Catholic Spirit
With tender conviction I sense love is calling,
no grace is withheld, nor forgiveness repressed,
all people are held in unfathomable comfort,
this love is eternal, forever expressed.
The judgment some fear is a human construction,
for grace is a scandal for those who would judge,
they see it as fair to condemn, exact hatred,
while mercy is something they want to begrudge.
For me none is distanced from love by an action,
a word or a deed, we might not understand,
yet God’s love is wider, beyond comprehension,
if you share this creed, my friend, give me your hand!
[For me none is distanced from love by an action,
compassionate grace, could not set us apart,
for God’s love is wider, beyond comprehension,
if you share this creed, then we are of one heart.]*
*Alternative last stanza after conversation and critique by Pesky Methodists, thankyou!
© Andrew Pratt 5am 29/11/2021 - 4/12/2021
Link to A version of John Wesley’s sermon
Tag: love
While the nations guard their borders,
While the nations guard their borders,
cherished cultures, ways of life,
people struggle for survival,
children die while fleeing strife.
Can we hear with calm acceptance
what the news has got to tell?
Can we claim to follow Jesus
while the world drifts into hell?
Hell is where there’s no more loving,
close at hand, not out of sight,
what we make denying others
grace of love, or hope of light.
When compassion’s drained and stranded,
voices might as well be dumb
human cries that we’ve avoided
fall on ears both blocked and numb.
Christ is calling in each murmur,
in each whisper framing need,
silence louder than God’s thunder,
loud enough to quell our greed;
yet we close our ears, our senses,
dreading every troubling fact,
lest we feel the pain of others
forcing us to rise and act.
©Andrew Pratt
26/11/2021
Why I became a Methodist
I was welcomed unconditionally, with no requirements or beliefs to be fulfilled, simply by saying to a Minister that I wanted to be part of a people who through a single, simple act, not knowing me, had made me feel valuable and trusted.
I wonder if this ever happens today in churches?
When strangers are unwelcome – those needing asylum
When strangers are unwelcome When strangers are unwelcome the church’s heart beats slow, the lost who run from danger have nowhere left to go. No words of grace are spoken while, looking on the world, the heart of God is broken: love’s banner tightly furled. The people at our borders who need compassion now, reach out for care and shelter, but rules will not allow these ones to seek asylum: we put up legal walls. Before we’ve even met them we disregard their calls. Then images from scripture speak judgment on the church, and call for clearer thinking as values seize or lurch. The Christ that we would worship would turn the world around, and shake us from our comfort, our certain, solid ground. Then shatter walls and windows and let the church reach out, and not with Psalms and anthems, but anger, let us shout condemning every outrage that demonises life, and break the laws that damage, evoking human strife. Andrew Pratt 30/7/2021 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: 7.6.7.6 D Tune: AURELIA; KINGS LYNN Inspired by a front page item in the Methodist Recorder 30/7/2021 involving an interview with Rev Inderjit Bhogal.
As we move towards debate and decision in Methodism
A hymn written earlier this year https://hymnsandbooks.blog/2021/04/24/change-us-god-into-the-likeness-hymn-for-times-of-debate-and-decision/
hymnsandbooks 