Tag: Ordination

A challenge to Christian commitment – at ordination perhaps – In places where there is no church

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)

Vocation, Ordination, Being Christian after an Election

Last Sunday (30th June 2024) Methodist Presbyters and Deacons were Ordained at the Annual Methodist Conference in the UK. Those in Leeds were able to witness and share in this in person. Some of us followed the preceding service on-line. 

ALL CHRISTIANS have a vocation, a calling to follow Christ and to share God’s love whoever we are and wherever life takes us. This hymn was written FOR US!

1	We are the rainbow's colours,
	the thundering sighs of love,
	the shakers of foundations,
	the seething clouds above.
	We are God's chosen people,
	from exile we are freed,
	our common consecration
	means liberty indeed.

2	A hope for every nation,
	we come to bring God's peace,
	the reconciliation,
	the prisoner's release.
	This is our sole vocation,
	the reason for our birth,
	to offer hope through loving,
	to bring God's peace on earth.

Andrew E Pratt (born 1948)
© 2002, 2006 Stainer & Bell Ltd (alt 2024 by the author)
Metre: 7 6 7 6 D
Tune: PASSION CHORALE