BENEFITS SANCTIONS HYMN

We hear of people sanctioned,

made poor by bad intent,

for selfishness is ruling

infecting government;

we see the children suffer

while parents are distressed,

what is there we can offer,

our nation seems bereft?

How can we counter hatred,

for this is what it seems,

when those with little favour

have even lost their dreams?

Their hope has been diminished,

their future filled with dread

while words of Christian kindness

seem wizened, shrivelled, dead.

Christ called to loving action:

to stand beside the poor,

to challenge each injustice

to keep an open door;

but politics has trampled

the love that he would share

and grace will come to nothing

if we just stand and stare.

© Andrew Pratt 8/12/2016

Tune: AURELIA

Posted in the blog of Church Action on poverty at https://blog.church-poverty.org.uk/2016/12/09/rethink-sanctions-a-hymn/

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.

Syria hymn

When the weeping of the nations

fills our hearts with holy dread,

when a devastated city

cannot bury all its dead,

God is in the conflagration,

crying where our children bled.

Dust will settle on the dying

cradled in a mother’s arms,

fearful faces meet the camera

knowing human hatred harms,

knowing only humane kindness

brings the peace that heals, disarms.

God remove our warring blindness,

give us grace that we might see

through the mists of mortal malice

how we fuel life’s agony,

how inaction, sullen silence,

marks our own complicity.

© Andrew Pratt 9/9/2016

Tune: GRAFTON or PICARDY
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.

Hymn - boy in the ambulance - A bloodied child - Syria

A bloodied child foreshadowed by a cross,

both share their taste of evil and of loss,

and when will people ever live and learn

that hurt and harm is all that war can earn?

We hold our breath in horror as we view

this scene forever old, forever new;

amid the dust and rubble strewn around

a child cries out and parents can’t be found.

How long, O Lord we cry, each hollow word,

our pleas of peace increasingly absurd?

Good God, forgive us when inaction’s voice

speaks loudly of our violent, hurtful choice.

© Andrew Pratt 18/8/2016

Tune: EVENTIDE (Monk)

The boy in the ambulance: five-year-old Omran Daqneesh, Syria August 2016.

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.

In memory of a Priest killed in Rouen

In every sanctuary of grace
where worship lives, where love is found,
where shaken images are sharp
and faith grows still in fertile ground;
here those who lead, whom God has led,
now wait in fear, a priest is dead.

The faith of those who worship God,
is not in question, still we wait,
while scripture says love casts out fear,
yet death can breed a sense of hate.
And so we wait and so we pray
for dawn to light a better day.
© Andrew Pratt 4/8/2016
A priest killed in Rouen, 26th July, 2016.
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.

HYMN, SONG, SOCIETY - a new publication

Singing hymns constructs a sense of community which connects traditions with today’s world. This is stated in the publication Hymn, Song, Society of the Church Research Institute, issued on 3.3.2016. The title covers the meaning of hymns in the church and society, the contents of hymnals in various countries, and experiences related to spiritual songs. The book is compiled of ten academic articles written mainly by Nordic researchers of hymns and spiritual songs.

Singing hymns constructs a sense of community which connects traditions with today’s world. This is stated in the publication Hymn, Song, Society of the Church Research Institute, issued on 3.3.2016. The title covers the meaning of hymns in the church and society, the contents of hymnals in various countries, and experiences related to spiritual songs. The book is compiled of ten academic articles written mainly by Nordic researchers of hymns and spiritual songs.The findings in Hymn, Song, Society also imply that hymns and spiritual songs do not live only in churches and religious denominations. Their role in the religious and societal context has been significant even before Christianity, and their impact prevails.

− During centuries, the use and meaning of hymns has been transformed and renewed. In order to let this development continue, the lyrics and the music have to communicate both with the original context and the world of today, states Andrew Pratt, a British researcher and lyricist, one of the writers of the title.

Read more: http://www.helsinki.fi/teol/tdk/tiedotteet/Hymn_Song_Society.htm

Please feel free to distribute the news link also forward via your personal networks, Best

Pekka Rautio

tiedottaja, Public relations officer

Teologinen tiedekunta, Faculty of Theology PL 4 (Vuorikatu 3)

00014 Helsingin yliopisto, University of Helsinki

Hymn & Worship Resources

 

The Methodist Church – Singing the Faith plus

http://www.singingthefaithplus.org.uk/

Hymns, songs and comment for free download. A web-site to accompany Singing the Faith (hymnbook) but much more too.

HymnQuest

http://hymnquest.com/

HymnQuest is a unique software program developed by The Pratt Green Trust, a charity devoted to the advancement of hymnody and music in worship. It is the most comprehensive ever published in its field, containing over 44,900 first lines and choruses, the full text of 31,000 hymns and songs from some 497 hymn books and publications. The opening bars of over 23,700 melodies can be both viewed and heard, and the indexes list tune names and metres; biblical, lectionary, thematic, liturgical and seasonal references, as well as information and pictures of authors, composers and translators. It is even possible to search for tunes by playing the opening notes on a Virtual Keyboard.  The software allows for direct insertion into PowerPoint (providing this is installed), copy and paste or direct printing.

The data is now updated regularly on line.

Subscribers also have access to a ‘Mobile’ version which will work on Android or Apple phones and tablets.

Lite Version - £25 per year

Copyright Licence Users’ Edition - £50 per year (does not include Church Copyright Licence which must be purchased for use with this Edition

Useful Websites and Resources

ArtServe has superceding the Methodist Church Music Society

http://www.artserve.org.uk/

ArtServe started as an initiative of the Methodist Church Music Society which was formed in 1935 to support Methodist musicians and all types of music in worship.

ArtServe was born in 2008 and initially ran alongside MCMS. Eventually, MCMS activities were transferred to ArtServe and MCMS formally ceased to exist on 31st August 2010.

ArtServe promotes and supports the use of creative arts in Christian worship, including music, dance and drama, visual arts, and creative writing.

Music in its many styles has been prominent in our worship for many years and we uphold and develop all aspects of our musical life including worship bands, music groups, choirs, instrumentalists, organists, songwriters, and composers and arrangers.

ArtServe's minimum annual subscription is £25.00.

Worshipcloud

http://www.theworshipcloud.com/

The Worship Cloud brings you over 22,000 resources for you to use in leading worship or for personal devotion.Every resource is available to buy as an individual download, however you can also take out one of The Worship Cloud’s subscription packages.

Originally Twelvebaskets, then Seedresources, now worshipcloud.

The Hymn Society of Great Britain and Ireland

http://www.hymnsocietygbi.org.uk/

This site carries short papers offering guidance on use of hymns available freely.

The Hymn Society in the United States and Canada

http://www.thehymnsociety.org/

A good source of information and a constantly updated catalogue of hymn texts no more than one year old.

Global Board of Discipleship of the United Methodist Church (USA)  

http://www.gbod.org/worship/

An excellent source of hymns and other liturgical resources updated daily.

Hymnsite    

http://www.hymnsite.com/

A source of midi files of public domain hymns. Good search engine which links to midi, text and piano score sources and much more.  American Methodist based.

Hymns.uk.com                

http://www.stainer.co.uk/hymns/index.html

A good source of hymn texts run by Stainer & Bell Ltd using new material and their back catalogue.

Worship Live         

http://www.worshiplive.org.uk/

Originally a magazine with new hymns, prayers and other worship material published three times a year by Stainer & Bell Ltd. This is now run independently as a web-site edited by Rev Dr Janet Wootton.

Worship Live also run occasional residential hymn writing weekends – next March 17th - 19th 2017 at The Windermere Centre, Cumbria.