Hymn sheet music - St Andrew's Church Walkerville
bible icon

Sermon – Hymn Writer’s Service

Hymn Writer’s Service – Fred Pratt Green (1903-2000)

Sermon Preached by Reverend Stuart Langshaw on Sunday, 13 October 2024.

In a moment of quiet reflection, think about the people who have influenced you in your life as a Christian. Maybe a priest. Maybe a youth group leader. Maybe some far-off figure from history whose story has stirred you. Those who have influenced me are Henry Martyn (born in 1781), our youth group leader Ewart Hungerford. The remarkable Sunday School teacher Miss Carpenter, my dad Reg Langshaw, and the Rev’d Neville Bathgate.

In quiet ways we have also been helped and influenced by hymn writers and their hymns. Have you noticed how a hymn will come into your mind at some stage, and stays there, and helps there? Maybe one of the 9,000 hymns by Fanny Crosby such as “To God Be The Glory Great Things He Has Done,” or one of Charles Wesley’s 6,500 hymn such as “Jesus, lover of my soul.” Or one of Isacc Watts’ 750 hymns such as “When I Survey The Wondrous Cross.” Or maybe you get in to your mind a hymn by a modern hymn writer like Timothy Dudley-Smith, or Stuart Townsend or Graham Kendrick. All these people have helped and influenced us through their hymns.

As has … Fred Pratt Green. He was born in 1903 and died in 2000, and was a Methodist Minister in England. He was a Lancashire lad whose dad was a leather worker. His family referred to him as Derrick. He received his schooling at two Methodist schools, and showed interest in becoming an architect – but ended up working in his father’s business. Fred was ordained as a minister in 1928. The Methodist Church had a practice of their ministers staying in the one parish or circuit for just 5 years and then moving on to the next parish. So it would take some time for us to roll call the names of all the places where Fred Pratt Green was minister. But we have to mention the Circuit of Filey, in North Yorkshire. Part of his ministry there was chaplain to Hunmanby Hall Boarding School for Girls: for in 1931, he married Marjorie Dowsett, who taught French at that school.

It was not until he retired in the 1960s that Pratt Green began writing prolifically. His hymns reflect his concern with social issues. He was convinced that the Christian message was not to be cosseted in a church building on a Sunday, but was to be lived out in lives of practical Christian service during the week. He would thoroughly have approved of, and been a part of the team here at St Andrews, that does the meal at St Mary Magdalene’s a few times a year. That is the sort of Christian living that was right up his alley. Compassionate, practical. His hymns include many that were written to supply obvious liturgical needs of the modern church, and were about topics or were appropriate for events for which there were few traditional hymns available.

His 300 hymns appear in hymn books of various denominations, but most notably in Singing the Faith, the hymn book of the Methodist Church of Great Britain, and the United Methodist Hymnal used in the United States, as well as in the hymn book we use here at St Andrews and in St Peters Cathedral.

As well as writing his own hymns, Green produced translations, notably translating one of Dietrich Bonhoeffer’s later poems as the hymn, “By gracious powers so wonderfully sheltered”.

The Pratt Green Trust was set up from the royalties from his hymns. His scrapbooks and hymnbook collections are now held in the Pratt Green Collection at Durham University.

In 1977 he received a phone call from Lambeth Palace where the Archbishop of Canterbury lives, to advise Pratt Green that one of his hymns had been included in the official order of service for the nationwide celebrations of the Silver Jubilee of Queen Elizabeth II.

In 1990, Fred and Marjorie Greens moved to Cromwell House Methodist Home for the Aged, Norwich, where Marjorie died in 1993. In 1995, Frederick Pratt Green was honoured by the Queen with the award of an MBE for services to hymn writing. Fred died quietly in his sleep at Cromwell House on Sunday 22nd October 2000 aged 96.

In our service this morning we are singing 5 of Fred Pratt Green’s hymns, and they will assist us as we make our way through the liturgy. We started with the hymn “God is here as we his people meet to offer praise and prayer” (Pew Sheet page 2). As you read what the 4 verses say about worship, they give us a comprehensive oversight of what it is we do as we worship. It’s a really good hymn to start the service because it sets the scene so well. Part of the structure that Green uses for this hymn is that the second part of each verse starts with the word “Here…” the things Fred Pratt Green saw as helping us to grow as we worship – preaching, silence, renewal. You will see in the second part of verse 3 the burden that Green had for Christian faith to be seen in daily living. And that hymn ends with the terrific outburst of dedication and praise, “We, who cannot live without you, we adore you! We believe!” Good hymn.

