and call for clearer thinking as values seize or lurch. The Christ that we would worship would turn the world around, and shake us from our comfort, our certain, solid ground. Then shatter walls and windows and let the church reach out, and not with Psalms and anthems, but anger, let us shout condemning every outrage that demonises life, and break the laws that damage, evoking human strife. Andrew Pratt 30/7/2021 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: 7.6.7.6 D Tune: AURELIA; KINGS LYNN Inspired by a front page item in the Methodist Recorder 30/7/2021 involving an interview with Rev Inderjit Bhogal.
As we move towards debate and decision in Methodism
A hymn written earlier this year https://hymnsandbooks.blog/2021/04/24/change-us-god-into-the-likeness-hymn-for-times-of-debate-and-decision/
Hymn responding to Ms Steph Bryant’s Seminar for Bramhall Methodist Church Climate Change Series
Ms Steph Bryant Youth and Schools Programme Co-Director, The Faraday Institute for Science and Religion Our view of the stars fosters wonder, through grandeur: the sense of a cosmos within God’s embrace; from infinite chaos we’ve grown on this planet to learn, live and care, an inquisitive race. We thrive as God nurtures our fragile existence, our life is related to all life on earth, and each generation must deepen in knowledge, yet guard against arrogance in our own worth. God give us compassion to live with our neighbours, to value each species, conserve, and renew; to challenge those actions that lead to destruction, to cherish and never take more than our due. And these are the gifts we must share with our children, compassionate love and a God-given grace, this love with no limits pervades all creation from oceans and forests to infinite space. Andrew Pratt 14/6/2021 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: 12.11.12.11 Tune: STREETS OF LAREDO More information click here
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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