Prayer For The Congregation
God of all the earth,
we pray today from the piece of the world we call Canada,
land of mountains and prairie, boreal forest and tundra,
a land of beauty from coast to coast to coast.
Thank you for peace in our time,
for democratic government, for health care,
for social safety nets and municipal services
delivering reliable electricity and clean, drinkable water.
In a country with so many blessings
we confess that these are not distributed equally;
there are First Nations communities without drinking water,
there are people who are hungry,
and many who are not caught in any safety net.
In this election year, help us call our government to account,
raising issues of inequality and racism.
Help us do better as a country,
addressing historic injustice and systemic abuse.
Even now as we are in a state of climate crisis,
help our government make choices
focussed not only on this generation
but on generations to come,
focussed not only on human welfare,
but on the welfare of all your creatures;
the salmon, the wolf, the snow goose, the monarch butterfly.
Thank you for religious freedom, and freedom of the press
which many countries do not enjoy;
protect us from public discourse steeped in hatred.
We pray for the peace of the world,
and that Canada could be a voice for peace,
using our many resources to help the most marginalized.
Help us here in our congregation,
comfort those among us who are sick or grieving,
and empower us to be a community of caring
in our neighbourhood and workplaces
all in the name of your son Jesus Christ,
and in the power of the Holy Spirit, who sustains us,
Amen
God of great gifts,
for the world as we know it, we give you thanks!
The world in all its nearness,
our own special corners, our own dearest vistas,
the way it meets us each morning when we open our eyes.
For the food you provide, we give thanks,
the shape and feel of it in our hands,
the taste of it in our mouths,
a rich harvest produced by your rain, your sun, your soil.
We open ourselves to this bounty.
We give thanks for the way you people the world,
the particularity of each special person we know and love,
the shape of their smiles, the way they tilt their heads,
the warmth of their embrace, the quality of their company.
We open ourselves to love.
We give thanks for all this world in its immense beauty,
its staggering strength, its heights and depths,
the breadth of it, beyond our knowing.
And yet you know it, you know us,
you have made yourself known.
We thank you for the contours of your love
in the form of a son who is bread and wine and water and truth.
We are eager to be like him, to be born again in his likeness.
Open us to the Holy Spirit:
thank you for the possibilities that await us this week,
that love can win, that hope can blossom,
that faith can find a way in this world even in hard places.
We pray for all who need comfort and peace and help,
especially those near to us; fill them with your goodness.
We long for your healing power for those we know who are sick.
God of the great wide world and ourselves in this corner of it,
make us into a community that is open
cratered by the splendor of your creation
and filled to the brink with thankfulness.
Amen.
Thank you for the wind!
Thank you for the way it sweeps across our great country,
over the Pacific ocean, up the mountains,
flying across the plains and the great lakes
till it arrives in Ontario in great gusts, [adjust to fit your geography]
making everything alive and lively,
blowing our hair and clothes into tangles,
filling our lungs and then blowing away
all the way to the Atlantic Ocean.
Fill us with your Spirit this morning like this wind,
blow across our country and into our congregation,
enlivening us, moving us, stirring us.
Thank you for our congregation, for every person;
thank you for the differences of age and varieties of experience,
thank you even that we don't always get along.
Thank you for the challenges you give us to live as your church,
giving us exercise in breaking down dividing walls
exercises in forgiveness and tolerance,
learning to love each other truly.
Your spirit blowing us in loving directions!
Today we pray for those we know who feel storm-tossed,
who feel they have lost a solid foundation.
Unsettled because of family arguments,
shaky because of financial insecurity,
rattled because of depression, or a crisis of faith or meaning;
help us to be people who can reach out a hand of solidarity,
a steadying hand that points to you.
There is a wind blowing today in our country
and people are discontent with many things;
we pray for Canada, and for our government leaders.
Help us to be a country that cares for all its citizens,
a country that listens to the people on the edge,
a country that is fair and just.
We especially pray that racist thoughts,
even our own, would be exposed and challenged.
Give us courage to speak loving words to each other,
to both live and give the love you've shown us
through Jesus Christ our Lord.
Blow into our lives with your freshening spirit,
the Breath of Life for all the world.
Amen
Thank you, God, for the joy of today.
It is still morning, and yet so many good things have come our way:
the joy of shelter, the joy of clean water coming out of taps,
the joy of food on the table.
Thank you for friends who understand us,
and the joy of meeting new friends.
Thank you that we are here in church, body and spirit,
thank you for the joy of worshipping you, our Creator.
And in the midst of joys, in all honesty
we admit that we come with fears.
Some of us have fears about new beginnings;
new schools, new relationships, new jobs.
We don't know how we'll do or how we'll feel
we are nervous and want things to go well.
There are fears about health:
aches and pains that won't go away,
symptoms that are unexplained,
treatments that we hope will be effective.
Some of us have financial fears:
will we find work, or is our work secure,
how will we pay these bills,
have we saved enough for the future?
And then there is the fear of loneliness
that strikes us all at some points--
we fear that we won't find people to love,
or that we'll lose the people we do love.
God of hope, thank you that you are with us in all our fears,
and that you bring joy even in the midst of them.
Thank you for your faithfulness through time,
for the ways you have been there for us in the past,
and that nothing can separate us from your love.
