Tag: Ukraine

We hear the news in anguish – hymn at time of Russian invasion of Ukraine with a link to a recording of the hymn with lyrics made by Gareth Moore

We hear the news in anguish to know what has been done, 
the cameras and recordists show hatred being spun, 
the sound of rockets falling fill broadcasts round the earth, 
Great God, what are we doing while children come to birth?


Our aspirations shudder, our hopes become as dust, 
through war machines are broken, dismembered, turned to rust. 
Our conversations stutter, our talks of peace – hot air, 
Great God, may acts of justice grow from the seeds of prayer.


No place is ever neutral when hatred fuels the fire, 
humanity unites us, let love be our desire.
Join hands across the barriers that other hands have made, 
until your world is mended and violence has been stayed.


Andrew Pratt 28/2/2022 Written while watching the Russian-Ukraine conflict.
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.
Tune: KING’S LYNN; O SACRED HEAD SORE WOUNDED has also been suggested by Judy Ford.

A video prepared for SUNDAY NIGHT LIVE is available here with thanks to Pam Rhodes and Gareth Moore (to be broadcast Sunday 20th March 2022 at 1800 hours UK)

Listen to reflections for Ukraine based on some of my texts on Premier Christian Radio is available on Freeview channel 725. Sunday 13th March 2022 0800 hours (UK)

A video recording of the hymn by Gareth Moore is available here


Other resources also available at Singing the Faith plus




Promise of hopefulness, pardon and peace – hymn for our world at a time of war

1	Promise of hopefulness, pardon and peace;
	Source of deliverance, blessed release;
	Ground of our being, of darkness and light,
	Love's possibility, enmity's night;

2	Cleave to the centre of selfish desire
	Bring to creation by earth, wind or fire
	All that is hoped for and all that's unseen:
	Goodness and glory are more than a dream.

3	In our absurdity, clamour and war
	Unseat our certainty, counter and floor
	All sense of prejudice, hatred and then
	Offer us strangers that we can befriend.

4	Give us the courage to enter this cleft,
	Healing the hurt of the lost, the bereft,
	Offering hope, though our love's crucified,
	Soaking up malice where peace is denied;

5	Love is the answer to vengeance and wrath,
	Going on loving in spite of the loss,
	Facing the depth of depravity's gain,
	Burning our hatred on love's sweeter flame.

6	Pour out your spirit, God, fill up our lives,
	Offering loveliness, love that survives,
	Then take and lift us and raise up our song:
	Love is yet greater than all human wrong.

Andrew E Pratt (born 1948)
Words © 1999 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.
Metre: 10 10 10 10 Dactylic
Tune: KOSOVO (Andrew Pratt) No.57 in Whatever Name or Creed  also available in USA from Hope Publishing.
Adrian Perry notated this tune and played it when it was first used in the Leigh & Hindley Circuit of the Methodist Church at the time of its composition.

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