She felt just like a ragged dog - inspired by Mark 7: 24-30
1 She felt just like a ragged dog
that scratched around for food,
denied, despised and kicked aside
and never any good.
2 Yet now she stood inside the door
and pleaded with this man,
for each taboo had little weight,
her grief had wider span.
3 Her child had need of healing help
and she would make Christ hear,
the urgency of anguished need
had overcome her fear.
4 And in that moment he would learn,
audacity would teach
that human laws and well worn creeds
put no-one out of reach.
5 Compassion ruled and love compelled
to action on that day,
and Jesus' reach was broadened as
he learnt that grace held sway.
Andrew E Pratt (born 1948)
Words © 2012 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: CM
Tune: ST PETER (How sweet the name of Jesus sounds)
Tag: love
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
Always looking for a sign – hymn inspired by John 6: 24 – 35
Always looking for a sign - John 6: 24-35
1 Always looking for a sign,
never seeing what is there,
people searching for some proof
fixing Jesus with a stare.
2 Standing lost and so bemused,
hoping for some broken bread,
Jesus meets their ignorance,
people needing to be fed.
3 Not some massive miracle,
simply trusting given grace,
this the message that they heard,
and they saw within his face.
4 And today that look survives,
all our needs are felt and met,
hope is spoken to each life,
love will live and not forget.
Andrew E Pratt (born 1948)
© 2012 Stainer and 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 7 7 7
Tune: BATTISHILL; EMMA
On a Galilean hillside – hymn inspired by Mark 6: 30-34
On a Galilean hillside – July 21st – Mark 6: 30 – 34
1 On a Galilean hillside
stood a crowd with wondering eyes,
captivated by the mystery,
framed by mountain, sea and skies.
2 Jesus stood, and with compassion,
met their gaze and understood
depth of pain, and human anguish,
evil challenging their good.
3 What he said defied their senses,
challenged values, yet affirmed
those whom life had spurned or battered,
lifted them above the herd.
4 Now we stand, impassioned, waiting
for a word to cure our ill;
but he challenges complacence,
love is ours to share or still.
Andrew E Pratt (born 1948)
Words © 2002 © 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 Trochaic
Tune: WRAYSBURY (Hymns & Psalms 141)
As an election approaches a hymn (poem,song) – If love is foremost in our faith
If love is foremost in our faith
we have a choice to make
on this and every other day,
for all else is at stake;
we see a world that’s broken down,
where poverty and fear
are trampelling the weakest ones,
with hatred lurking near.
‘Today’, God said, I give a choice
where life and death compete.
The chance is now for us to take,
to finish, to complete,
the turning of the tables here
as Christ, one time, had turned
the temple tables, scattering greed,
to free those power had spurned.
Where selfishness can cripple lives,
or love can set them free,
what happens from this moment on
rests now with you and me:
if our audacious words of grace
can frame what we would pray,
then from this moment, in our time,
let love infuse each day.
Andrew Pratt 22/5/2024 on the announcement of a General Election
Words © 2024 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
Tunes: ELLACOMBE; COE FEN; KINGSFOLD
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