Help us this week to have compassion for those who fear:
for those who are fleeing bombs and bullets,
for those who face governments that are oppressive,
for those who cannot worship openly, but must meet in secret.
In our own community, there are people who live with the fear of violence.
Help us to be people of refuge, who offer help and support,
and who go the extra mile when we see people in need.
Forgive us for the times we have been too wrapped up
in our own fears and joys to truly see our neighbour.
Help us this week to embrace joyful living,
being mindful of the gift of each day,
remembering our Saviour Jesus Christ
who lives in us and through us. Amen
Thank you God for everything under us;
for these chairs on which we sit,
for this church's firm foundation,
for the soil with its burrowing animals and insects,
for the rock down under that, layered by the sea in ancient times,
for the water that flows in subterranean channels far beneath us,
and for the miles upon miles of bedrock,
(unknown and unexplored by all but you),
all the way down to the living heat of our planet,
the molten rock deep in the heart of the earth.
Thank you God for everything above us;
for this solid roof which shelters us,
for the wind swirling and birds soaring skyward,
for the airplanes and clouds high above,
for the upper atmosphere and the stratosphere,
for satellites orbiting, for meteors whizzing,
for the moon and the planets of our solar system,
for asteroids and comets and supernovae and black holes,
for galaxy upon galaxy stretching away into the vastness of space.
The wide span of your work is a mystery we cannot fathom.
You are above us, you are beneath us, God of creation!
We pause now in silence as you hear our confessions and concerns:
[silence]
Thank you that even though we are so small in the scheme of things,
you hear our prayers, you answer our prayers.
Bless our church, and help us to be people who point others to you,
help us to be a faithful part of your big picture. Amen.
Jesus died.
He was buried.
On the third day
he rose.
Thank you, God,
for hope
when hope was lost
and for life
when death had won.
In these pandemic times
when so many
are suffering and dying
resurrect within our world
the faith and hope and love
we need to survive.
This Easter,
accept our humble hosannas,
which are linked
with our deepest prayers
for relief from this virus.
Healer of our every ill,
we need you now.
With Christians around the world
and the angels in heaven
we proclaim the mystery of our faith;
Christ has died,
Christ is risen,
Christ will come again.
Great God: our community gathers in spirit
through the marvels of technology to give thanks together.
Thank you for medical professionals and staff
who work so faithfully in hospitals, clinics and nursing homes
give them strength, courage and personal protective equipment.
Thank you for the diligence of scientists working on a vaccine,
and the way so many have ramped up the production of essential supplies.
Thank you for storekeepers and clerks,
farmers and truck drivers,
police officers, firefighters
and all who show up to work every day in essential services.
Thank you for those who care for children in close quarters,
and all the creativity and patience they are showing.
There is so much to be thankful for,
we pause here to lift up our own silent prayer of thanks.
We come to you with many needs today.
Hear our prayer for those who are sick with this virus
ease their suffering and restore them to health.
Hear our prayer for those who are grieving,
who bury their loved ones without the comfort of funerals,
or the physical presence of family and friends.
Hear our prayer for the unemployed
and business owners in this time of financial insecurity
help them survive this economic downturn.
Hear our prayer for children whose routines are disrupted
and who long to play sports and visit playgrounds
show them how to have fun inside.
We pray for vulnerable people everywhere,
especially refugees, and people in war-torn countries
who have no access to medical care.
we need a miracle to spare them from this virus.
Finally, hear our prayer for public health officials around the world--
give them wisdom as they make decisions to reduce fatalities.
This week, when we are tempted
to dwell only on our own loneliness,
help us reach out to others,
being the community we long to have.
Thank you for showing us new ways to be the church,
the church alive, vibrant and witnessing to the risen Christ
in times like these.
Amen
Gracious God:
We are the church united as we pray from different locations,
connected through something more marvellous than technology--
your Spirit filling us with hope and vision.
We come first of all with thanksgiving.
Thank you for the many kindnesses we have experienced
in this time of social distancing: old friends reconnecting,
some households learning about togetherness,
others learning new quieter rhythms.
Thank you for the joy of food and the beauty of music.
Thank you for this spring-time season
which is lifting us with its promise of new life.
Even as there is much to be thankful for,
we come together with lament;
this virus has caused so much loss of life around the world.
So many suffer, so many families grieve,
and we don't know when it will end.
We lament the financial burdens of this pandemic,
and that it has fallen heavily on the poorest,
with inequalities standing out more sharply than usual.
We know that racism is one of the roots of injustice,
and that the death of George Floyd is just an example
of the everyday violence people of colour face.
There are those among us who suffer because of racism,
and there are those among us who haven't thought about racism
because it is the privileged air we breathe.
As we work on solving health problems,
help us build a society that addresses injustice.
We continue to pray for a vaccine for this virus.
Give insight to researchers, and co-operation among nations,
so that all can benefit from scientific breakthroughs.
Give wisdom to our politicians making difficult decisions
about how and when to modify social distancing.
Help them find that fine balance between opening our economy
and safeguarding public health.
Keep us healthy and help us care for each other.
As we all make choices about who to see,
and how many we should see at a time,
help us refrain from judging each other,
just as we do not want to be judged by others.
Jesus, walk with us this week.
We trust in you, because you have been with us,
showing us the faithful path in good times and bad,
and you will be with us, come what may. Amen.