The hymn we sang just before the gospel was read a moment ago was, “For the fruits of all creation, thanks be to God” (Pew Sheet page 7). It starts as a harvest festival hymn but then uses the metaphor of harvest to describe other things. We suburban dwellers have lost touch with harvest, really. We just go to the supermarket and select our needs from the shelves. Ploughing, sowing, reaping are not things we do. But aren’t we fortunate to have such ample supplies and variety of food available – at a price. We must re-echo Green’s line at the end of the first verse – “Thanks be to God.” When you look at the second verse, you see again Green’s concern that Christian faith be a practical, serving faith. “In the help we give our neighbour … in our world-wide task of caring for the hungry and despairing …” And that hymn ends with the outburst of gratitude, “Thanks be to God.” Good hymn.

Just before we start the Communion Prayer we shall sing the hymn “Rejoice in God’s Saints Today and All Days” (Pew Sheet Page 11). This takes us back to what I said at the start of the sermon – who are the people who influenced your life as a Christian? They are your saints for whom you should praise God today and all days. Verse 3 is particularly memorable – praise God for the unknown saints who bear someone’s cross, or shoulder their own cross. Sometimes the life of a saint is spent in helping others to carry their burdens – or in carrying their own burdens of grief or health or misunderstanding. And you may have experienced the strength you receive from such a saint who has simply been there for you in your times of stress and strain, and helped you by their patient and understanding friendship. We have some unknown saints who worship with us at St Andrews Sunday by Sunday. Good hymn.

During the time when people receive Communion or a blessing this morning, we shall sing Green’s hymn “An Upper Room Did Our Lord Prepare” (Pew Sheet Page 17). It’s a hymn that retells the story of what happened in that Upper Room on the night before Jesus was arrested and crucified. It recalls the sharing of the bread and wine; it recalls the foot-washing. It reminds us that we are sent out to serve . . . to take our Christian faith out into the community and live it there. It gives us a great deal to think about as we receive the sacrament of Holy Communion. Good Hymn.

Our final Hymn is also by Pratt Green – “Christ is the world’s light, he and no other” (Pew Sheet page 18.) What a great hymn to finish with – it gives us the message of our Christian mission – to go out from church and proclaim that Christ is the world’s light . . . that Christ is the world’s peace . . . that Christ is the world’s life. This is the message in our hearts and on our lips and in our lives as we try to live God’s love in our lives this week and every week. As the hymn says in its last verse – “Give God the glory, God and none other.” We have already sung these words in the Gloria – “Glory be to God in the highest, and peace to God’s people on earth.” Good hymn.

Fred Pratt Green – a man who was able to put down in hymns the great teachings of the Christian faith, the great devotion of the Christian faith and the great Christ of the Christian faith. It may be that we shall catch ourselves singing some of his hymns to ourselves as we go about our Christian lives each day. He wrote good hymns.

And now, in a moment of quiet reflection, think about those people who have influenced you in your life as a Christian. In a moment of quiet dedication, pray that we might be the kind of people who influence others in their Christian lives – just as the hymn writers, and Fred Pratt Green, have influenced our lives.

*** *** *** *** *** *** *** ***

SOME HYMNS BY FRED PRATT GREEN
A&M is Hymns Ancient and. Modern New Standard
A&M Refr is Hymns Ancient and Modern – Hymns & Songs for Refreshing Worship
TiS is Together in Song

A&M
424 The first day of the week – The Lord’s Day
434 An upper room did our Lord prepare – Upper Room.
440 Christ is the world’s light – Jesus Christ
457 For the fruits of his creation – Harvest
464 God is here as we his people meet to offer – Worship
478 Let every Christian pray – HS and Church
484 Long ago prophets knew – Jesus comes
503 Of all the Spirit’s gifts to me – Fruit of the Spirit
508 Rejoice in God’s saints today & all days – Saints
517 To mock your reign O dearest Lord – Symbols of Passion
524 What Adam’s disobedience cost – Adam & Christ
526 When Jesus came to Jordan – Jesus’ baptism

