Prayers of Adoration & Confession

Watch or 10:10

God Divine, One Spirit of this earth and creation, we praise you for your love known here on this country through the ancient peoples who have nurtured, embraced, and cared for your creation. We praise you for giving us courage to be brave and to act with them for righteousness, justice, fairness, and equality. We pray for a shift of love in Australia, that the changes in this past week may open for us a new path of reconciliation, guided by your love and desire, manifested in the life of your son, Jesus.

We have often known but not acted. Forgive us, O God, when we have not been courageous in action, not fully embracing the gift of the Statement from the Heart, not listening to its wisdom & cries for justice. God help us to be brave and make change though truth and love.

We thank you that you are a loving liberating God who opens our hearts and forgives our inaction and lack of courage. Give us your healing, as we strive to act.

We claim this in your son’s name. Thanks be to God.  Amen.

Word of Grace

This is the best of all:
when we are empty, God fills us;
when we are disheartened, God is compassionate;
when we are wounded, God brings healing;
when we confess our failure to love, God forgives.

In Christ, through Christ and because of Christ,
our sin is forgiven.
Thanks be to God!

Jenne Perlstein, offered for worship, 29/0/22, Reconciliation Sunday

Prayers of the people

Watch or 52:26

My name is Tim and I will be leading Prayers of the People this morning. At times during the prayer, I will pause for us all to reflect, breathe and feel God speaking into the stillness. Let us pray.

Loving God, today we pray that you will help us to be brave and make change. We confess that sometimes, we are not so brave and we do need your help. We ask you, what might it mean for us as individuals and as a community to be brave? Do we need to be better at risk-taking? If so, in what areas, in work choices, how we use our time, how we speak and act? Do we need to be more courageous, to have hearts that are strong in challenging our own settled-ness, our comfort? Are you asking us to move beyond old traditions and patterns that served us well in the past but might restrict in these new times, in what might be a season of change? Dear God, help us to see if there are things which are holding us back from the future to which you are calling us? What do we need to leave behind to start moving forward in order discover new understandings, new practices and new opportunities?

Be brave and make change. Let us listen expectantly in this time of prayer and contemplation.

We pray for those who are working to create change. May we be active not only in supporting them but may our actions be inspired by their courage. We particularly pray for our indigenous sisters and brothers in their efforts for equality and liberation. May we have the courage to own our own racism, challenge our self-interest and examine the ways in which we continue to benefit from racist, inequitable systems. Help us to be allies, sidekicks, and humble supporters of their efforts. Help us to recognise the ways in which we see the world that devalue indigenous approaches to knowledge, community, culture and country and may we have the humility to learn from first nation people.

We rejoice that the Statement from the Heart has been embraced by this new federal government. In the words of the Statement, may there be “substantive constitutional change and structural reform” so that “ancient sovereignty can shine through as a fuller expression of Australia’s nationhood”. Dear God, give all our leaders wisdom and humility as they seek to make changes in response to this Statement.

Pause.

We commit to you this national time of change ushered in by the federal election. We pray that this mood of change would result in clear policies that enshrine justice, compassion and care for the Earth. We pray for a new mood of collaboration and humility in this Parliament and among government decision makers.

Dear God, we also recognise that there are many other places in this world which are calling out for the light of change. We remember the many countries facing war, unrest, occupation and persecution of minorities, those in the news and those which are out-of-sight and seemingly forgotten.

Let us pause to name and remember these places

We pray for a change in global systems, that inequality might be unmasked and challenged. Knowing that billionaire wealth soared during the time of Covid, while government health systems collapsed and poor people went hungry, we also know that change is needed at global levels. This inequality needs to be challenged. We pray for those organisations which are speaking out against this injustice. Strengthen them, help us to know how to support them and help us to find ways to disrupt and disengage from this level of inequality.

Pause

So dear God, help us to be brave: in our personal lives, as a community of your people, as a nation and as citizens of this world. May our commitment to change, to a vision of a different world, continue to make us restless and yet hopeful as we look towards your kingdom of grace and peace.

Amen.

Tim Budge, offered for worship, 29/06/22, Reconciliation Sunday