Events

CHURCH ANNIVERSARY

They did not build in vain
Who founded here a church
In witness to God's love
Amid a world of pain;
For still to those who wish to see
This place proclaims God's mystery.

They built upon the rock
That is the risen Lord,
The one foundation laid
Which stands each earthly shock;
That, Spirit filled, we here might raise,
As living temples, prayer and praise.

Those who have loved this place,
A cloud of witnesses,
Surround and urge us on
As we now run our race;
And so we lay aside each sin
In our resolve to strive and win.

Though the horizon's bend
Conceals the way ahead,
The footprints on the road
Show Christ waits at the end;
In him alone our faith shall stand
Who waits for us at God's right hand.

In every place our world
Is storm and tempest tossed;
The flames of fear and hate
Are evil's flags unfurled;
Yet still the Spirit's wind and fire
Pours gifts for service in this hour.

Here is our meeting place
Where doubt finds grounds of faith,
Where hurt finds healing love,
Our penitence finds grace;
Where bridging time to eternity,
Is God the Holy Trinity.


Alan Luff (born 1928)
© 1990 Stainer & Bell Ltd
6.6.6.6.8 8.

A church is heaven's gate:
Then let us celebrate
Its power to raise the spirit.
Our fathers, for our good,
Preferred the gothic mood;
Their insight we inherit.

What confidence was theirs
To make their children heirs
Of such enduring beauty.
Their faith commands respect,
Though changing times reject
So much they counted duty.

Yet neither change nor chance
Can lessen or enhance
God's timeless revelation.
Today, as yesterday:
Tomorrow, come what may:
In Christ is our salvation.

May all who worship here,
Believing God is near,
Find he is at the centre.
How sacred is this place!
Its open door of grace,
Be bold, my soul, to enter!


Fred Pratt Green 1903–2000
© 1989 Stainer & Bell Ltd
6 6.7.6 6.7.

A cloud of witnesses around us,
a thousand echoes from the past,
proclaim the One who freed and found us,
and leads us on, from first to last.
For such a gift, let all uplift
a thousand alleluias.

A carnival of faiths and cultures
parading through our settled praise,
with jangled rhythms, songs and dances,
expresses Love's expansive ways.
Christ is our song. To God belong
a thousand alleluias.

A crowd, that clamours pain and anger,
prevents us from nostalgic pride;
the cries of poverty and hunger
recall us to our Saviour's side.
There we entrust, to God most just,
a thousand alleluias.

A throng of future shapes and shadows,
a world that may, or may not be,
names us the servants and the stewards
of all the Spirit longs to see.
In awe we bend, and onward send
a thousand alleluias.

A rainbow-host of milling children,
God's varied image, from all lands,
awakes again our founding vision,
that onward, urgently expands.
Give all, give more. Let love outpour
a thousand alleluias.


Brian Wren (born 1936)
© 1992 Stainer & Bell Ltd
9.8.9.8.8.7.

Come, share with us, as every Christian can,
Today's rejoicing in a work of grace
Our Founders, long ago, in faith began
Here where we meet, in this historic place.

They saw the need: a Church divinely led;
Its ministry in mind and heart prepared
To face the pioneering tasks ahead
As faithful servants of a Christ who cared.

Remember all who once were students here,
Who served the Lord in any time and place,
And by self giving helped to make it clear
Why Christ has died to save our human race.

But what of us? In its own search for truth
Each generation tests its heritage;
Still Spirit-led the Church renews its youth,
And writes, in our own time, another page.

Here too we learn to follow where truth leads,
To heal the hurts that fester and divide,
Finding in dialogue with other creeds
Our faith in Christ confirmed and purified.

Rejoice in this: the past confirms our hope;
The long perspective shows us God's design.
God's Kingdom comes, with ever widening scope
And calls for full commitment, yours and mine.


Fred Pratt Green 1903–2000
© 1989 Stainer & Bell Ltd
10.10.10.10

Ever-journeying Friend,
from beginning to end,
our travel-horizon
you daily extend.
When we stumble or hide,
your compassion is wide.
You heal us, you find us,
you counsel and guide.
Spirit of God, Companion for good,
bring us together in praise.
Awake us, and shake us, and lead us on,
a journeying people forever.

