Prayers of Adoration & Confession

We offer our prayers of adoration & confession.
If you have a stone or rock or something similar close by, I invite you to hold it in your hands as we pray.
As we offer our prayers of adoration hold the stone lightly with your palm open.
Let us pray

God you are our rock and our salvation.
As we look at our hands we are reminded
Of your hands holding the world in all her beauty and complexity
Holding us and all living things in your strong and steadfast love.
We kneel before you, seeking always to love like you do.

Jesus you are the way, the truth and the life.
As we worship from our homes we are reminded
Of your strange and complex words about dwelling places.
You are the living stone, chosen and precious in God’s sight.
We hear your call on our lives and seek to follow you.

Holy Spirit you are the living breath with0in us
As we isolate to protect each other we are reminded
Of the gift of breath, of life, of all that is precious in community.
You nourish us with spiritual milk that shapes and renews us
We breathe and seek to celebrate God’s goodness in our living.

And now as we offer our prayers of confession hold the stone with your fist,
or if you don’t have a stone simply make a fist.
Loving God, risen Christ, Holy Spirit we confess
That your vision for our world is bigger than we can comprehend.
And in our anxiety and fear we find ourselves
hiding from all that is possible through life in you
Forgive us when in ignorance we turn away from the power of the living stone
Forgive us when the weight of your call to love feels too heavy
Forgive us when stumble as we seek to be your people at work in the world.  Amen

Open your hand now and look at your stone or rock.  Hear these words from Peter
… like living stones, let yourselves be built into a spiritual house, to be a holy priesthood,
to offer spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ.
God calls us into life, nourishes us, showers us with grace and mercy.
Know then that in the name of Christ, our risen Saviour, our sins are forgiven.
Thanks be God.  Amen

Place your stone near your candle if you have lit one and let’s sing in celebration
Halle, halle, hallelujah!
Halle, halle, hallelujah! (Halleluja!)
Halle, halle, hallelujah!
Hallelujah, hallelujah! (Halleluja!

SONG:  Halle, halle, halle, words:  traditional liturgical text,
from Together in Song, Harper Collins Religious, PUBLIC DOMAIN

Saide Cameron, offered for worship 10/5/2020, Easter 5A

Prayers of the people

Creator of all life, who raised Jesus from the dead,
you free our hearts from trouble and prepare a place of joyful for all your children.
And so we thank you for your promise and your peace which we need so desperately these days.

In Christ, we know you as the way.
You deliver all who turn to you in moments of challenge or uncertainty.
We pray for those who feel lost or alone with great anxiety and doubt
and any who are fearful of what tomorrow might bring.
so that they can see that there is a new way filled with hope for them,
with the promise of rest and renewal.

In Christ, we know you as the truth.
You reveal the falsehood and lies that ensnare us in these confusing times.
We pray for those who have put their faith in false hope and flimsy promises,
those who are deceived by the fabrications of the power hungry
and any who are misled by distortions and twisted claims that circulate each day:
God of the Truth, reveal the shallowness of things that distract or mislead us
and empower us to see what is true.

In Christ, we know you as the life.
You promise to overcome all that is rooted in death and decay
by your resurrecting power.
We pray for people who struggle with illness or grief
and all who live with deep sadness, depression or hopelessness.

Especially, this morning, placing some flowers in a vase, we pray for mothers and those on our lives who have been like mothers to us.

God of all Life, we pray for parents who struggle to raise their children in oppressive and difficult circumstances.

We pray for parents who have placed their child in another family.

God, who grieves with us, we pray for parents who mourn the death of a child.

We pray for those who choose to be family to those isolated by culture or language or distance.

We pray for stressed out young parents and grandparents.

God of justice and hope, we pray for those whose children are killed, or hurt or used by others and we look to a time when children can live safely in their communities.

Faithful God we pray for those who teach us faith by their lives, may we remember that we also teach about you in the way we live.

We pray for those who wait for a phone call or a visit, cut off from family and friends by distance and disagreement.

Creator God who has made the earth, we also pray for mother earth suffering from climate crisis.

God of all Life and each life, heal all things and those who are suffering

and make your justice known in our land.

Help each of us and your whole church to follow in the footsteps of Christ
so that in our living and loving, your kingdom of justice and love is revealed.
This we pray in the name of Jesus Christ, Amen

Yoo Mi Park, offered for worship, 10/05/2020, Easter 5A