Blessing our Ministry Team

Ian Ferguson (Minister of the Word), Peter Blair (Olive Way Co-ordinator),
Janet Hogan (Youth Support Worker), Valentina Satvedi (Student House Support Worker), Janet Watson Kruse (Children & Families Worker)

Prayers of Adoration & Confession

Holy One,
speak to us today.
Your people are listening.

We are listening for you in creation,
speaking the creative word that brings
light out of darkness,
order out of chaos,
life out of dust.
Help us to hear.

We are listening for your living word,
Sophia, Wisdom herself,
who speaks to us in the person of Jesus Christ.
We listen in the words of ancient Scripture,
in the sharing of bread and wine,
in our discernment together as his people.
Help us to hear.

We are listening for the breath of your Spirit,
blowing gently to stir our hearts,
blowing insistently to disturb our complacency,
blowing passionately to fuel the fire of justice.
Help us to hear.

And when we close our ears and
fail to recognise your voice,
profaning creation,
violating the wisdom of love,
shielding ourselves from the disruption of your Spirit,
forgive us,
renew us by your grace,
open our ears to hear your call.

Holy One,
speak to us today.
Your people are listening.
Amen.

People of God, hear the living word of grace –
the word spoken in creation,
through the person of Christ,
on the breath of the Holy Spirit,
spoken for healing, renewal and transformation:
you are loved, you are forgiven, you are free.
Thanks be to God.

Ian Ferguson, offered for worship, 3/6/18, Pentecost 2
offered by our Ministry Team
Ian Ferguson, Peter Blair, Janet Watson Kruse, Janet Hogan, Valentina Satvedi

Prayers of the People

God of freedom, we pray for the world,
that the freedom with which and for which you created
it may flow through nations, cultures and societies.

We pray for men, women and children who live their lives
imprisoned by unjust laws and heartless institutions.
We pray for those who work for their freedom,
especially for all those who work for the freedom of asylum seekers
detained under the laws of this country.
Hear this, our prayer.

We pray for the whole church, aware that our failure
to trust the gospel so often makes it legalistic and a law unto itself.
We pray for the spirit to blow through this and other churches,
freeing us truly to live out the freedom of the gospel in love,
mercy, compassion, humility, confidence and grace.
Hear this, our prayer.

We pray for the Uniting Church in Australia that
we might always remember that our freedom comes from your Son,
the church’s own servant Lord.
Guide the leaders and councils of the Uniting Church,
especially the upcoming Assembly meeting,
to follow the promptings of the spirit of freedom.
Hear this our, prayer.

We pray for the Uniting Winter Appeal and for all
who seek and receive the care of the agencies of Uniting,
especially those whose captivity to economic and social injustices
others of us can barely imagine.
Where we cannot see need, free us from our blindness.
When we cannot hear cries of pain, free us from our deafness.

We pray for one another in this congregation.
Unite us anew in in the spirit of freedom and
in the fellowship of Jesus Christ.
Equip us afresh to follow his example,
to confess his lordship, and to live out with each other
the fellowship of freedom to which he calls us.

Hear all these prayers in the one who is Lord of the Sabbath,
Lord of the church, and Lord of all. Amen.

Geoff Thompson, offered for worship, 3/6/18, Pentecost 2