Living Partner most wise,
from the grave you arise,
and give us the business
of God's enterprise.
By your gracious bequest,
love and life you invest.
In wonder we answer
and offer our best.
Crucified Christ, Compassion of God,
keep us together in praise.
Redeem us, and feed us, and lead us on,
a love-giving people forever.

Hidden Parent of Light,
ever faithful and right,
most holy, most humble,
our trust you invite.
All the wonders of space
you unfold and embrace;
conceiving, creating,
our thoughts you outpace.
Founder of Life, all-giving, all-good,
lead us together in praise.
Be near us, to cheer us, and call us home,
a thanks-giving people forever.


Brian Wren (born 1936)
© 1993 Stainer & Bell Ltd
6 6.6.5.D. and Refrain

God formerly has spoken
Through prophet and through priest
With comfort for the broken,
With joy for the released.
He calls us to release us,
And shows our questing youth
His Word, His Christ, His Jesus,
Our Way, our Life, our Truth.

God raised up to His glory
the founders of this place
To add Ibadan's story
To annals of His grace.
Before us in this college
His Holy Spirit's ray
Has lit the street of knowledge
For those who paved our way.

Then since we are surrounded
By such a witness-cloud,
On Christ securely founded,
By Christ with truth endowed,
We follow them, discerning
The path their feet have trod.
The spring of all our learning
Shall be the love of God.

John Ferguson (1921-1989)
© 1982 Stainer & Bell Ltd
7 6 7 6 D Iambic

Great our joy as now we gather
Where the Master makes us one:
Where we worship God the Father
Through the Spirit of his Son.
All who search
For his Church
Find it where his will is done.

Precious is the tie that binds us
To our God when faith grows cold;
Precious all that now reminds us
He is still our safe stronghold.
Faithful love
Serves to prove
Here the shepherd has his fold.

May we learn from Christ's example
How to use this House of Prayer:
He who loved and cleansed his temple
Wants us all to worship there.
God the Son
Shuts out none:
In his Kingdom all may share.

Lord, inspire us with your vision
Of a world which must be won!
Glorious is the Church's mission,
Long endeavoured, scarce begun!
'Faithful now'—
This is how
God's eternal will is done!

Fred Pratt Green 1903–2000
© 1973 Stainer & Bell Ltd
8.7.8.7.3 3.7.

Great soaring Spirit,
sweeping in uncharted flight
beyond the bounds of time and space.
God's breath of love,
you fill the outflung galaxies,
and move through earth's long centuries
with aching, mending, dancing grace.

Great eagle Spirit,
crying from the tallest crags
to all discarded, all distressed,
glad gusting love,
come, scatter trivialities,
and raise envisioned ministries
to hear and honour earth's oppressed.

Great nesting Spirit,
sheltering with mighty wings
your chattering, demanding brood,
deep, restless love,
come, stir us, show us how to fly,
till, heading for tomorrow's sky,
we soar together, God-renewed.


Brian Wren (born 1936)
© 1989 Stainer & Bell Ltd
12.8.12.8.8.8.

How good it is when we agree
To live in Christian unity,
Fulfilling Christ's command;
When, putting prejudice aside,
Superior status, injured pride,
We take the outstretched hand.

Time was, we found it hard to greet
Those other saints across the street
Who bore our tribal name.
Divided then, one people now,
What have these fifty years to show,
What progress dare we claim?

So little done, so far to go!
Yet God has given us grace to grow
In love that makes us one:
And strengthened our resolve to see
Christ's Church renewed in unity,
And serving him alone.

For all these signs of hope we raise
Our voices in a hymn of praise
Outsoaring every song:
And worship him, the God of love,
In whom all creatures live and move,
To whom all souls belong.


Fred Pratt Green 1903–2000
© 1982 Stainer & Bell Ltd
8 8.6.D.

How great our debt to pioneers, who in our nation's youth
Had Bibles in their work-worn hands, its precepts in their hearts,
Who built their meeting houses, unadorned, as gospel truth,
To be a home for sinners, where a new life truly starts.
Then let us bind ourselves this day
To live for Christ, as bold as they
In simple, humble faith to claim:
We are his Church, we bear his Name.

The nation prospered, grew apace, a people on the move,
Who grasped at opportunities, had freedom to defend,
Who saw their gathered churches as communities of love,
Committed to the Lord of Life, whose Kingdom has no end.
Then let us bind ourselves this day
To live for Christ, as proud as they,
In hymn and liturgy to claim:
We are his Church, we bear his Name.

