Hymn at time of Russian invasion of Ukraine

We hear the news in anguish to know what has been done,
the cameras and recordists show hatred being spun,
the sound of rockets falling fill broadcasts round the earth,
Great God what are we doing while children come to birth?

Our aspirations shudder, our hopes become as dust,
though war machines, are broken, dismembered, turn to rust.
Our conversations stutter, our talks of peace – hot air,
Great God may acts of justIce grow from the seeds of prayer.

No place is ever neutral when hatred fuels the fire,
humanity unites us, let love be our desire.
Join hands across the barriers that other hands have made,
until your world is mended and violence has been stayed.

Andrew Pratt 28/2/2022 Written while watching the Russian-Ukraine conflict.
Words © 2022 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: KING’S LYNN; O SACRED HEAD SORE WOUNDED has also been suggested by Judy Ford