hymnsandbooks

Saturday 27 June 2015

CHARLESTON, FRANCE, TUNISIA - A DIVIDED WORD - A HYMN

A world once rent by turmoil

will suffer once again,

the memories once buried

have surfaced with our pain,

the hatred that enslaved us

has found another dawn,

while love and grace are tattered,

bedraggled, lost and torn.


Once Christ had shown through living

the way to human life,

to cut through human hatred,

confronting human strife,

when those who made religion

an idol to defend,

stood fast against oppression

until life's very end.


God give us strength to covet

the love that makes us whole,

to claim again your promise,

the value of each soul.

God give us grace to cherish

your love above each creed,

to value every neighbour

through thought and word and deed.

© Andrew Pratt 27/6/2015 andrewpratt48@gmail.com
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.