This heritage in Christ is ours, a mission to fulfil:
How impotent our churches are without his power and grace!
The future is an open door Christ sets before us still,
The door of his compassion for our needy human race.
Then let us bind ourselves this day
To live for Christ, as proud as they,
And prove by deeds our right to claim:
We are his Church, we bear his Name.


Fred Pratt Green 1903–2000
© 1982 Stainer & Bell Ltd
14.14.14.14.and Chorus L.M.

How many are the saints of God
Who laboured in this land;
How joyfully they kept the vow
To follow Christ's command:
Their lives were miracles of love
That sinners understand.

The past is part of what we are,
A way by which we learn
How lesser loyalties obscured
The Church's chief concern:
Until, its fellowship restored,
A Day of Hope was born.

Today shall be our Day of Hope!
One people, let us face
Whatever Christ expects of us
In church and market-place;
Believing that his Kingdom comes
By God's redeeming grace.

A daily growth in Christian love
Shall set our spirits free
To witness to a stricken world
'The best is yet to be!'
Forgive, revive, inspire us all,
Beginning, Lord, with me!


Fred Pratt Green 1903–2000
© 1989 Stainer & Bell Ltd
8.6.8.6.8.6.

How right that we should offer
To God unceasing praise,
Yet mark the church's seasons,
Her high and holy days:
Then share with us this story
We would not leave untold —
Our fifty years of learning
To be Christ's flock and fold.

Through years of disillusion,
Of threatened liberty,
When dawns brought little prospect
Of better things to be,
God's servants came together
To meet a people's needs,
Whose names we justly honour,
Their foresight and their deeds.

What they and we accomplish
We frankly would recite;
Alike success and failure
Set down in black and white:
Yet this is hidden from us,
For none but God can trace
How much is our achievement,
How much a work of grace.

Who can foretell the future,
What claims we must obey?
We pray we may not face it
Our faith in disarray.
Lord God, revealed in Jesus,
Your Church, and us, endow
With wisdom, love, and courage
To serve your Kingdom now.


Fred Pratt Green 1903–2000
© 1982 Stainer & Bell Ltd
7.6.7.6.D.

How short a time our church's years
In Christ's eternal reign!
But God be thanked for pioneers
Who did not toil in vain:
Who served their swiftly-changing age,
And its unchanging needs,
And left a Christian heritage
That still inspires our deeds.

What they believed, we still hold fast;
Their gospel is our own;
Yet every age outgrows its past,
And new seeds must be sown:
For Christ, who is Tomorrow's Lord,
Shall lead us, when we dare,
To find new answers in his Word,
A more perceptive care.

Come, Lord, your gathered Church endow,
In this decisive hour,
With varied gifts to serve you now,
And pentecostal power.
Our worship, witness, work improve,
Our fellowship increase;
And one, in your undying love,
Bid us go forth in peace.


Fred Pratt Green 1903–2000
© 1989 Stainer & Bell Ltd
D.C.M.

Look back and see the apostles' road,
the quarry where our faith was hewn,
the tree from which the church has grown:
look back, and meet the living God.

Look out, and love the world we know,
and ask what can be done and said
for freedom, dignity and bread,
with Christ, who meets us as we go.

Look on, and in the Spirit say
that Jesus lives, and gives us breath,
through change, uncertainty and death,
and travels with us, come what may.


Brian Wren (born 1936)
© 1986 Stainer & Bell Ltd
LM

Lord, in your timeless Kingdom,
The numbered years go by;
And each, to those who ponder,
Points to eternity.
And some, when celebrated,
Light up our Christian past,
To make us see more clearly
What are the things that last.

When good folk build this chapel,
Believing faith endures,
Their world was blindly stumbling
Towards two brutal wars.
Soon faith was sorely tested,
So hard it is to prove
That God who is Almighty
Can be the God of Love.

Lord as new dangers threaten,
And time is running out,
Save us from indecision,
From drifting into doubt.
Arm us with Christ's compassion
To go where he shall lead:
A Church, in love united,
To serve a world in need.


Fred Pratt Green 1903–2000
© 1989 Stainer & Bell Ltd
7.6.7.6.D.

