Andrew Pratt

A hymn inspired by 1 Samuel 8: 4 – 11, 16 – 20 for Second Sunday after Pentecost perhaps still pertinent? – The warning went unheeded…

A hymn inspired by 1 Samuel 8: 4 – 11, 16 – 20 
for Second Sunday after Pentecost perhaps still pertinent?

1	The warning went unheeded, 
	that power corrupts and fires 
	a need for domination, 
	that wealth and fear conspires 
	to elevate the powerful,
	to subjugate the poor, 
	that those who have most riches 
	will always look for more.
	
2	The people pleaded loudly, 
	'most nations have a king', 
	and reason would not change them 
	from wanting such a thing. 
	As history unfolded 
	they learnt, as if in youth,
	that kings are only human, 
	a long-forgotten truth.		
	
3	So Saul was soon anointed 
	and feted by his peers, 
	his reign was sometimes blighted, 
	brought hurt and pain and tears.
	That lesson we're still learning:
	that power blinds to need, 
	and wealth is hoarded, hidden,
	and selfishness a creed.

Andrew E Pratt (born 1948)
Words © 2015 Stainer & Bell Ltd, London, England copyright@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
Metre: 7 6 7 6 D
Tune: AURELIA

As an election approaches a hymn (poem,song) – If love is foremost in our faith

If love is foremost in our faith 
we have a choice to make 
on this and every other day, 
for all else is at stake; 
we see a world that’s broken down, 
where poverty and fear 
are trampelling the weakest ones, 
with hatred lurking near.

‘Today’, God said, I give a choice 
where life and death compete. 
The chance is now for us to take, 
to finish, to complete, 
the turning of the tables here 
as Christ, one time, had turned
the temple tables, scattering greed, 
to free those power had spurned.

Where selfishness can cripple lives, 
or love can set them free, 
what happens from this moment on 
rests now with you and me: 
if our audacious words of grace 
can frame what we would pray, 
then from this moment, in our time, 
let love infuse each day.

Andrew Pratt 22/5/2024 on the announcement of a General Election
Words © 2024 Stainer & Bell Ltd, London, England copyright@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

Metre: CMD
Tunes: ELLACOMBE; COE FEN; KINGSFOLD

Audacious grace: a hymn for an Arminian, Wesleyan Pentecost

Audacious grace: to give without receiving,
to give expecting nothing in return
And through this grace, this moment still believing,
that love is something we can never earn.
This grace extends beyond our expectation, 
for not a one is found outside its span, 
this tender care, this steadfast loving kindness
has held the cosmos since all time began. 

No word or action, prayer or contemplation
can lift us us from this earth to heaven’s height,
nor can the supernova’s startling brilliance
compete with God’s eternal, ceaseless light.
In faith we sing beyond imagination,
beyond the limits of our common sense.
We frame a vision out of time’s contention, 
yet know its truth within our present tense. 


Andrew E. Pratt (born 1948)
Words © 2024 © Stainer & Bell Ltd, London, England copyright@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: LONDONDERRY AIR