Tag: hatred

When nations are healed – a hymn for today

1 When nations are healed and all warfare is banished, 
the hungry are fed and the poor lifted high, 
the vision of glory, God’s presence among us, 
will signify love and all hatred will die.

2 The river of life will flow on unpolluted, 
the language we share will express common wealth, 
all greed and all grasping will vanish forever, 
instead of for warfare, we’ll budget for health. 

3 The light of God’s love will then shine on forever, 
the same light will shine out from each neighbour’s eyes, 
this vision need not be set far in the future, 
through love, in God’s spirit, we can grasp this prize.

Andrew E Pratt (born 1948)
© 2013 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: 12 11 12 11 Tunes: THE ASH GROVE; SAINT CATHERINE’S COURT

God, when hope of peace is sullied – for Ukraine

God, when hope of peace is sullied 

God, when hope of peace is sullied,
sown with hatred, fed with lies, 
threaded through with blind rhetoric,
strengthen us and hear our cries.

Give us language to remodel 
human values lost in dust
sharing through our conversation 
lives of loving, living trust.

Take away all greed and grasping, 
soothe our sorrow, meet our need,
help us as we seek to nurture 
every bruised, or broken, reed.

May we see in every nation 
siblings of a common birth, 
seeing Christ in one another 
sharing heritage and worth.

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

Written following President Trump’s meeting with Volodymyr Zelenskyy, President of Ukraine, 28/2/2025.

How long O Lord?

1 How long, O Lord, how long
must carnage blight our age?
How long before all humankind
let love disarm their rage?


2 The streets still run with blood
as dust distils the light;
while buildings clouded by the pall
of smoke are hid from sight.


3 Our children huddle, dead,
the world seems blind to wrong;
when will your people heed your word?
How long, O Lord, how long?

Andrew E. Pratt (born 1948)

© 2006 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: SM

Tune: TRENTHAM

When language demeans… poem

When language just demeans ones we should love 
we know that we we have lost our common sense, 
we leave the lost diminished without care,
and hatred permeates the present tense.


And in this moment evil can be felt, 
while silence is an option to avoid, 
a voiceless church denies the life of Christ, 
as neighbours face an unremitting void.

© Andrew Pratt 12/3/2023

Advent 1 – hymn – This is the time of waiting

Advent – a time of waiting – more than a calendar with sweets, more than an extra candle lit each Sunday, perhaps a time to move from darkness into light, from penitence to praise?

A hymn inspired by Isaiah 2:2

2:2 In days to come the mountain of the Lord's house shall be established as the highest of the mountains, and shall be raised above the hills; all the nations shall stream to it.

1	This is the time of waiting,
	the calm before the storm,
	the time of Advent judgement,
	the coming of the dawn;
	a time of recollection,
	of Christ's audacious hope,
	beyond imagination,
	outside our human scope.

2	The nations will be gathered,
	the age will be fulfilled,
	the judgement be enacted,
	as Christ had hoped and willed.
	But for this consummation
	such birth-pangs will be felt, 
	like rupturing of wine-skins, 
	the earth will heave and melt. 

3	For love to be exalted, 
	for hatred to be banned, 
	our human goals must shatter,
	division must be spanned. 
	A change of mind is needed 
	as we are turned around, 
	to move from desecration, 
	to find love's solid ground. 

Andrew E Pratt (born 1948)
Words © 2018 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