Sunday Prayers, 19/6

Prayers of the people

Watch or 54:21

Loving God, as we come to you in prayer today, we seek your healing presence for our wounded and tired world.

We acknowledge the wounds that we create for our mother earth as we extract, mine, consume and waste resources as if there were no end to their supply. We acknowledge the ongoing loss of biodiversity and habitat. We acknowledge too, the impact of climate change that is deepening the wounds to the earth and causing extreme weather events that see so many people and animals displaced and livelihoods destroyed.

We pray that we may draw from your healing presence to help stem these destructive wounds to our earth, to be part of a movement to regenerate and rewild your creation. We pray that our new government will take serious action to reverse this damage, listening to the will of the people and the call of the earth for healing.

We acknowledge too, the ongoing destructive wounds of colonization and dispossession for our first nations people. Thank you for the indigenous wisdom that has been retained and is so needed to heal country. May we support and share in this healing work.

And especially today at the beginning of refugee week, we want to acknowledge the wounds that are inflicted on so many through war, persecution and displacement. We want to acknowledge the pain and suffering and sickness this creates across the world. In so many places, Yemen, Palestine, Syria, Ethiopia, Central Africa Republic, Myanmar, Ukraine, to mention just a few. People forced to flee in fear of their lives but with so few places of refuge and welcome to escape to.

We pray for peace-makers and healers to take leadership and gain traction to end war and to repair the hearts and minds of both the oppressors and the oppressed – seeking instead, justice, equality and wellbeing for everyone and every being. We pray for leaders who can help us all to understand how interconnected and interdependent we are and how we all suffer when we do not care for each other or value these connections.

Here at home, we pray for so many people who continue to seek asylum and still hold such uncertain futures. We pray for those still in detention, and for the many families whose failed visa applications mean they have lost access to work rights, centrelink, medicare, sometimes after living here up to 10 years and with young children, surviving only on charity. We pray that this new government will quickly reverse the cruel policies of the previous government, end temporary protection visas and provide everyone with permanency, to begin to heal their wounds and get on with their lives. We thank you for the images of hope and welcome we have witnessed for the Murugappan family returning to Biloela, and we pray that everyone else who is seeking asylum will know the same true sense of Australian welcome, in the very near future.

Here at Brunswick, continue to show us how to be a place of welcome, healing and hope for the many people we have grown to know and love who are also seeking asylum in our midst.

Loving God, we all carry wounds that need your healing, some far more evident and traumatic than others but we know that we all need your loving presence and healing in our lives to be the people you call us to be.

May we seek out your healing love daily, allow it to steep and grow in us, so we can share that love with each other, our families, our colleagues, our communities and those who challenge us – so that we can all be part of the healing and restoration of your creation.

Amen

Meredith Budge, offered for worship 19/06/2022, Pentecost 2B – Refugee Sunday