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CONTENTS
NEW HYMNS POSTED!!
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HYMN RESOURCES AND LINKS
NET GAINS – A GUIDE FOR MINISTRY
HYMNS
PUBLICATIONS
Hymns further down this page will be updated from time to time. They may be used locally, freely with acknowledgment - © Andrew Pratt (andrew.pratt@lkh.co.uk). Please enter a CCL Return if you have one.
HYMN RESOURCES
HymnQuest 2009
(http://www.stainer.co.uk/hymnquest/ )
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.
Useful Websites and Resources
Methodist Church Music Society http://www.methodistmusic.org/
The Hymn Society of Great Britain and Ireland http://www.hymnsocietygbi.org.uk/
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.
Cyberhymnal http://www.cyberhymnal.org/
This site has over 6,300 Christian hymns & Gospel songs from many denominations. You’ll find lyrics, scores, MIDI files and more.
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
Magazine with new hymns, prayers and other worship material published three times a year by Stainer & Bell Ltd. Provides and opportunity to be published and to network with other writers and composers. Occasional workshops are organised and can be provided at minimal cost – contact Andrew Pratt at andrewpratt@btconnect.com. For a complimentary copy, contact Stainer & Bell Ltd at post@stainer.co.uk or Stainer & Bell Ltd., PO Box 110, 23 Gruneisen Road, Finchley, LONDON, N3 1DZ.
Occasional hymns
If you would like an occasional email of a brand new or seasonally appropriate hymn often written in response to specific issues (9/11, tsunami, Olympics etc) email andrewpratt@btconnect.com. No charge is made for this and hymns are available free for local use.
NET GAINS – A GUIDE TO MINISTRY – AVAILABLE FROM ME
Press release
Net Gains: A guide for ministry by Andrew Pratt has been published by Inspire. The book is a hands-on, practical guide for people who are training for the ordained ministry, or those who are already working as ministers, and who are looking for good advice to help them to follow their calling more effectively.
The book is designed for people who work in the local church, and offers practical suggestions on how to deal with the day-to-day challenges of real situations in real places, acknowledging that ministry is first and foremost about people and relationships.
Revd Dr Janet Wootton, Director of Studies for the Congregational Federation, comments:
Andrew Pratt brings his considerable experience to bear in this thoughtful and practical book, with pastoral sensitivity and gentle humour. The reader is offered a useful range of resources and illustrations and, at the end of each chapter, a helpful summary and pointers to further action. I will certainly use this book in my own work of training people for ministry.
Net Gains: A guide for ministry will also be useful for people who train and support ministers and trainees in the local setting and in theological colleges, as well as local preachers and circuit stewards.
Quotes from Net Gains by Andrew Pratt
1. In the beginning: God. Come back to that again and again. Were it not for God, you would not be reading this book because you would not have been called to ministry or be working with people who have been. Were it not for a sense of vocation, God’s call, I would not have survived this far in ministry and I wouldn’t be writing this.
2. The community was predominantly rural. Farmers in the congregation had the rhythm of their lives dictated by the seasons and, it seemed, milking! . . . I’d never milked a cow, so I asked a farmer in the congregation if I could join him. By breakfast on that morning I knew why he was a farmer and I was a minister!
3. I had just finished leading my first service in a new church. To my mind it had gone quite well – traditional, but with enough innovation to make me feel that I wasn’t just regurgitating all they’d taught me in theological college. After all, that was a while ago and I was now an experienced minister.
I was greeted by a fresh-faced man in his twenties. ‘I play guitar,’ he said with a wry grin. Now how do you respond to that?
4. Be honest in your preaching. Say what you believe, even if that might sometimes be unexpected. (It was only when I took the risk of admitting that I found some parts of Scripture as hard to take as the members of my congregation that my preaching on these passages had any integrity.) Then the congregation will listen because they need to hear what you have to say. Like all good news, it will make them feel better and be better people. On the way, we who minister may become better people ourselves – with a double helping of grace and a dusting of humility.
5. The phone rang and I picked it up. ‘Could you baptize my dog please? Honestly, that’s what the woman on the other end said! How did I respond? No ‘yes’ or no’. ‘Can I come round and talk with you?’ She said I could, there and then. I suggested she put the kettle on.
6. Each meeting in a church belongs to the people of that church under God – it just may not always look like that!
7. In this area of your work [study and preparation] you will only be caught out if, late on Saturday night, you are wondering what on earth you are going to say on Sunday morning.
