Can perfect love cast out the fear and hate
Words inspired by a text suggested by Gordon Taylor at a hymn workshop of the Hymn Society of Great Britain and Ireland in Lincoln July 2023. The theme is a response to the Government’s Illegal Immigration Bill.
Can perfect love cast out the fear and hate
that festers in a hardened, ravaged heart,
when lives abandoned to a savage sea,
have hope denied, grace drowned out from the start.
As cold officials act with callous power
we sing the words that plead and pray for care,
to see humanity in each new face
to wipe away the tears of rank despair.
How long, O God, will we discard the lives,
that you have birthed that we should seek to save,
who caught by circumstance, or course of life,
we destine to a swirling, watery grave.
Yes perfect love can cast out fear and hate
that festers in each hardened, ravaged heart,
when we reach out to others in their need.
Through gracious words, new hope has power to start.
© Andrew Pratt 19/7/2023 Words © 2023 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: 10.10.10.10
Tune: YANWORTH
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