Good God what are we doing? – a hymn in a time of war and remembrance of Hiroshima
Good God what are we doing
upon this harrowed earth,
with children starved, or banished,
a hell has to come to birth?
And even now the mid-wives
see nurtured babies die,
while politicians hunker
and hide behind a lie.
If God is good the image
that we uphold and bear
is marred beyond cognition,
humanity lacks care.
A spark of holy presence
becomes a fading shard
while hopeful grace is damaged,
love’s clarity is barred.
Good God forgive indifference
that lets our children die,
raise up again a spirit
of grace beyond a sigh,
until we cradle babies
and nurture them with love,
until war’s hawks are banished,
peace settling like dove.
Andrew E Pratt (born 1948)
Words © 2026 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: PASSION CHORALE
Tag: Hiroshima
Hiroshima Day – a possible hymn
Hiroshima Day is marked every year on 6 August, the day in 1945 on which the United States dropped an atomic bomb on the city of Hiroshima in Japan. The film Oppenheimer explores some of the ethical questions related to this event. Others have questioned its rights and wrongs since 1945. The following poem/hymn was written in response to the photo of a little boy rescued from a bombed building in Allepo in Syria. Equally it is evocative of children everywhere suffering whenever we settle our disputes through war or violence. It speaks as much to our vision of a destroyed city as to the cries of a single child: A bloodied child foreshadowed by a cross, both share their taste of evil and of loss, and when will people ever live and learn that hurt and harm is all that war can earn? We hold our breath in horror as we view this scene forever old, forever new; amid the dust and rubble strewn around a child cries out and parents can’t be found. How long, O Lord we cry, each hollow word, our pleas of peace increasingly absurd? Good God, forgive us when inaction’s voice speaks loudly of our violent, hurtful choice. Words: Andrew Pratt (born 1948) © 18 August 2016 Stainer & Bell Ltd, London, England, 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: 10.10.10.10. Suggested tunes: these words were written with the tune EVENTIDE (StF 141) in mind. Singing the Faith plus suggests these alternatives: THE COST OF DISCIPLESHIP (StF 640) and – perhaps surprisingly – WOODLANDS (StF 186)
Hiroshima Day Poem
Hiroshima Day Poem – Hiroshima Day is designated as August 6th
This can be used as a responsive prayer
As we remember holocaust,
in horror disbelieving
the history of the human race,
we share each other’s grieving;
God purge us of hypocrisy,
of all our self-deceiving.
Our language is inadequate,
unfit for the expression
of hatred that we visualise,
humanity’s confession;
we hurry headlong into hell,
we witness love’s regression.
The deepest, distant agony
that throbs through all creation,
the silent tears that quietly fall
in every generation,
are signs of our humanity,
our need for re-creation.
God give us strength to make a pledge
to move beyond contention,
to see, in each, humanity.
Through greater good intention,
God, move us toward a purer love,
a gracious intervention.
Andrew E Pratt
Words © 2003 © 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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