Now let us all, in hymns of praise,
Bear witness with one voice
To God's redeeming work in Christ,
And bid the world rejoice.
Today we call to mind the things
That time cannot erode:
What God, Creator of the world,
Is doing for our good.

What changes, challenges, and tests
The church of Christ survives!
How rich the records left to us
Of dedicated lives!
Still must the Church proclaim to all
That now, and evermore,
The House of God is open house,
And Christ the Open Door.


Of all our labours, who can say
What harvest there shall be,
When time, that limits and distorts,
Becomes eternity?
Then shall our hymns, rehearsed below,
Be perfect praise above,
As, face to face, we fully know
What this means: God is love!

Fred Pratt Green 1903–2000
© 1989 Stainer & Bell Ltd
CMD

Rejoice with heart and voice
In God, the Three-in-One,
In whom this work of faith
Was gloriously begun.
And now, at last,
The desert passed,
Our hopes renewed, we travel on.

How well our founders planned!
What vigour! What restraint!
Granite and sandstone blend
Like toughness in a saint.
How firm their faith
In life and death:
Or did they also tire and faint?

The world they knew is gone;
Only their church survives,
To point the way to heaven,
And redirect our lives.
A new world claims
New skills, new aims
And Christlike love that seeks and saves.

Today, within these walls,
We offer praise and prayer,
And from each other learn
How much in Christ we share;
And strive to prove
By how we live,
Where there is need, his Church is there.

Lord, send us out in peace,
Committed, and yet free,
To serve your Kingdom's cause
With patient loyalty:
Believing still,
Through good and ill,
God shapes the world that is to be.


Fred Pratt Green 1903–2000
© 1985 Stainer & Bell Ltd
6.6.6.6.4 4.6.

Sing praises old and new,
past and present join in one.
Old covenants renew:
new commitments have begun.
God's soaring purpose spans
all ages, lives and lands.
Christ's open, wounded hands
past and present join in one.

Word, from the heart of God,
costly, unexpected grace,
Love, making all things good,
Light of all the human race,
Hail, Wisdom, deep and vast,
shining in Israel's past,
raising the least and last:
costly, unexpected grace!

Great Spirit, make us wise,
doors of promise open wide.
Though evil's deadly lies
truth and goodness set aside,
faith never stands alone,
hope rolls away the stone,
love makes your presence known,
doors of promise open wide.

People of hope, be strong!
Love is making all things new.
Lift our united song,
show what faith can dream and do!
Come, Presence ever near,
revive us, year by year,
sing through our joy and fear,
Love is making all things new!


Brian Wren (born 1936)
© 1993 Stainer & Bell Ltd
6.7.6.7.6 6 6.7.

Source of All, Sustaining Spirit,
Living Christ, the First and Last,
thankful, joyful, we inherit
boundless treasure from the past.
Pioneering, persevering,
countless saints have shown the way.
We, like them, to Christ adhering,
praise your boundless love today.

Reaching out to all in Jesus,
still you seek the world to win,
saving people, powers and systems
out of aimlessness and sin.
Bid our praise flow into service,
and where hatreds crucify,
keep us peaceful, truthful, hopeful
as to Christ we testify.

Christ, who knows our scattered stories,
gently weaves us into one,
till the covenants that bind us,
set us free and lead us on.
Living God, Eternal Spirit,
be our judge, our joy, our friend,
till we meet and move together
through your realm that has no end.


Brian Wren (born 1936)
© 1996 Stainer & Bell Ltd
8.7.8.7.D. Trochaic

There's joy in remembrance this notable day,
When, one in the Spirit, we gather to pray:
Lord, strengthen and guide us, today as of old,
As a new age confronts us, new ventures unfold.

There's joy in salvation, God's on-going grace:
Some know they received it, the time and the place;
Some know they possess it, but cannot say when:
Blow, wind of the Spirit, revive us again!

There's joy in commitment to Christ and his Church,
In learning that faith's not the end but a search;
In strangers made welcome and talents well-used,
Where no one who needs us is shunned or refused.

Lord, grant as we work for your Kingdom's increase,
In a world that is groping for freedom and peace,
Such joy in the Gospel, such trust in your word,
Our deeds shall proclaim you Redeemer and Lord.


Fred Pratt Green 1903–2000
© 1989 Stainer & Bell Ltd
11 11.11 11.

