Prayers of Adoration & Confession

Gathering God, Loving Saviour Life giving Spirit,
Creating, healing and sustaining
You call us to be one with you
One with each other, One with all creation.
In body, spirit, soul and mind.

Forgive us when we do not gather together
When we do not care for creation
When we do not love as you have shown us
When we are not in union with you
And instead focus on other things.
Heal us Holy One.

Gather us O God
Body spirit soul and mind
Gather us O God
One in union now with you.

Brothers and sisters in Christ.
God gathers us in and unites us with Godself.
And so we can know with confidence
That our sins are forgiven.
Thanks be to God.

Kirsty Bennett, offered for worship Easter 7A, 24/05/2020

Prayers of the people

Earlier this week, on a cold, frosty, chilly morning, I went for my usual morning walk. The scenery was beautiful, but the news from the radio was not so good. So bad, in fact, that I came home quite depressed and quite determined to write ‘Prayers of the People that reflected the awful angst I was hearing about the world. But the words would not follow and I couldn’t come up with anything that really worked.

Later that morning Julie came back from her morning walk and said “I just stopped at the house down the road. There was a family sitting on the front verandah eating roasted chestnuts. I said to them “Well, there’s the place to be”. And they replied “Well, would you like some?”

And Julie shared this moment with them.

It was a bit of a revelation to me. I thought, ‘actually, this is what it’s all about – sharing who we are with those who need us most, in our community, through our church and the work we do and support throughout the world. So my prayer today is a relatively simple one:

Our God, you who know our hearts better than our words,
Our prayer for the world, our community, our church and each other is simple:
Lead us to the ones we need,
And to the ones who are needing us,
And everything that gets us through,
Gladly we receive from you.

The prayer continued with Amy Grant’s song ‘Greet the day‘ accompanied  by a collection of community photos

Peter McKinnon, offered for worship Easter 7A, 24/05/2020