Bankers, politicians and the Magnificat - a hymn - Upturned world, the bankers humbled

Upturned world, the bankers humbled,

politicians brought to book,

children show new ways of living,

heads will spin and turn to look.

Mary sang, exultant virgin,

birth would change her life and ours,

generations watch with wonder,

shaken like wealth’s shining towers.

Love incarnate’s gentle thunder

wakes the earth to truth and light,

hypocrites meet naked justice,

find no place in fear for flight.

Mary sings, when will we hear her:

revolution born of love,

heralding new dispensation,

cage the hawk and free the dove?

When the prison gates are broken,

when the poor can feast and dine,

then Magnificat is bringing

age of justice and new wine.

Wine of joy and celebration,

end of hunger, God is near,

time of endless new beginnings,

birth of Jesus, end of fear.

© Andrew Pratt 19/11/2011

Tune: BETHANY

Also go to www.twelvebaskets.co.uk
HYMNS POSTED ON THIS BLOG MAY BE USED FREELY LOCALLY WITH ACKNOWLEDGEMENT. TO PUBLISH FOR PROFIT PLEASE CONTACT THE AUTHOR. For more hymns go to Hymns page For Books by Andrew Pratt follow LINKS on the Links page. Books are available on the following sites: Amazon, Stainer & Bell Ltd, Twelvebaskets, SCM-Canterbury Press Latest book due Summer 2010 SCM Studyguide Practical Skills for Ministry - follow this link - http://www.scm-canterburypress.co.uk/bookdetails.asp?ISBN=9780334043591 Andrew Pratt lectures at Luther King House, The Partnership for Theological Education, Manchester as a Methodist Tutor at Hartley Victoria College

E=mc2 - Einstein - speed of light - hymn

E=mc² - Einstein - speed of light - hymn

God is less tangible than a neutrino

(taking a short-cut? Or faster than light?

Challenging theories, sustained suppositions).

Can we be certain that we are so right?

All our theology, all speculation

must be provisional, never a creed.

Is the best test of 'divine' revelation

how it is mending those broken, in need;

Open to challenge, to intellect, reason;

forging new concepts in culture and place;

yet in humility focusing loving,

open, accepting and channeling grace?

© Andrew Pratt 26/9/2011

Tune: Stewardship

HYMNS POSTED ON THIS BLOG MAY BE USED FREELY LOCALLY WITH ACKNOWLEDGEMENT. TO PUBLISH FOR PROFIT PLEASE CONTACT THE AUTHOR. For more hymns go to Hymns page For Books by Andrew Pratt follow LINKS on the Links page. Books are available on the following sites: Amazon, Stainer & Bell Ltd, Twelvebaskets, SCM-Canterbury Press Latest book due Summer 2010 SCM Studyguide Practical Skills for Ministry - follow this link - http://www.scm-canterburypress.co.uk/bookdetails.asp?ISBN=9780334043591 Andrew Pratt lectures at Luther King House, The Partnership for Theological Education, Manchester as a Methodist Tutor at Hartley Victoria College

Hints for Hymn Writers

Be literate and intelligent

Tackle old themes in new and innovative ways using language that is contemporary. And what is con-temporary, of the time tomorrow, will not be what we are using today.

Tackle new themes that need to be addressed.

…And maybe, just maybe,you will begin to make, not just echo, doctrine… Oh dear!

Net Gains (Guide for Ministry) and Inextinguishable Blaze (Wesley Hymns) Kindle

My books Net Gains (A Guide for Ministry) and Inextinguishable Blaze (Meditations on 52 of Charles Wesley's Hymns) are now available on Amazon Kindle.
Hymns and the Bible - a new booklet is also now available.

Hymn for Libya - North Africa - following the challenge to the leadership of Colonel Gaddafi

Friends,

With the changes that have taken place in the North Africa in recent months, the challenge to the leadership of Colonel Gaddafi and the uncertainty over what might follow, this hymn may be pertinent. Please use freely with acknowledgment in local contexts.

Peace,

Andrew

When a leader, feared or followed,

falls from power, no longer stands,

without grace and love of neighbour

anarchy can breach our lands.

When a people sense injustice,

poverty or wealth divide,

without care and common values

peace and safety slip and slide.