A&M Refr 
349 The grace of life is theirs – Marriage
509 What shall our greeting be? Jesus is Lord – Mission
518 O Christ the healer, have we come – Healing
565 Pray for the Church afflicted & oppressed – Justice
605 By gracious powers so wonderfully attended – General
(Based on 5 stanzas of Bonhoffer Poem)
821 When in our music God is glorified – Hymn singing

TiS
490 Lord Jesus, once a child – Baptism
646 God is our song, and every singer blest – Praise to God

“BY KINDLY POWERS” — A POEM BY DIETRICH BONHOEFFER
5 of its verses were made into a 4-verse hymn by Fred Pratt Green
By kindly pow’rs encircled, silent and true,
So gloriously guarded and wondrously cheered,
I long to live these fleeting days beside you,
And journey with you into a new year.

Still would the past our hearts torment and harry;
Still crushed are we by weight of bitter days.
Oh, Lord, please pour into our startled souls
The endless life for which You have us made.

And should You proffer us the heavy cup
Of bitter grief, filled up unto the brim,
In thanks we take it without any trembling,
Received as from Your good and dearest hand.

But should You give us once again Your joy
Upon this world and in the bright sun’s light,
Then we will contemplate the former things
And back to You will render our whole life.

So warm and bright may now the candles glow,
Which You have brought into our deepest night.
Lead us, if it may be, back to each other;
We know that in the darkness shines Your Light.

And when the silence deep spreads all around us,
Then let us hear those swelling tunes begin
From world unseen which all about us widens
As all Your children raise their highest hymns.

By kindly powers wonderfully harboured,
We boldly live in hope, so come what may;
For God is near in evening and in morning,
And surely He is with us each new day.

“BY GRACIOUS POWERS” — A HYMN BY FRED PRATT GREEN
based on the Bonhoeffer poem 
Sung to the tune Finlandia

By gracious powers so wonderfully sheltered
and confidently waiting, come what may,
we know that God is with us night and morning,
and never fails to meet us each new day.

yet are our hearts by their old foe tormented;
Still evil days bring burdens hard to bear;
O give our frightened souls the sure foundation
for which, O Lord, you taught us to prepare.

And when the cup you give is filled to brimming
with bitter suffering, hard to understand,
we take it gladly, trusting. though with trembling,
out of so good and so beloved a hand.

If once again in this mixed world, you give us
the joy we had, the brightness of your sun,
we shall recall what we have learned through sorrow,
and dedicate our lives to you alone

—RSHA Prison, Berlin, 1944
From the Gestapo bunker in Prinz-Albert-Strasse, Berlin, to which he had been transferred to Tegel on 8 October 1944, Dietrich Bonhoeffer wrote this New Year message to his friends on the last New Year’s Eve of his life, 31 December 1944; it was smuggled out of his prison, and has become one of Bonhoeffer’s best know compositions. Green’s English setting captures the depth of the original poem as Bonhoeffer struggled with his impending death

Those who sing Green’s hymn are captured by the eloquence and depth in the first line: We are “sheltered” by the “gracious powers” of God, allowing us to “confidently wait . . . come what may.” The grace of God, pervading our existence, is “with us night and morning” and always “meet[s] us each new day.”

Knowing the context of the Bonhoffer’s’s circumstance clarifies the second stanza of Green’s hymn , as Bonhoeffer faced “evil days” with “burdens hard to bear.” But God’s “sure salvation” prepares our “frightened souls.”

The third stanza recalls the image of Christ in the Garden of Gethsemane: “ . . . when this cup you give is filled to brimming with bitter sorrow. . . . ” Following Christ’s example, “we take [this cup] gladly and “trusting tremblingly” from Christ’s “good and so beloved a hand.”

The final stanza places the difficulties of our lives within the broader context of a life belonging to our Creator. “The joy we had, the brightness of your sun” overshadows the burdens of life and “all that we lived through sorrow,” and we rest assured that “our whole life shall then be dedicated to [Christ] alone.”