8. There is no greater gift, no more fulfilling a calling, than ministering with the people of God.
HYMNS
You start with a seed or the sheen of the sea,
the lilt of our laughter, our need to be free;
you start with life’s beauty, each petal and flower,
the praise of our singing, the joy of this hour;
You start at the source of all loving and praise,
with God’s creativity forming our race;
you start with a rainbow, a child at its birth,
all signs of God’s love for this world, for this earth.
The sun with its glory, the stars with their light,
the warmth of the daytime, the velvet of night
are cause for our worship, our thanks for the past,
our trust through the future; God’s loving will last.
© Andrew Pratt 14/5/2009
Written for Kelsall Methodist Church 125th Anniversary and Flower Festival
Tune: ST DENIO
Confession is communion with God,
a time of honesty where fears are shared;
a time where lives are caught, transformed by grace,
as now we meet our maker face to face.
We speak, no longer hindered by our fear,
we say things as they are while God is near;
and in that nearness we will find the peace
that fosters praise, that generates release.
The breadth and length, the depth and height of love
is known and we will celebrate that love;
such gracious love, forgiven we are free,
and grace anticipates what we might be.
© Andrew Pratt 28/4/2009
Themes: confession, repentance, forgiveness, grace, love
Creation's pulse, the rhythm of each day,
the pulse of God, yet life blood ebbs away.
The light is fading, eyes will strain to see.
Contorted muscles struggle to be free.
Yes God, our God is dying, hung up high,
and soon that pulsing life blood will be dry.
The darkness falls, life's rhythm has its end,
and they will grieve: his mother, father, friend.
God hung and died, the butt of human hate,
this depth of love demanded such a fate;
For when aggression came onto the stage
God offered love instead of violent rage.
Now all is plain for faulted humankind,
no riddle to unravel, fathom, find:
that those who know the rhythm of God's grace
should loose that pulse of love within this place.
© Andrew Pratt 5/5/2009
Theme: Easter, Good Friday
Easter and the Italian Earthquake
The quaking earth is calm
while dust hangs in the air;
and nothing good can come of this
yet still our God is there.
The cross is empty now,
but here God hung and died,
he felt forsaken, broken, lost,
that love had been denied.
The human pain he felt
means God can know our loss;
while grief and agony remain,
love shines beyond the cross.
And in our present loss,
This tragedy and pain,
God lives, God loves but suffers still;
and loving, will remain.
Andrew Pratt © 8/4/2009 (andrewpratt@btconnect.com)
65th ANNIVERSARY OF MHA
Gracious God of all creation,
faithful to us in the past;
you are constant in the present,
we affirm your love will last.
So we celebrate this moment,
giving thanks for thought and care
that you offer through each other,
giving us your love to share.
You were there at our beginning
watching every human birth;
walking with us through our childhood,
with us still upon this earth.
You have shared our joy and sorrow,
holding us in hope or pain,
seeing growth in age and wisdom,
understanding loss and gain.
People see us, sometimes wonder,
do not always gauge our worth,
but you value all our living,
God of human life and birth.
So we offer our thanksgiving,
sing your praise for all that's past.
You through grace and faith have held us,
and will take us home at last.
Andrew Pratt © 18/10/2007 (andrewpratt@btconnect.com)
Commissioned by MHA for their 65th Anniversary and first sung in the House of Lords on 29th February 2008
Tune: ABBOTSLEIGH
CHRISTIAN UNITY
The crash of constellations,
where prejudice divides,
where love is torn and broken,
where hatred still resides,
is where we meet as equals
and share what God has given,
diversity in concord,
a foretaste of God's heaven.
This is the time for praying,
yet prayer is not the end,
for reconciliation
needs grace that God will send.
And in that grace our vision,
our eyes are opened wide,
to see Christ in the other,
and then we must decide:
Is love of God yet greater
than human words and creeds?
Is love of neighbour furnished
by human loving deeds?
And can we live together
or must we be apart,
because of human diff’rence
though we are one in heart?
God give us grace to fathom
the riches of your care,
and then the strength to shoulder
the ministry we bear;
that working with each other
acknowledging the worth
of love we share together
we’ll spread your peace on earth.
© Andrew Pratt (andrew.pratt@lkh.co.uk)
Tune: THORNBURY
With hesitance we meet the eyes of strangers,
not knowing what the future has in store,
but God has brought us safely to this moment,
has offered hope and we will trust for more.
