If love is foremost in our faith
we have a choice to make
on this and every other day,
for all else is at stake;
we see a world that’s broken down,
where poverty and fear
are trampelling the weakest ones,
with hatred lurking near.
‘Today’, God said, I give a choice
where life and death compete.
The chance is now for us to take,
to finish, to complete,
the turning of the tables here
as Christ, one time, had turned
the temple tables, scattering greed,
to free those power had spurned.
Where selfishness can cripple lives,
or love can set them free,
what happens from this moment on
rests now with you and me:
if our audacious words of grace
can frame what we would pray,
then from this moment, in our time,
let love infuse each day.
Andrew Pratt 22/5/2024 on the announcement of a General Election
Words © 2024 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
Tunes: ELLACOMBE; COE FEN; KINGSFOLD
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.
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