Hidden Saints – a hymn for All Saints

1	She had sewn her life with sadness
	Of the thread that joined each part;
	Now she weaves the song of gladness,
	Now rejoices in her heart.
	Though her fingers, bent, were crippled,
	Though her mind was taught with pain,
	Now as heaven's ether ripples,
	She has grasped a greater gain.

2	He had plumbed the shafts of wonder,
	Dug the coal from earth's dark veins;
	Now the darkness ripped asunder,
	Tells that more than life remains.
	Though his were lungs were torn with crying,
	Though his flesh was bruised and scarred,
	Now he soars, to glory climbing,
	Shares the loud angelic chord.

3	He had worked and toiled and worried
	At the tasks he undertook,
	He had hurtled, rushed and hurried
	Giving life no second look.
	Now at last the task is finished,
	Now the day is dead and gone,
	Urgency has been relinquished,
	Satisfied he joins the song.
	
4	We had seen a body lying,
	One we loved, as still as death;
	Now by faith, that death defying,
	Through God's resurrection breath
	Heaven now is more than story,
	Love is more than want or gain.
	Saints are carolling the glory
	Of the God they know by name.
	
Andrew E Pratt (born 1948)
Words © 1997 Stainer & Bell Ltd, London, England, http://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 D Trochaic
Tune: HYFRYDOl


Pulsar discoverer Jocelyn Bell Burnell wins Breakthrough Prize – Hymn – In quasars, quarks and pulsars

This hymns was written over 30 yeaars ago after reading Stephen Hawking's Brief history of time

1	The God of cosmic question
	Surprises by his birth,
	Not in some new dimension
	But on this ravaged earth!

2	In quasars, quarks and pulsars
	We seek the cosmic truth:
	The ground of our existence
	That set creation loose,

3	And human senses lead us,
	Through all they analyse,
	From arrogance to wonder,
	To spiritual surprise.

4	But senses have their limits:
	Unanswered still there lies
	The single, deepest question
	Our intellect supplies.

5	Yet history proffers insight:
	The Christ of time and space
	Speaks of a God incarnate
	Amid this curious race:

6	Alive within our compass,
	Upon this ravaged earth,
	The God of cosmic question
	Surprises by his birth!

Andrew E Pratt (born 1948)	
© 1991 Stainer & Bell Ltd 
7 6 7 6 Iambic Tunes: KINGS LYNN (also COSMIC QUESTION)
Published in Blinded by the Dazzle

Alternative second verse -

2	At scientific frontiers
	We seek the cosmic truth:
	The ground of our existence
	That set creation loose,



God would not will what we have seen

1	God would not will what we have seen,
	the terror, violence, death;
	for God is love, the source of life,
	the essence of our breath.

2	God would not break the damaged reed,
	the smouldering wick is fanned;
	yet human power, our want and greed
	can counter what God planned.

3	Our will is free, our way we choose,
	to act for good or ill,
	to offer love, to calm or heal,
	to damage or to kill.

4	God give us courage in the face
	of carnage that we see,
	to work for life, to live for love,
	to set your people free.

Andrew E. Pratt (born 1948) (alt Andrew Pratt 13/8/2021
Words © 2006 Stainer & Bell Ltd, London, England, http://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: CM



Hymn for the Day 13 – This is the newborn baby – FACE OF JESUS

I thought I knew most of Martin Leckebusch’s hymns, but this wonderful text is new to me. Set beautifully and sung by Sue Gilmurray https://hymnsocietygbi.org.uk/2021/07/this-is-the-newborn-baby-sue-gilmurray/?fbclid=IwAR1vDHgVTtWysEx5jE2e6nHBLSWfCax51buGNWN214eEtjFM2TfmPcRAXVc

Hymn responding to Dr Cecilia Medupin’s Seminar for Bramhall Methodist Church Climate Change Series

Dr Cecilia Medupin
Dept of Earth and Environmental Sciences, 
University of Manchester

Dry, cracked and crazed the water-bed lies empty, 
the earth is thirsty, rain is slow to come, 
this news is hidden, floods have filled the headlines, 
the prophets now, not heard, might well be dumb.

This is the earth the ground of life, our being, 
our home to share, to nurture and protect, 
a gift of God for us and all God’s creatures, 
to use our knowledge, work to good effect.

As people wait, the wells of life are barren, 
how long, O God, before your people learn 
that we must live and love and work together, 
to answer needs that science can discern.

The brightest light of wisdom dims in sadness, 
if we ignore the needs of all the earth,
if selfishly we dominate creation, 
deny the love once given at our birth.

Great God, earth mother, father of creation, 
we plead and cry that you will hear each voice, 
then motivate your people, bring fresh waters, 
till earth can sing and once again rejoice!

Andrew Pratt 18/6/2021 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: 11.10.11.10 
Tune: INTERCESSOR  (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vX0q8eBGE7A)

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