Tag: sharing

Hymn responding to Ms Steph Bryant’s Seminar for Bramhall Methodist Church Climate Change Series

Ms Steph Bryant 
Youth and Schools Programme Co-Director, 
The Faraday Institute for Science and Religion

Our view of the stars fosters wonder, through grandeur: 
the sense of a cosmos within God’s embrace;
from infinite chaos we’ve grown on this planet 
to learn, live and care, an inquisitive race.

We thrive as God nurtures our fragile existence, 
our life is related to all life on earth, 
and each generation must deepen in knowledge, 
yet guard against arrogance in our own worth.

God give us compassion to live with our neighbours, 
to value each species, conserve, and renew; 
to challenge those actions that lead to destruction, 
to cherish and never take more than our due.

And these are the gifts we must share with our children, 
compassionate love and a God-given grace,
this love with no limits pervades all creation 
from oceans and forests to infinite space.

Andrew Pratt 14/6/2021
Words © 2021 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: 12.11.12.11
Tune: STREETS OF LAREDO

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Whatever your race, your colour or creed you are a sister or brother to me…

Whatever your race, your colour or creed
you are a sister or brother to me.
You speak with a language I don’t understand
but I want to learn what you mean.
1 So much we could share if you listen to me,
so much if I listen to you.
Wherever you’re from, and whatever your need,
however you name God, whatever you plead,
your culture is foreign, unusual to me
but both of us want to be free.
Refrain

2 So much we could share if you listen to me,
so much if I listen to you.
When tragedy strikes and our lives spin around,
while babies are crying and battle resounds
I know you still love me, and I still love you,
I’ll help with what you need to do.
Refrain

3 So much we could share if you listen to me,
so much if I listen to you.
So let’s join together, the table is set,
the laughter and pleasure will help us forget
the fear at the difference that keeps us apart.
In loving we’ll make a new start.
Refrain

Andrew E Pratt (born 1948)
© 2003 Stainer & Bell Ltd 11 8 11 11 11 8 and Refrain 10 10 11 8
Tune by Alex Jarrett with words at No.117 in Reclaiming Praise

The care of our planet, the threat of extinction – Hymn

The care of our planet, the threat of extinction,
alerts us to need to be stewards of the earth:
this place of great beauty, our God given tenure,
the place of our nurture, the globe of our birth.

This place we must guard for each new generation,
to leave as we found it or, better, restored;
to share each resource without greed or pretension,
not barring the needy, not plunder, nor hoard.

The  banquet of God is for all of God’s people,
communion companions are both rich and poor,
our ultimate end will remove all distinctions,
no birthright or creed can obstruct heaven’s door.

God’s common wealth love can encompass all nations,
but here in this place we must all make a start:
a life of acceptance of sister and brother,
the practice of loving, a God given art.

Andrew Pratt 1/5/2019
Words © 2019 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.
Written for the 140th Anniversary of St John’s Methodist Church Whitchurch, Shropshire.
Tunes: STREETS OF LAREDO; ST CATHERINES COURT