Paris attacks - hymn

At least 18 people have been killed in several shootings in the French capital, Paris, as well as explosions near the Stade de France (BBC) 2254hrs 13/11/2015

This hymn written earlier this year has, sadly, been adapted in the light of today's attacks.

Hopeless to help in this violence, this crisis,

here in the focus of bloodshed and fear,

common humanity binds us together,

love at the centre, not hatred's veneer.

History repeats in this city of beauty,

here amid elegance: danger’s embrace.

Love is our purpose when those filled with hatred

break down relationships, nullify grace.

Give me your hand, then let peace grow between us,

let us rebuild what distrust might destroy.

Now in this moment we'll make a commitment,

love is the weapon we'll use and deploy.

© Andrew Pratt 20/1/2015 & 18/1/2015 & 13/11/2015
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.

Mohammed Emwazi (AKA Jihadi John)

In the light of the suspected death of Mohammed Emwazi (AKA Jihadi  John), the following hymn originally written at the time of the death of Osama bin Laden might be pertintent - see below or follow the link
http://hymnsandbooks.blogspot.co.uk/2011/05/osama-bin-ladin-hymn.html

REMEMBRANCE & PEACE - A HYMN - How do we heal the horror

How do we heal the horror:

the aftermath of war,

the sharpened, hurtful questions

we wonder what it’s for;

the tears that feed each memory,

the pain, the hurt, the fear,

the images that haunt each mind,

that always seem so near?

How can we unlearn hatred

that undermines our peace,

that hurts beyond our healing,

God, will it never cease?

How can we sound the purpose

that severs limb from limb,

that escalates the tension,

that sounds a war-like hymn?

No God can end this murder,

this futile loss of life,

this endless mutilation,

this pointless human strife,

for every generation

must learn to love again,

to mine the seam of healing,

to end this ceaseless pain.

© Andrew Pratt 7/11/2015

Tune: AURELIA

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.

Migration continues to exercise the politicians and people of the UK and Europe - a hymn

Sometimes the footfall seems incessant,

a challenge to our selfish greed,

how can we clothe and house such numbers,

our fear wells up to veil their need.

Yet every living person coming

should have a share of all our wealth,

but dare we give without a limit

to meet another’s need of health?

This is the challenge set before us,

to greet each stranger as a friend,

to share God’s love, that knows no limits,

until all fear and hunger ends.

© Andrew Pratt 4/9/3015

Tune: ST CLEMENT
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.

They’re carted off like cattle - Reported this morning - 70 found dead in a lorry in Austria

They’re carted off like cattle,

yet we’d refuse a bed

to those who flee from carnage

now drowned, or lost or dead?

Christ said accept the stranger,

how can we bar the door

to those both poor and hungry

who wait beyond our shore.

How can we guard our comfort

or fear what we might lose

when those who are more needy,

we punish and abuse.

God, must we wait for judgment?

Will nothing change our face

from sneering denigration

to smiles of love and grace?

Good God forgive the selfish,

the ones who bind the free,

who now withhold salvation.

Begin right now with me!

© Andrew Pratt 28/8/2015

Reported this morning - 70 found dead in a lorry in Austria.

Tune: CHERRY TREE CAROLCL return if you have one

 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.

More than Hymns - Words for a Lyrical Faith - NEW HYMN COLLECTION - Andrew Pratt

More than Hymns - Words for a Lyrical Faith – Stainer & Bell Ltd http://www.stainer.co.uk/shop/b944.html

ISBN 0 85249 944 3

A creative spirituality is the essence of Andrew Pratt’s continuing affirmation of the role of hymnody in contemporary faith, through a corpus of lyrics for public worship that are amongst the most relevant of recent contributions to the form. No less than with his very first texts, dating from the late 1970s, the goal in this fourth and latest collection is to make sense of language, living and worshipping in a way that also acknowledges the shifting and often contextual nature of our words and of our world. One important influence in More than Hymns has been the discipline of writing hymns for three years of the readings of the Revised Common Lectionary. Another has been his response to the problem of evil as manifest in the crises and conflicts of the last decade. There are challenging insights into familiar Biblical themes, and a number of refreshing items, each a pièce d’occasion arising from the author’s varied pastoral work.

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.