Tag: justice

Idyllic beaches break the waves – a hymn relating to migration and asylum – sadly still pertinent..

These images will not be diminished by persecuting migrants, nor by making a false distinction between those seeking asylum and so called economic migrants. We need to welcome as fellow human beings people coming to our shores who are fleeing fear or poverty and to provide them with safe passage to our shores and a humanitarian reception.

1	Idyllic beaches break the waves 
	as bathers line the shore
	This view of peace is now disturbed:
	an aftermath of war.
	The ones who fled from lives they knew 
	have gone in fear and dread, 
	the ships that offered hope to them 
	are sunk with many dead.
 
2	And where is God amid the swell 
	where tides still ebb and flow,
	unfeeling of this loss of life,
	as others come and go?
	The commerce of the world goes on. 
	Can we ignore the pain?
	It is as though we're blind to see 
	Christ crucified again.
 
3	The ones who drown are ones we own 
	as neighbours we should love;
	how can we turn our eyes away, 
	avert our gaze above?
	For when our politics conspires 
	to shut the door to grace 
	it is as though we turn away 
	from Jesus' tortured face.

Andrew E Pratt (born 1948)
Words © 2015 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.

CMD
Tune: KINGSFOLD

Beatitude hymn – In places where there is no church

The Beatitudes are enigmatic – blessings for those who seem least blessed (Luke 6: 17 – 26). I’ve often thought that part of our calling as Christians is to embody and enable those blessings by our love in action. Jesus shows us how. This hymn was inspired by this theme


1	In places where there is no church, 
where hope is hard to find, 
we touch the hands made rough by life 
to seek a common mind.
We go where others would not go, 
perhaps would fear to tread, 
to go beyond our walls and ways 
wherever we are led.


2	Where commerce rules we ply our trade, 
our currency is grace, 
and all we have to offer is 
God's love to fill this place.
In prisons where we sit with those
whom justice has condemned,
we seek to mirror Jesus' love
that fear might have an end.


3	And while a person lives in pain 
a quiet voice can say, 
this time will pass, love holds you still,
we'll see another day.
In searing heat or arctic cold 
where lives are ripped and torn, 
or where a family waits in fear 
we share another dawn.


4	And is it arrogant to say 
we look with Jesus' eyes? 
We seek to see his face in all, 
to hear him in their sighs.
And so our calling is to serve, 
to go where Christ has led, 
go out, go all, go to the world, 
God's people must be fed.


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: CMD
Tune: WORKING FOR CHRIST (by Camilla Cederholm who I met in Finland – see More than hymns, No.70)

Discipleship, justice and mercy – a hymn

This last week some of us have remembered Jesus being presented in the temple. Soon our readings turn to the calling of disciples. We follow in their footsteps. As we do we are presented, not just with things we should believe, but how we live, the values we should hold.



1	God's commandments link together 
justice, mercy, love and grace; 
elements to guide the framing 
of our laws within this place.
Yet the laws and legal judgments 
that we form through human thought, 
all too easily diminish 
values that the Christ had sought.


2	As we follow in his footsteps
as disciples, let us find, 
ways to live in peace together, 
ways that bring God's grace to mind;
ways of gracious peaceful living, 
that might spread throughout the earth,
ways of God's audacious giving:
let the spirit find new birth.


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: 8 7 8 7 D
Tune: BETHANY (Smart)

Hymn in commemoration of Desmond Tutu

This day we have witnessed a man for all people,
a man who was human, held fast what is right,
for this he has lived with profound dedication,
he shone in the world, don't extinguish that light.

And we who are human stand now in remembrance,
frail shadows of all he has shown we can be.
He not only preached, but embodied the values
that showed through his living that all can be free.

The man we remember has died, will be buried,
yet while we live justly his theme will not fall.
His spirit is living, will not be extinguished,
the love he embraced will be ever for all.

Words: Andrew Pratt (born 1948) text originally written for Nelson Mandela alt by the author      © 2013/2021 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.