This is a time to nurture new relations,
to find new ways of mission and of care,
to worship and to work with greater vigour,
to give and to receive, to learn to share.
Here we have met to make a firm commitment,
a covenant, that with God given grace,
we’ll face the future held by one another,
that hand in hand we’ll walk out from this place.
So as we turn to bless the ones around us,
those that we met as strangers now are friends,
we know that we will journey on together,
bound up in love that neither fades nor ends.
© Andrew Pratt (andrew.pratt@lkh.co.uk)
Tune: Londonderry Air
A hymn for uniting churches written at the request of Cecil King
PUBLICATIONS
Date | Publication | Publisher | Notes | |
| Awaiting publication | The Canterbury Dictionary of Hymnology, edit. J.R. Watson | Canterbury Press in the UK and by Eerdmans in the USA | Commissioned to write a number of articles including Methodist Hymns 1792 - present | |
| 2009 | Sing Your faith | Lindsay Press | Unitarian Hymnbook; 6 hymns included | |
| 2008 | Nothing too Religious | Mph - Inspire | Joint authorship with Marjorie Dobson; worship material but...nothing too religious | |
| 2008 | Net Gains – a guide to ministry | Mph - Inspire | Text book | |
| Hymns of Universal Praise |
| Chinese Hymn Book, hymn included | |
| 2007 | Charles Wesley: Life. Literature. Legacy edit. Rev Prof Kenneth Newport & Dr Ted Campbell | SCM | Commissioned to write a chapter on the continuing influence of Charles Wesley on contemporary hymnody | |
| 2007 | Hymns of Frederick Faber on the Four Last Things
| http://www.hymnsocietygbi.org.uk/ | MA thesis, Available as a PDF from the web site of the Hymn Society of Great Britain and Ireland (2007) | |
| 2007 | Inextinguishable Blaze | Mph - Inspire | 52 meditations on hymns of Charles Wesley | |
| 2006 | Poppies and Snowdrops, | Mph - Inspire | Joint authorship with Marjorie Dobson; collection of material for use at times of bereavement | |
| 2006 | Reclaiming Praise | Stainer & Bell Ltd | 150 Hymns, author collection | |
| 2005 | Bulletin of the Hymn Society | The Hymns Society of Great Britain and Ireland | Article on The Pros and Cons of Inter-Faith Hymnody’ | |
| 2005 - | United Methodist Church, GBOD composer’s web page
| http://www.gbod.org/worship/default.asp?act=reader&item_id=15699 |
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| 2005 | Entertaining angels, edit., Geoffrey Duncan
| Canterbury Press/Christian Aid | Hymns included | |
| 2004 | O for a thousand tongues | Epworth | A study of the origins of the Methodist Hymn Book (1933) | |
| 2004 | Christian Companion chapter on Frederick Faber | mph | Wrote chapter | |
| 2004 | A Lifetime of Blessing, edit., Geoffrey Duncan
| Canterbury Press | Hymns included | |
| 2004 | A Place for Us, edit., Geoffrey Duncan
| Granary Press | Hymns included | |
| 2004 | Shine on Star of Bethlehem, 2nd Edition, edit., Geoffrey Duncan | Canterbury Press/Christian Aid | Hymns included | |
| 2004 | ‘Lives are the currency spent in war's carnage’ - received an ‘honourable mention’ in the Hymn Society in the United States and Canada search for hymns to ‘fill the gaps’
| Hymn Society in the United States and Canada |
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| 2003 | Evangelical Dictionary of Biography | IVP | Commissioned to write an article on William Cowper | |
| 2003 | Timeless Prayers for Peace, edit., Geoffrey Duncan | Canterbury Press | Hymns included | |
| 2002 | Shine on Star of Bethlehem, edit., Geoffrey Duncan | Canterbury Press/Christian Aid | Hymns included | |
| 2002 | Whatever Name or Creed | Stainer & Bell Ltd | 135 Hymns, author collection | |
| 2002 | ‘God’s on our side’ – text chosen for inclusion in a Hymn Society in the United States and Canada commemorative anthology to mark the anniversary of the attack on the World Trade Center (9/11).
| Hymn Society in the United States and Canada |
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| 2002 | What a world, edit., Geoffrey Duncan
| Granary Press | Hymns included | |
| 2002 | Courage to Love, edit., Geoffrey Duncan
| DLT | Hymns included | |
| 2002 | Harvest for the World, edit., Geoffrey Duncan
| Canterbury Press/Christian Aid | Hymns included | |
| 2002 | No Easy Peace | Methodist Publishing House | Hymns included | |
| 2002 | Churches Commission on Racial Justice Worship Pack 1.