In those nations, in each country

where regimes so long have stood,

held  a place for generations,

now lie shattered, where is good?

Help us work with common purpose,

building bridges, putting right

things that would destroy your people,

God bring grace and peace and light.

© Andrew Pratt 30/8/2011

For Libya

9/11 Anniversary NEW HYMN

Following the reprise of 'God's on our side', Dean McIntyre asked for a new hymn specific to this anniversary. It can be used freely with acknowledgement.

Great God your love has held our lives

across the years down to this day.

Your constant presence held us fast:

remain with us we plead and pray.

We watched the towers, we saw the flame,

the clouds of dust swept down the street;

we heard the voices that we loved

and cried for those we’d no more meet.

As time moves on some memories fade,

the grief we shared lies in the past,

for others pain is just as sharp,

this present hurt will always last.

A human act has swept away

our partners, parents, children, friends,

some people we had never known,

the memory lives and never ends.

Beyond this day we try to live:

a sinew of each life survives,

but where is God in hurt and hate?

The questions stay to haunt our lives.

Help us to build a better world

not fuelled by vengeance, fed by greed;

a world in which we all can live,

what ever colour, race or creed.

© Andrew Pratt 18/8/2011

Tune: JERUSALEM (Parry)

Commissioned by Dean McIntyre (United Methodist Church (USA)) for the 10^th Anniversary of the destruction of the World Trade Centre

9/11 Anniversary Hymn

9/11 Anniversary Hymns

With the approaching 10^th anniversary of the attack on the World Trade Center people are enquiring about a hymn that I wrote at the time that was included in a commemorative collection by the Hymn Society in the United States and Canada one year on. It is posted below this newer hymn.

Dean McIntyre asked for a new hymn specific to this anniversary. It can be used freely with acknowledgement.

Great God your love has held our lives

across the years down to this day.

Your constant presence held us fast:

remain with us we plead and pray.

We watched the towers, we saw the flame,

the clouds of dust swept down the street;

we heard the voices that we loved

and cried for those we’d no more meet.

As time moves on some memories fade,

the grief we shared lies in the past,

for others pain is just as sharp,

this present hurt will always last.

A human act has swept away

our partners, parents, children, friends,

some people we had never known,

the memory lives and never ends.

Beyond this day we try to live:

a sinew of each life survives,

but where is God in hurt and hate?

The questions stay to haunt our lives.

Help us to build a better world

not fuelled by vengeance, fed by greed;

a world in which we all can live,

what ever colour, race or creed.

© Andrew Pratt 18/8/2011

Tune: JERUSALEM (Parry)

Commissioned by Dean McIntyre (United Methodist Church (USA)) for the 10^th Anniversary of the destruction of the World Trade Centre

This following hymn, written within 24 hours of the destruction of the twin towers, can be used with acknowledgement of copyright on your CCL return or by permission of the copyright holder – carol@stainer.co.uk

1     God's on our side, and God will grieve

at carnage, loss and death;

for Jesus wept, and we will weep,

with every grieving breath.

2     God's on their side, the enemy,

the ones we would despise;

God quench our vengeance, still our pride,

don't let our anger rise.

3     God's on each side, God loves us all,

and through our hurt and pain

God shares the anguish, nail scarred hands

reach out-love must remain.

4     God show us how to reconcile

each difference and fear,

that we might learn to love again

and dry the other's tear.

Andrew E Pratt (born 1948)

© 2001 Stainer and Bell Ltd

CM

Tune AMAZING GRACE

Osama bin Laden, Hymn

THIS HYMN IS NOW COPYRIGHT STAINER & BELL LTD please include on CCL Licence returns or equivalent
Written immediately following the announcement of the death of Osama bin Laden. For your use.

Andrew

We cannot gloat: a time for grief,

another mother's son is dead,

and if that son has killed and maimed,

it is the better least is said;

but let us mourn for all the loss,

within the shadow of the cross.

We mourn for victims we have loved,

and for the orphans yet unborn;

for those for whom a searing pain

greets this and every rising dawn,

and then we bow our heads and pray

that peace might drench the world today.

And to that end we pledge our lives,

our words, our actions and our deeds,

as following the Prince of Peace,

we'll work for peace till peace succeeds,

in breaking every barrier down,

that love may be our goal and crown.

