The Song of the Sea – a hymn related to Global Warming
I usually post a hymn on a Monday or Tuesday each week. On Monday morning 11th August, the Today Programme on radio 4 announced that The UK's seas have had their warmest start to the year since records began, helping to drive some dramatic changes in marine life and for its fishing communities. Read more…
In 2021 Dr Tim Gordon Marine Biologist, Exeter University spoke to Bramhall Methodist Church about the death of coral reefs around Australia. Again, today there are reports of the deterioration of the Great Barrier Reef. During his seminar, in response, I wrote these words…
The song of the sea, once melodious, is dying,
that song is essential, the calling of home;
Great God, we lament, yet the sound of our crying
is quieter than breakers, the wash of the foam.
What work must we do to restore what is broken,
how can we encourage the choir of the sea?
The spirit is moving, the waters are wounded,
the oceans are anguished for life to be free.
You enter our suffering and love in our grieving,
you join us in weakness, when frailty is near,
God holds us, enfold us when hell overcomes us,
stand near to the tomb of our folly and fear.
You promise a covenant, both gift and promise.
Creation is groaning, still coming to birth.
Bring newness, renewal, a hope that is living,
from suffering bring joy for the whole of the earth.
We treasure the symphony, yet we are grieving,
we long for the chorus, the song of the sea,
bring light in the darkness and sound in the silence,
Great God, co-creator, let all life be free.
Andrew E Pratt (born 1948)
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
You can read more about this at Tim Gordon
Hear this sung by Gareth Moore here
Tag: treasure
Come follow me – hymn inspired by Mark 10: 17-31
Come follow me – inspired by Mark 10:17-31
1 'Come follow me, come follow fast,
and leave the rest behind,
reach after realms of mystery,
yes, seek, and you will find'.
What holds us in this human realm?
What treasures keep us back
from giving all we have and are?
This confidence we lack!
2 The call had seemed impossible,
the problem was his wealth.
And we deflect the word of God
avoiding it by stealth.
Our legs are heavy, steps are slow,
it seems we cannot move.
The call to trusting seems absurd,
in things we cannot prove.
3 And so we stay with what is sure,
we cling to what is known,
and through our fear we lose our grip
on treasure we might own.
Then like that man we walk away,
each with a heavy heart,
or turn to follow in the way,
to make a brand new start.
Andrew E Pratt (born 1948)
Words © 2012 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: DCM
Tune: KINGSFOLD
A time for decisions – a hymn – What are the gifts we would treasure most highly
John Wesley once referred to the Methodists as ‘a peculiar people’. One of our peculiarities is treating September as the beginning of a New Year.
At another level we live in a world in conflict and, in the UK with a government with a new Prime Minister.
All of us together are faced with decisions.
At a time of decision for the people of Israel Moses challenged them – ‘I call heaven and earth to witness against you today that I have set before you life and death, blessings and curses. Choose life so that you and your descendants may live’. (Deuternomy30: 19)
The following hymn asks what choosing life might mean for us today.
1 What are the gifts we would treasure most highly:
freedom or justice or money or wealth;
food for the hungry, or drink for the thirsty,
love for our children, or power, or health?
2 Once God had given a choice to the people:
they could decide to choose life or choose death.
They were encouraged towards life's enhancement,
shunning the ways that would quench life and breath.
3 What does it mean for ourselves at this moment,
challenged by God, as to what we should choose?
What does ‘life’ mean, for each friend, for each neighbour,
what will encourage and never abuse?
4 Now at each crisis, each time of decision,
save us from selfishness, things that oppress;
help us, O God, to be wise, never grasping,
help us to cherish those things you would bless.
Andrew Pratt (born 1948)
Words © 2011 alt by the author 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.
alt 2022 by the author.
Metre: 11 10 11 10
Tune: EPIPHANY HYMN
A hymn for this time…Ukraine, Russia, NATO, the world…and its people…
As we move towards Shrove Tuesday, Ash Wednesday and Lent, a moment to pause. By the time you read this the tension in Ukraine may have eased or increased. Let this be a moment to remember that our faith has a worldwide perspective as we share words written in Poland while listening to a lecture by Joachim Waloszek on Polish hymns. 1 The words we sing are wrung from broken hearts, are formed within the soil of time and place, are rooted in our history and this time, yet ring with changeless mystery and grace. 2 Our treasure is the very grace of God, the pearl that we would lose our lives to hold, this gift we guard with frail yet gentle hands, to share among God's people young or old. 3 We sing with others met along the way who speak our language or another tongue, who walk beside us on the road to heaven, who stumble, fly or fall till life is won. 4 The words we sing now whisper sighs of joy, transcending all we fear within this place, they ring with endless, everlasting hope, they celebrate the freedom of God's grace. Andrew Pratt (born 1948) Words © 2009 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
Such a fragment, just a remnant – On hearing John A Bell preaching at Comberbach Harvest
Such a fragment, just a remnant, nothing wasted, nothing lost; all creation has its value, has its purpose, place or cost. Things we count of little value have inestimable worth; every grain of soil we’re tilling, in each land upon this earth. We must treasure earth’s resources and each moment of our time, life and all we have for living, bound in loving’s endless rhyme. On hearing John A Bell preaching at Comberbach Methodist Church Harvest Andrew Pratt 26/9/2021 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
Tune composed by Frances S. Drake (USA) in the week following the composition of the text. Frances can be contacted by emailing – hymncat@yahoo.com
Hear the tune at –
hymnsandbooks 