Tag: peace

When nations are healed – a hymn for today

1 When nations are healed and all warfare is banished, 
the hungry are fed and the poor lifted high, 
the vision of glory, God’s presence among us, 
will signify love and all hatred will die.

2 The river of life will flow on unpolluted, 
the language we share will express common wealth, 
all greed and all grasping will vanish forever, 
instead of for warfare, we’ll budget for health. 

3 The light of God’s love will then shine on forever, 
the same light will shine out from each neighbour’s eyes, 
this vision need not be set far in the future, 
through love, in God’s spirit, we can grasp this prize.

Andrew E Pratt (born 1948)
© 2013 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: 12 11 12 11 Tunes: THE ASH GROVE; SAINT CATHERINE’S COURT

Advent in uncertain times – Active love, not fearful frenzy – a hymn

Advent in uncertain times - Active love, not fearful frenzy

1	Active love, not fearful frenzy,
	Is the path that we pursue,
	Counterblast to alienation,
	Struggle making all things new.
	Facing up to common conflict,
	Meeting arrogance with prayer,
	Seeking to be one with Jesus,
	Dignified amid despair.
	
2	Torture, fear and desecration
	Paint the canvas of our lives;
	But the picture, deeply woven,
	Demonstrates that love survives.
	Systems that would seek to scar us,
	Mould us blindly to their trends,
	We will overthrow with kindness,
	Not be subject to their ends.

3	We will take the cross of Jesus
	Into every sphere of life,
	We will stand for peace and justice,
	We will not succumb to strife.
	We must meet this tribulation,
	Live our lives, if need be, die;
	Take no refuge in abstraction,
	Take the cross and lift it high! 

Andrew E Pratt (born 1948)
© 1997 Stainer & Bell Ltd
Words Andrew Pratt © 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: 8 7 8 7 D Trochaic
Tune: BETHANY (Smart)


An ill found peace – Jesus meets the disciples

An ill found peace disturbed the quiet 
the room was locked and shuttered.
The Christ himself had now appeared, 
a wind-blown candle guttered. 

His words, a knife, cut through their fear, 
anticipation shaken, 
no more condemned, a word of peace, 
was quietly, surely spoken.

Yet fear and doubt conspired to foil 
what joy might sweep a nation, 
such peace as might spread through the world 
to shatter consternation.

And so he breathed those words again, 
that peace might sign acceptance 
of those who had denied their Lord 
and now feared his rejection.

The sign he gave, he loved them still, 
a lasting affirmation, 
that those who loved would do his will, 
until love's consummation.

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: 8 7 8 7
Tune: DOMINUS REGIT ME

Great God, your love has held our lives – Remembrance Hymn

1	Great God, your love has held our lives
	through all the years down to this day.
	Your constant presence held us fast:
	remain with us we plead and pray.
	We've seen the ruins left by war,
	the tumbled buildings, street by street;
	some heard the voices that they loved
	and cried for those they'd no more meet.
	
2	As time moves on some memories fade,
	some griefs we shared lie in the past;
	for others pain is just as sharp,
	we know their hurt will always last.
	Some human acts have swept away
	our partners, parents, children, friends,
	some people we had never known;
	the memory lives and never ends.
	
3	Beyond this day we try to live:
	a sinew of each life survives,
	but where is God in hurt and hate?
	The questions stay to haunt our lives.
	Help us to build a better world
	not fuelled by vengeance, fed by greed;
	a world in which we all can live,
	what ever colour, race or creed.

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: LMD
Tune: JERUSALEM

Other resources: Worshipcloud