© Andrew Pratt 2/5/2011
COPYRIGHT STAINER & BELL LTD please include on CCL Licence returns or equivalent

Tune: ABINGDON

"do not gloat when your enemy falls; when he stumbles, do not let your heart rejoice". Proverbs 24:17

OTHER HYMNS POSTED ON THIS BLOG MAY BE USED FREELY LOCALLY WITH ACKNOWLEDGEMENT. TO PUBLISH FOR PROFIT PLEASE CONTACT THE AUTHOR. For more hymns go to Hymns page For Books by Andrew Pratt follow LINKS on the Links page. Books are available on the following sites: Amazon, Stainer & Bell Ltd, Twelvebaskets, SCM-Canterbury Press Latest book due Summer 2010 SCM Studyguide Practical Skills for Ministry - follow this link - http://www.scm-canterburypress.co.uk/bookdetails.asp?ISBN=9780334043591 Andrew Pratt lectures at Luther King House, The Partnership for Theological Education, Manchester as a Methodist Tutor at Hartley Victoria College

Tsunami - earthquake hymn: Tectonic plates beneath the ocean's surface

Tectonic plates beneath the ocean's surface,

uplifted, twisting life and limb and wave.

The landscape that was home has lost its features,

destruction means that few are left to save.

An empty chair amid such devastation

where cars like toys, are lifted, spun about;

and here we wait and pray in helpless anguish;

and 'where is God' we want to cry and shout.

Incarnate God we need your present spirit

to live within your people at this time,

to energise our prayerful words and actions,

to offer grace to life's discordant rhyme.

God offer hope to those who feel forsaken,

to those whose lives have spun and turned around;

to those whose grief defies all consolation,

bring grace and love and hope and solid ground.

© Andrew Pratt 13/3/2011

andrewpratt@btconnect.com

Tune: INTERCESSOR

HYMNS POSTED ON THIS BLOG MAY BE USED FREELY LOCALLY WITH ACKNOWLEDGEMENT. TO PUBLISH FOR PROFIT PLEASE CONTACT THE AUTHOR. For more hymns go to Hymns page For Books by Andrew Pratt follow LINKS on the Links page. Books are available on the following sites: Amazon, Stainer & Bell Ltd, Twelvebaskets, SCM-Canterbury Press - SCM Studyguide Practical Skills for Ministry now available - follow this link - http://www.scm-canterburypress.co.uk/bookdetails.asp?ISBN=9780334043591 Andrew Pratt lectures at Luther King House, The Partnership for Theological Education, Manchester as a Methodist Tutor at Hartley Victoria College

Tsunami hymn - we understand tectonic plates

This and other hymns and worship resources for times of crisis can be found at http://www.gbod.org/Worship/default.asp?loc_id=739,1112&act=nav_loc.

We understand tectonic plates
That move beneath our feet
We understand that powerful waves
Make rivers in the street
But when we try to centre God
Our sense is incomplete

To say creation points to God
Will never make real sense
Except within a frame of faith
Outside it brings offense
Our claim is more than paradox
Within this present tense

And so we struggle with the fact
That contradict belief
Until we find a greater truth
We never find relief
Reason and revelation clash
And die in disbelief

We honor God for all that is
And all that is to be
We may not understand God's ways
Until eternity
But love is stronger than belief
And faith can help us see.
Andrew Pratt; Copyright Stainer & Bell Ltd to whom application for use must be made - carol@stainer.co.uk
(Set to the tune MORNING SONG)

HYMNS POSTED ON THIS BLOG MAY BE USED FREELY LOCALLY WITH ACKNOWLEDGEMENT. TO PUBLISH FOR PROFIT PLEASE CONTACT THE AUTHOR. For more hymns go to Hymns page For Books by Andrew Pratt follow LINKS on the Links page. Books are available on the following sites: Amazon, Stainer & Bell Ltd, Twelvebaskets, SCM-Canterbury Press Latest SCM Studyguide Practical Skills for Ministry now available - follow this link - http://www.scm-canterburypress.co.uk/bookdetails.asp?ISBN=9780334043591 Andrew Pratt lectures at Luther King House, The Partnership for Theological Education, Manchester as a Methodist Tutor at Hartley Victoria College