They did not build in vain
Who founded here a church
As witness to God's love
Amid a world of pain;
They built upon the rock
That is the risen Lord,
The one foundation laid,
That stands each earthly shock.

Those who have loved this place,
A cloud of witnesses,
Surround and urge us on
As we now run our race;
Though the horizon's bend
Conceals the way ahead,
The footprints on the road
Show Christ waits at the end.

In every place our world
Is storm and tempest tossed,
The flames of fear and hate
Are evil's flags unfurled;
Yet still the Spirit's power
In wind and fire of love
Pours gifts upon the church
For service in this hour.

Make this the meeting place
Where doubt finds grounds of faith,
Where hurt finds healing love,
Our penitence your grace;
Where God in Trinity
Is bridge from death to life,
From sin to holiness,
Time to eternity.


Alan Luff (born 1928)
© 1989 Stainer & Bell Ltd
6.6.6.6.D.

True Builder of the house, give grace to us who sing
With faithful generations that have gone before,
Who having praised and prayed and worked and witnessed here
Rejoice in greater light upon another shore.

Here is our Jordan, where with Christ we are baptized;
Where we commit ourselves to Christ who is the Way:
Grant us, with heart and mind and soul afire with love
To grow more like our Lord in living each new day.

Here is our Cana where you come as wedding guest
To meet our present needs with water turned to wine:
So visit us in all life's better and life's worse
That where the world is darkest love's clear light may shine.

Here is our Calvary, and we in fear have fled,
We have denied our Lord and left him to his death:
Lead us to join the faithful watchers at the Cross,
Then to proclaim his victory till our final breath.

Here is our Upper Room and though we close our hearts
You come and breathe on us your spirit and your peace:
Show us once more your nail-scarred hands and wounded side,
Then we can face our doubts and find our faith increase.

Here is Emmaus where we greet our unknown Lord
Inviting him to sit at table as our head;
Open our eyes to find the Christ who walks with us
Made known in taking wine and breaking of the bread.

So has our master Builder shaped his living stones
To be his Church, his royal priesthood in this place.
Come Lord, today and take and mould us to your will,
To give in word and work our witness to your grace.


Alan Luff (born 1928)
© Stainer & Bell Ltd
12.12.12.12.

We build upon a rock
That time cannot destroy,
The one foundation laid
On Jesus, Christ and Lord:
We wisely build,
We humbly build
When we walk faithfully with God.

A different age from ours
Planted the vital seed,
But the same Spirit gives
The gifts of love and care:
And always God
And only God
Gives growth and brings the bud to flower.

We work not for ourselves
When called to work with God
But for a world that waits
New birth within its pain:
The earth renewed,
The church renewed,
Humanity made new by grace.


Alan Luff (born 1928)
© Stainer & Bell Ltd
6.6.6.6.4 4.8.

We praise your name, O God of all creation,
for making plain the purpose of your will;
we thank you for creative inspiration
and our responding through design and skill.

We thank you that our faith has found expression
in walls that shelter those who worship here;
help us to be a house of intercession
and make us glad the world is always near.

We set this place apart for praise and preaching,
for breaking bread and practice to forgive;
we pray that through the open-ness of teaching
together, young and old, may learn to live.

Keep free our life from bondage of tradition
and let your Holy Spirit set the trend,
endow us with an urgent sense of mission;
our doors be wide to welcome and to send.

Your word be in our actions clearly spoken,
extend our church beyond the builder's plan
and use our witness as a vivid token
that you are still with woman, child and man.

Fred Kaan (born 1929)
© 1968 Stainer & Bell Ltd
11.10.11.10

Copyright
Copyright information is given below each text and MUST be included in any hymn sheets produced. The texts may be copied and used if your church has a current CCLI licence and its use recorded in the workbook.

Churches within the United Kingdom without a CCLI licence may copy the texts for use on a 'one-off' basis only, and all copies destroyed after use. For subsequent use, please contact us:

Churches outside the UK wishing to use any of the material, please contact our copyright department before using texts. Copyright may be administered or owned by others in certain territories, and our Copyright Department will be pleased to advise.

No commercial use whatsoever may be made of these texts without prior permission from Stainer & Bell or the administrators/owners of the copyright.

Your attention and observation of the above points is much appreciated.

This site is sponsored by