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Mountain-top, imagination?
Mountain-top, imagination?
by Andrew Pratt
Mountain-top, imagination? Time for meeting face to face? Peter, James and John were praying, now they stand confused by grace. Shining in this mystic moment stands the one they know as friend, now exalted God incarnate, this they strain to comprehend. Verses 2-3 follow Tune: HYF…
Out of Egypt now in Canaan
Out of Egypt now in Canaan
by Andrew Pratt
Out of Egypt now in Canaan, finding freedom in this place celebrating liberation, Hebrews learning of God's grace. Now this story, part of hist'ry, told again from year to year: speaks of haste, release and rescue, time of tension, time of fear. Verses 3-4 follow Tune: ALL FOR JE…
Hymn: On these days of feast and freedom
Hymn: On these days of feast and freedom
by Andrew Pratt
On these days of feast and freedom when we recollect God's grace, let us dance and sing together, greet each other face to face. Verses 2-3 follow Tune: RUSSION AIR (arranged Peacok, Jubilate, in Carol Praise 48 and elsewhere), ST ANDREW (Thorne) Metre: 8.7.8.7 Andrew Pratt …
Hymn: Divided nations but one parent
Hymn: Divided nations but one parent
by Andrew Pratt
Divided nations but one parent, the God of one and God of all; and now in praise and joyful worship as nations sing, each voice will call. Then through the wealth of grace and glory, may God's own Spirit fill each heart, until in Christ we all are rooted, within one ground to bea…
Hymn: In the depth of deep recession
Hymn: In the depth of deep recession
by Andrew Pratt
In the depth of deep recession hopeless, helpless here we stand; all around new fears are waking anxious thoughts throughout this land. While some live in wealth and comfort, others struggle to be fed; mothers queue at new-found food banks, others look to find a bed. Verses 2-3 f…
Hymn: Imagine people gathered round
Hymn: Imagine people gathered round
by Andrew Pratt
Imagine people gathered round, the day was warm, the sun was low. The mist was rising from the lake, the mood was holy, lowly, slow. Toward the evening they had come, expectant, waiting for his word. The day was long, they rested tired, and looking, his compassion stirred. Verses…
Hymn: The Psalmist calls for new songs praising God
Hymn: The Psalmist calls for new songs praising God
by Andrew Pratt
The Psalmist calls for new songs praising God but we prefer familiar words and ways. We hold and cage and mould God to our will, defending customs smothering our praise. A world-wide pool of images and grace informs our faith, re-vitalises hope, and so our view, so narrow and obs…
Hymn: Visions of paradise: heaven disclosing
Hymn: Visions of paradise: heaven disclosing
by Andrew Pratt
Visions of paradise: heaven disclosingsomething of beauty, of joy and delight; colours cascading that shimmer before us, tempting from darkness to temples of light. But we are grounded, the earth pulls, constrains us, keeping us close to the things that we know. Ours is the commo…
Lent for Everyone Mark Year B - Sunday: Week 3 in Lent Year B
Lent for Everyone Mark Year B - Sunday: Week 3 in Lent Year B
by SPCK - N T Wright
Lent for Everyone Mark Year B WEEK 3: SUNDAY... ...A couple of years ago I found myself in New York at the time when the Museum of Modern Art was hosting an exhibition of Claude Monet’s ‘Waterlily’ paintings. I hadn’t realized how enormous they were, or just how abstract the shap…
Lent for Everyone Mark Year B - Saturday: Week 3 in Lent Year B
Lent for Everyone Mark Year B - Saturday: Week 3 in Lent Year B
by SPCK - N T Wright
Lent for Everyone Mark Year B WEEK 3:SATURDAY... ...I sat for two hours with a young man who could not believe in God’s love. When I say ‘could not’, that is quite literally how it seemed. He could not believe in God’s love in much the same way that he was physically incapable of…
Genesis for Everyone Part 1 - The Mark of Cain
Genesis for Everyone Part 1 - The Mark of Cain
by SPCK - John Goldingay
The Mark of Cain Genesis 4: 14-17 Our church shows up at a local homeless shelter to make dinner for the residents there once a month or so. Homeless “shelter” could give a false impression. Before I went there, I imagined something rather makeshift, almost like the shelters in w…
What news is good? That Christ will live forever?
What news is good? That Christ will live forever?
by Andrew Pratt
What news is good? That Christ will live forever? Beyond a cruel death an empty grave? And whether this is fact or faith means nothing unless Christ's Spirit gives the means to save. If we endure derision, in this moment, or share communion bread within this place, unless our liv…
Strange holiness: the glory of the Godhead
Strange holiness: the glory of the Godhead
by Andrew Pratt
Strange holiness: the glory of the Godhead, once named as love, the voice of living grace, the Word that spoke the cosmos into being: now Moses met that glory face to face. Unveiled he took that same un-borrowed glory, the covenant was given to his hand; two tablets of the law ga…
The shepherd of sheep scorns the safety of shelter
The shepherd of sheep scorns the safety of shelter
by Andrew Pratt
The shepherd of sheep scorns the safety of shelter, the wilderness beckons, the flock has run wild; but here in lush pasture, beside the still waters, the shepherd calls people, both parent and child. Verses 2-3 follow Tune: FRIARMERE VICARAGE (Hymns for Today’s Church 26; Jubila…
The Living God - Mystery or muddle? The Trinity
The Living God - Mystery or muddle? The Trinity
by SPCK - Alister McGrath
Mystery or muddle? The Trinity 5 When I was an atheist I regarded religious people as deluded and irrational souls who believed all sorts of ridiculous nonsense. If I had been asked to single out what I regarded as the most absurd aspect of Christian belief, I would have pointed …
Great Christian Thinkers - 44 St. Odo of Cluny
Great Christian Thinkers - 44 St. Odo of Cluny
by SPCK - Pope Benedict XVI
St. Odo of Cluny We resume the presentation of important writers of the Eastern and Western Church in the Middle Ages because in their lives and writings we see, as in a mirror, what it means to be Christian. One such luminous figure is St. Odo, abbot of Cluny… Taken from Great C…
Great Christian Thinkers - 17 St. Hilary of Poitiers
Great Christian Thinkers - 17 St. Hilary of Poitiers
by SPCK - Pope Benedict XVI
St. Hilary of Poitiers I reflect now on a great Father of the Church of the West, St. Hilary of Poitiers, one of the important episcopal figures of the fourth century. In the controversy with the Arians, who considered Jesus the Son of God to be an excellent human creature but on…
Great Christian Thinkers - 48 Peter the Venerable