Coexistence on earth

This world is tangled, lost in devastation,

people are struggling, longing to be free.

How long O Lord, must hurt and degradation

mar all that human eyes can search or see?

How long before all nations work together,
to save this planet lent to us in trust?
How long until we learn to plan and nurture,
before this land decays and turns to dust?

Give us, O God, in faith, cooperation,

that hand in hand we have the sense to share

riches that you have planted from creation,

that none go hungry, for their neighbours care.

This is our prayer that people once divided

may learn the value of another’s worth,

that those we once despised, or have derided,

may coexist on this once ravaged earth.

Andrew Pratt 18/6/2018 revised 25/6/2018

Words © 2018 Stainer & Bell Ltd, London, England, 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.

Tune:LORD OF THE YEARS

A hymn for human coexistence on earth