Tag: natural disasters

Hymn in respect of those who affected by the Nepalese mud slide disaster

A flood of degradation sweeps life and limb away – hymn in respect of those who affected by the Nepalese mud slide disaster

A flood of degradation
sweeps life and limb away.
Is God within this carnage
of death by night and day?
A stream of mud pours downward
that nothing can resist;
no reason and no purpose
behind this fatal twist?

Is this another symptom, 
like avalanche and fire, 
made worse by global warming, 
by greed and our desire; 
desire for domination, 
regardless of the cost, 
with ecosystems damaged, 
and earthly balance lost

Great God is there no answer, 
no justifying plea, 
no easy explanation 
for all we sense and see?
And while our minds still struggle 
to come to terms with grief, 
help us to go on loving, 
to try to bring relief?

Beyond our understanding 
creation screams and turns, 
God hold us and enfold us 
as faith decays and burns.
Yes, hold us in our anguish 
when reason quakes and sighs, 
bring light to lead us forward 
when all creation cries.

Andrew Pratt (born 1948)
Words © 2026 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

These words written at the time of the recent Nepalese mud slide also raise questions that resurface at other times of natural disasters. They are a reflection, not an answer. What we see raises questions for me. What can we do at such times that can have any relevance at all? At the least, perhaps, giving to relief organisations. I intend to give to BRITISH RED CROSS on this link. If you can help in this or any other way, please do.

In the Bible sinful action sees God’s punishment unfurled – https://bramhallmethodists.org.uk/scienceandprayer/

In the Bible sinful action
sees God’s punishment unfurled.
Seismic faults can find their reason
in God’s shaking of the world.
Dualism, human freedom,
‘best of all’ this fractured earth?
Does God punish us for actions
which negate our human worth?

But today does retribution,
witnessed through earth’s fractured crust,
make much sense of God in action
when our cities turn to dust?
Do our people crushed and broken
act as warning, point to God?
Or is good news, clouded, hidden,
buried deep beneath the sod?

Much like Job, we seek an answer,
craft theology with care,
looking for a simple reason,
find new scapegoats standing there.
If we were more deeply honest
we might find it’s Christ who dies,
God who suffers in the present
when we hide behind our lies.

When we value wealth or nation,
see resources to be owned,
see the poor as simple objects,
their humanity dethroned;
then what may be seen as natural
rests on our incompetence,
or on human greed and evil
and on loving’s reticence.

Tune: LUX EOI (StF 400/764)
or ABBOTSLEIGH (UMC 584)
Metre: 8.7.8.7 D

Written in response to Rev’d Professor David Chester’s Seminar on Earthquakes, Volcanoes and God: Theological Perspectives on Natural Disaster
Andrew Pratt, Words © 2019 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.