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.
Thank you, Andrew - much needed. While it may be tempting to use Passion Chorale or Crüger for this, I think merle's Tune works well, and, given the hope in the last verse, Penlan does too. Did you have something else in mind?
ReplyDelete