Tag: prayer

Toward the Coronation – a hymn

To set the context. Not everyone is a Royalist. I am Republican (in an English sense) by conviction. But… accident makes me roughly a month younger than Charles. He came to Queen’s College, Birmingham when I was training for ministry. He seemed far more at one with us students than many of the accompanying clergy and signatories. He is born into a role he did not choose anymore than I chose my birth. So a hymn for me, for us, perhaps for him…

This hymn is one of prayer, dedication and affirmation which might be used individually, or in connection with the Coronation. (inspired by Philippians 4:8)


Commend what is excellent, things that bring honour, 
things that are praiseworthy, honest and pure, 
whatever is pleasing, whatever brings justice:
these are the things to affirm and secure.


Be known by your gentleness, loyal in your dealings, 
favour no person, but honour the poor. 
Then welcome the stranger, the widow, the outcast, 
to join as companions through love's open door.


Wherever God finds you, wherever you wander, 
take faith as your watchword, let care bring renown;
while greeting each neighbour with hands that show friendship 
let grace be your goal and let love be your crown. 


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. Published in More than hymns
Metre: 12 11 12 11
Tune: WAS LEBET, WAS SCHWEBET



Vision – based on Ezekiel 37: 1-14

Vision – based on Ezekiel 37: 1-14

And I looked as I led worship 
and saw the dried and brittle bones 
of the scattered few before me 
and there was no life.
Too old, 
too desiccated, 
too worn out, 
or lived out 
ever to be able to stir again.

And I wept as I looked 
and prayed for answers, 
but my heart told me 
it was too late; 
the life had gone. 
There was acceptance 
of an unchanging future; 
the stillness of lethargy 
and emptiness of spirit.

And I looked again 
and saw my prayers 
were not to empty air 
for a breath of God 
moved among the weary; 
new energy began to stir; 
movement was discernible 
and purpose was born again.

And God had shown me, 
in spite of all my doubts, 
that hope is never completely dead 
and there can be new life, 
even in old bones.

© Marjorie Dobson published on Worship Cloud

Used with permission.

If God is love, then God in love unites us – Christian Unity

If God is love, then God in love unites us 

If God is love, then God in love unites us, 
the essence of our being, sense and life, 
how can we be divided, for our nature
is rooted in this Spirit, transcends strife.
The ethic by which all our life is driven 
is grounded in relationship and prayer, 
for where love joins us, weaving bonds of friendship, 
be sure to find that God, through grace, is dwelling there.

If this is so, then what can separate us:
our human ego, hubris or our pride? 
For when we argue, struggle with each other,
like children we are fighting for our side.
Without God holding us we’re hollow cymbals, 
we need to let Love guide our ebb and flow, 
till entering the stream of love together, 
the harmony of hope through trust will surely show.

Andrew Pratt 15/1/2023 written for Northwich & District Churches Together, with thanks to Robert Bridge for inspiration.
Words © 2023 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.

Tune: LONDONDERRY AIR

Broken buildings, flooded rivers – a hymn for Pakistan amid the floods

1          Broken buildings, flooded rivers
            foaming like a liquid hell;
            jagged rocks and raging waters,
            currents twisting break the swell
            into such a tortured maelstrom;
            people reach and lives are saved;
            human beings loved and treasured
            where the waters heaved and raved.

2          Devastation, ruined farmland,
            crops destroyed compound the threat,
            images assail our conscience,
            sights we never will forget;
            here where homes had offered comfort
            degradation meets our eyes,
            while the thunder of the waters
            drowns the sound of human cries.

3          God, we cry, as lives are wasted,
            hold us when all else is lost;
            where the floods have brought destruction
            hold us, help us share this cost.
            Lift us out of dereliction,
            help us reach to those in need,
            love them till all fear has foundered,
            till they know they’re safe and freed.

Andrew E Pratt (born 1948)

Metre: 8 7 8 7 D

Tune: HYFRYDOL

Words © 2022 © 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., adapted from ‘Swirling winds and raging oceans’ © 2017 Stainer and Bell Ltd.

Great God we need your present grace – a hymn at the time of the resignation of Boris Johnson

Great God we need your present grace,
for honesty’s been shaken.
We need integrity and truth,
enliven and awaken
a seam of trust, a sense of faith,
while life is so uncertain,
the future hidden from our sight,
opaque behind a curtain.

God give a calm and steady hand,
unshackled by ambition,
to challenge hatred and distrust,
yet not employ derision.
Give us the time to act and learn,
to unify this nation,
a place where all might live as one
in spite of rank or station.

Is it too much for us to build
in gracious love and living,
a place to care, not built on greed,
but generous in giving,
where children grow in peace with hope,
as sister and as brother,
that, hand in hand, within this world
we’ll live with one another.
Metre: 8787D iambic
Tune: CONSTANCE (Sullivan)

Andrew Pratt 7/7/2022 – Responding to the resignation of Boris Johnson as leader of the Conservative Party
Words © 2022 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.