Tag: hope

New Advent hymn – A quiet chill that freezes expectation

A quiet chill that freezes expectation, 
the hope of love seems distant and remote 
as war and hate are whirling all around us, 
we wait for light of which the prophets wrote.

There is no peace, no reconciliation 
as factions fired by hatred seethe and kill, 
when will it end, this constant devastation, 
when will we learn to listen, to be still? 
[When will we listen to each other, share one will?]

This advent season, dawn of love’s foundation 
is born in darkness of eternal night, 
and yet a flicker bids us hasten onward, 
as purple shadows hint at morning light.

And in this moment in our preparation 
let’s put aside our fripperies and fear, 
to make new space for gracious re-creation.
Come God, in love at last, come now, draw near. 
[Come God infuse your love in us, O come, draw near.]

Words Andrew Pratt © 2023 © 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: INTERCESSOR, [LONDONDERRY AIR]

Note: Using the tune: INTERCESSOR sing as a four verse hymn. Ignore words in [square] brackets.
Using LONDONDERRY AIR combine verses 1 & 2 and 3 & 4 to make a two verse hymn using the use the words in  [square] brackets for the last line of each verse.

Shaken confidence dismembers

A hymn inspired by Matthew 16: 21 perhaps, also useful in difficult times and when faith is tested.

‘From that time on, Jesus began to show his disciples that he must go to Jerusalem and 
undergo great suffering at the hands of the elders and chief priests and scribes, and be killed, 
and on the third day be raised.’

Shaken confidence dismembers 
faith that once had seemed secure, 
things that frighten in this moment, 
at one time had seemed demure.

Love is fractured, hope is fettered, 
grace obscured from sight or sound, 
while we cry in desperation, 
'where is safe and solid ground'.

Through the mist a form is shaping, 
living sign of love and grace, 
God embodied, present, human, 
seen in every neighbour's face.

Hold the truth when doubt is raging, 
when our lives are insecure, 
fold in love each friend and neighbour, 
till that love feels safe and sure.

Andrew E Pratt (born 1948)

© 2015 Stainer and Bell Ltd. 

Words: Andrew Pratt (born 1948) © 2015 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: 8 7 8 7

Tune: STUTTGART

Can perfect love cast out the fear and hate – a hymn inspired by a text suggested by Gordon Taylor

Can perfect love cast out the fear and hate 
Words inspired by a text suggested by Gordon Taylor at a hymn workshop of the Hymn Society of Great Britain and Ireland in Lincoln July 2023. The theme is a response to the Government’s Illegal Immigration Bill.

Can perfect love cast out the fear and hate 
that festers in a hardened, ravaged heart, 
when lives abandoned to a savage sea,
have hope denied, grace drowned out from the start.

As cold officials act with callous power
we sing the words that plead and pray for care,
to see humanity in each new face
to wipe away the tears of rank despair.

How long, O God, will we discard the lives, 
that you have birthed that we should seek to save, 
who caught by circumstance, or course of life,
we destine to a swirling, watery grave.

Yes perfect love can cast out fear and hate 
that festers in each hardened, ravaged heart, 
when we reach out to others in their need.
Through gracious words, new hope has power to start.

© Andrew Pratt 19/7/2023 Words © 2023 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: YANWORTH

Easter hymn – We cannot speculate, or glance

An empty tomb is just empty. It took a meeting with Jesus to convince a woman, then a group of men that Jesus, who had died on a cross, was alive. It is still difficult to believe. Yet after two thousand years, whatever we believe, as Geoffrey Best has written on Facebook, ‘…in this (hi)story is the revelation of the very nature of God, a God who takes all that we throw and absorbs and transforms the dead and deadly into life abundant .... if we let it!’ Amen!

1	We cannot speculate, or glance 
	into the well of history. 
	Nor can we look beyond this time 
	with any sense of certainty. 
	We only have our faith and hope, 
	to make us stand, to help us cope.
	
2	Great God we grasp at straws of faith,
	of things we hope will point to you. 
	We read the ancient texts and scan 
	those distant myths to make them new. 
	And all the time we live between 
	these metaphors and what is seen.
	
3	The past is gone, we cannot hear 
	more than an echo down the age. 
	And what is still to come we fear; 
	we see each other's pent up rage.
	Yet what we need is close at hand, 
	your present love in every land.
	
4	True resurrection brings to bear 
	the things that heal, create, unite. 
	Love launches its triumphant praise 
	and builds on joy and will delight.
	The former things are passed away, 
	dead night transformed to brightest day.

Metre: 8 8 8 8 8 8 Tune: ABINGDON
Andrew E Pratt (born 1948) 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.

Art © Andrew Pratt 2022