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| Hymn included | |
| 2001 | Worship & Rejoice, Edit. George Shorney, () | Hope Publishing, USA | Hymns included | |
| 2001 | Churches Commission on Racial Justice Worship Pack |
| Hymn included | |
| 2001 | Reform – interview of Brian Wren
| United Reformed Church | Article | |
| 2000 | Churches Together National Lent Course |
| Hymn included | |
| 2000 | Peace Makers & Dream Wakers | Methodist Peace Fellowship | Hymns included | |
| 2000 | Notes
| Methodist Church Music Society | Article on Hymn Writing in the Twenty First Century Interview with Brian Wren. | |
| 2000 | Notes | Methodist Church Music Society | Interview with Brian Wren | |
| 2000 | Methodist Recorder | Methodist Church | Article based on an interview of Brian Wren | |
| 1999 | Supplement 99, Edit. George Shorney | Hope Publishing, USA | Hymn included | |
| 1999 | Sound Bytes | Stainer & Bell Ltd | Hymns included | |
| 1999 | Songs for the New Millennium | Trustees for Methodist Church Purposes and National Society Enterprises | Hymns included | |
| 1999 | The Way of Peace, edit., Ward & Wilde | Lion | Hymns included | |
| 1998 | Seeing Christ in Others, Edit., Geoffrey Duncan | Canterbury Press | Hymns included | |
| 1998 | Touching the Pulse: Worship and Our Diverse World, Edit., Leslie Griffiths 2.
| Stainer & Bell, | Hymns included | |
| 1998 | Peculiar Honours, Congregational Federation | Congregational Federation/Stainer & Bell | Hymns included | |
| 1997 | Blinded by the Dazzle | Stainer & Bell Ltd | 81 Hymns, author collection | |
| 1996 | Touching the Pulse: Worship and Where we Work, Edit Bernard Braley 1.
| Stainer & Bell | Hymns included | |
| 1995 | Big Blue Planet, Edit Judy Jarvis | Stainer & Bell/Methodist Division of Education and Youth | Member of editorial committee, 8 songs included | |
| 1994 | ‘How have hymn writers since 1945 used images and language which accurately represents the contemporary world, so that what Christians sing in church is recognisable as the world around’ | Pratt Green Essay Competition, Joint 1st Prize |
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| 1993 | Story Song, edit., Alan Luff/Donald Pickard | Stainer & Bell/Methodist Division of Education and Youth | Hymns included | |
| 1993 | ‘A study of hymns and songs as they support Christians and agnostics in times of stress such as overwork, redundancy , bereavement and despair’ | Pratt Green Essay Competition, 2nd Prize. |
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| 1992 | The Daily Companion 5, Compiled Elizabeth Rundle | Marshall/Pickering | Hymn included | |
| 1991 | AIDS – Who Needs the Healer? | McCrimmons/Lichfield Diocesan Board for Social Responsibility | Video script and Hymns included | |
| 1989 | Hymns of the City, edit John Vincent | Urban Theology Unit of the Methodist Church | Hymn included | |
| John Rylands Research Institute Newsletter - |
| An article related to my esearch using the Methodist Archive | |
| Theological Book Review | Various reviews including: Doing without Adam and Eve, Patricia Williams; With God in the Crucible: Preaching Costly Discipleship, Peter Storey; The Road of the Heart’s Desire: an essay on the cycles of story and song, John S. Dunne; How God Looks if You don’t Start in Church, Michael Ranken (all (2003); Praying Twice, Brian Wren (2001); Lovett H. Weems Jr., (2000) Leadership in the Wesleyan Spirit, | ||
| Crucible
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| Book review of Anima Christi, Robert Jeffery. | |
| Ichthus |
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| Magnet |
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| Worship Live |
| Member of Editorial Group, various articles, reviews and hymns, | |
| Hymns & Congregational Songs |
| Hymn included | |
| Reconciliation Quarterly
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| various articles on peace and Christianity. | |
| AIDSLink
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| various articles particularly relating Christian attitudes to AIDS/HIV. | |
| Writers’ News, Writing Magazine |
| Various articles on writing technique | |
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