Prayers of Adoration & Confession

Watch or 8:08

God of all people, Creator and loving parent,
You love all people, with arms held wide open,
Bringing home those who are far away,
Calling us to provide a community of welcome.

Embracing Spirit, living and moving among us,
You are the same spirit who unites us all,
Bringing us together as one household of God,
Calling us to listen, pray, and work together as your people.

Reconciling Christ, bringer of Peace,
You tear down the walls between us,
Creating one humanity with no divisions or hostility,
Calling us to build and grow together as equals.

Welcoming God, embracing Spirit, reconciling Christ, forgive us.
Forgive us for the structures that we, as a society,
have built, that create and reinforce division:
workplace, educational and healthcare inequality,
laws that discriminate, prisons and detention centres.

Forgive us for the times when we, personally, have honoured divisions:
when we have judged someone based on skin colour, ethnicity or birthplace,
when we have excluded someone based on gender, sexuality or appearance,
when we have failed to extend your love to all people.

Forgive us, and open our eyes to see clearly where we fail,
so we can work to end division and injustice in our world and in our lives.

Forgive us. Give us hope.
Amen.

Sisters and brothers, Hear the words of Paul in the letter to the Ephesians:
through Christ Jesus all who once were far off have been brought near.
God does not want us to be distant, but embraces us,
like a loving mother, bringing forgiveness and restoration,
and with the Spirit guides us into new life.
Hear the good news: our sin is forgiven,
Thanks be to God.
Alleluia.

Natalie Sims, offered for worship 18/07/2021

Prayers of the people

Watch or 40:29 

We pray Shalom, Irene, of the Comforting Mother and Father, Christ,
the bringer of our Peace and  the Holy Spirit,
who walks beside us, be with us all as we come before you today.

We pray Shalom, Irene, to those who live with conflict,
with war, those who have been left in danger.
To those who are seeking a new home, safety, and freedom.
To those we have imprisoned through no fault of their own.

We pray Shalom, Irene, for our world fighting COVID.
For stressed and overworked Medical staff, and hospitals.
Health and Government officials making decisions for us.
And for us, once again in Lockdown.

We pray Shalom, Irene for our Earth.

For our icecaps melting, rising water that engulfs Islands,
and for those left homeless.
For animals that face extinction in the warming
of our land and sea, and our ever encroaching cities.

We pray Shalom, Irene, for our worlds inequality.
For the poor, the hungry, the abused, the exploited.
For those who are left out, or left behind.
For the aged who feel forgotten.
For the disabled who feel excluded.

We pray Shalom, Irene for our worlds faiths.
For opening of dialogue between Christians, Jews,
Muslims, Hindus, Buddhists, and the end of conflicts.

We pray Shalom, Irene, for First Nations People
whose customs and culture we have ignored and tried to destroy.
For stolen children, taken from their families,
and often abused and neglected by those supposed to care for them.

We are your people, we are your Church.
We pray that we can be bringers of peace and wholeness,
that we can be as open, accepting and welcoming as Jesus was, when he walked the Earth.

We pray these things in the name of Jesus,
the bringer of peace, Shalom, Irene into our world.

Amen

Helen Burnham, offered for worship 18/07/2021, Pentecost 8B