New Year – hymnsandbooks

New Year – from darkness toward light – As constant as the pulsar’s pulse

New Year – from darkness toward light - As constant as the pulsar's pulse - a hymn for the first Sunday in the New Year or for a Watchnight Service

1 As constant as the pulsar's pulse, 
 as certain as the rising sun; 
 in darkness love will never die, 
 nor horror snuff our human worth. 

2 The sounding of a baby's cry 
 as suckling, taken from her breast, 
 demands a mother's full concern, 
 so you have heard our hoarse lament. 

3 Our cry goes out through all the world, 
 through this and each succeeding age; 
 your glance returns our wanting gaze, 
 and none escape your light or love. 

Metre: LM Tune: HEREFORD (Wesley)

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.

Image (c) Andrew Pratt 2025

As we spin on through boundless space – a New hymn for the New Year

As we spin on through boundless space – a New hymn for the New Year

As we spin on through boundless space     
and mark the seasons passing, 
we trust again the Cov’nant grace,
the love that's everlasting.

We carry grief across the years, 
some memories are fading,
while others sharp as broken glass
leave scars beyond evading.

And time will test the strength of loss,
a tensile strand still holds us, 
as love of family, friends and God
are strong, and still enfold us.

So  nothing now that breaks our peace
can once deflect time's arrow, 
that joins us by the grace of God
through every new tomorrow.

Andrew Pratt 21/12/2025
Words © 2025 © 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
Tune: DOMINUS REGIT ME

A Hymn for the New Year – for Covenant

A hymn for the New Year, for Covenant



1	The year is new, do not resist,

	for God is moving in our midst

	who brings a covenant to birth,

	of common wealth throughout the earth.

	

2	The atmosphere is cold and raw

	and yet our God engenders awe:

	is kneeling there to wash our feet, 

	to heal, to love, to kiss, to greet.

	

3	And in our healing we will find

	a wholeness hidden, yet refined,

	a God made known in every face, 

	each neighbour ministers God's grace.

	

4	And God says all is ready yet;

	the meal prepared, the table set. 

	And will we come? And dare we share 

	the covenant that sounds God's care?

	

5	No complicated myth or sign

	a simple meal of bread and wine, 

	speaks of the love that feeds us still: 

	come all who can, come all who will.

	

6	And when we rise and go our way,       

	remember who you met today,

	who showed you love, who held, who healed,

	who, in each neighbour, is revealed.



Andrew Pratt  Words © 2010 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

A hymn for New Year – Oh where is there love

Oh where is there love in a world that is tired, 
across the year's threshold, where hope has expired?
We wait amid movement, to pause and to pray, 
to nurture our God at the dawn of each day.

Our eyes have been opened, compassion unlocked, 
the road has been cleared, and the future unblocked. 
The narrative moment has fractured the storm, 
the chill of the moment unfrozen, now warm.

Such newness is waiting with every new day, 
the new year is dawning through danger and play. 
The dance is still twisting through hate into light, 
is spinning and turning creating new light.

We hold in our neighbour the broken and hurt, 
those lost within living, God would not desert.  
The frail and the fallen, the fraught or the free 
are reaching for Jesus, will Christ be in me?

© Andrew Pratt  Words © 2011 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: 11 11 11 11
DATCHET; CRADLE SONG (Kirkpatrick)

We dare not risk forgetfulness

We dare not risk forgetfulness,

the eyes where light has been extinguished,

the gathered limbs and shattered bones,

that hone the memory, shatter hope.

The shadows lengthen, colour fades.

What now?

The choice is ours.

This turning of the year:

forgiving fault

can we renew relationships

or, festering, lurch onward into hell?

The choice is yours, is ours, is mine…

choose life…perhaps?