We cannot privatise God's grace inspired by Luke 6:27-38
1 We cannot privatise God's grace
and in our hearts we know it.
The love of God is ours, it's free,
we know that we must show it.
2 The neighbour that becomes a friend
becomes a gift God's given,
the barrier that's broken down,
a clearer path to heaven.
3 So, take my hand and let us dance
the freedom steps from prison,
a choreography of love
where joy is no illusion.
Andrew E Pratt (born 1948)
Words © 2002, 2006, 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
Tunes: DOMINUS REGIT ME; ST COLUMBA (Irish – 8787)
Tag: joy
For Holocaust Memorial in a broken world – a hymn – The day will come….
The day will come, must come, and soon – Holocaust Remembrance in a broken world
1 The day will come, must come, and soon,
when we will sing a song of joy
with sisters, brothers, not like us,
who share the image of one God.
2 Whatever name, whichever faith,
at heart we share a common bond,
a shared humanity in God,
whose name and character is love.
3 That love will drive us to the day
when every wall is broken down,
when love and joy and song are one:
that day will come, must come, and soon.
Andrew E Pratt (born 1948)
Words © 2001 © 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: LM
Tune: TALLIS’ CANON
The children would follow the peal of your piping – Hymn – Matthew 11: 16 – 17
A hymn inspired by Matthew 11:16-17 Jesus said, “But to what will I compare this generation? It is like children sitting in the marketplaces and calling to one another, 'We played the flute for you, and you did not dance; we wailed, and you did not mourn'”. The children would follow the peal of your piping, the ring of your reason, the joy of your love, the children would follow, and none would deter them from plateaus so barren to mountains above. And those who are childlike still follow your calling; a calling to suffer, yet dusted with hope. The way to fulfilment, to peace and to plenty. is fissured and rutted but still we will cope. God's joy is the centre of all that we hope for, a calling for everyone, not just for some; the music is moving, can't stop ourselves singing, still Jesus is piping and still people come! Andrew Pratt (born 1948) Words © 2006 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
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
The Beatitudes – a hymn – A contradictory blessing
The Beatitudes - A contradictory blessing The gospel reading appointed for this coming Sunday, Matthew 5:1-12, is known as the Beatitudes. The following hymn was inspired by this passage: 1 A contradictory blessing of those who feel unblessed, when life is torn and twisted for this to be redressed; a time of reparation and yet a time for grace when those who feel forsaken will meet God face to face. 2 And in that time of meeting, the hurt will find new joy, the poor will welcome riches, more than they could deploy; the mourning will find comfort, the lost will see God's light to bring them to the dawning, beyond their darkest night. 3 The ones who ache with hunger will share a glorious feast, and those reviled and hated will find they are released. The gentle will inherit the greatest gift of all, while rafters ring with laughter where crying filled the hall. 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. Metre: 7 6 7 6 D Tune: THORNBURY
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