Prayers of Adoration

Watch or 10:44

One of the Laudato Si spiritual exercises which we’ll be practicing each week during the Season of Creation, invites us to develop an ecological spirituality by focusing on the wonders of the natural world. We’ll be doing that by meditating on images of creation. You are invited to send us photos of creation, places and things that move you to awe, for us to use in worship. Today, wildflowers from my back yard. Poorneet Season is a rainy time of year when lots of native plants are in flower. Here are some images of local indigenous flowers after rain.

Image 1: Austral Indigo
Contemplate these natural wonders. Let them move you to awe. Their beauty is a prayer of joyous praise to the creator who loves all things into being. Let’s join them in their praise.

Image 2: Austral Indigo
Your creatures praise you, O God, for the wonders of creation.

Image 3: Response
Let all things their Creator bless,
and worship God in humbleness

Image 4: Silver Cassia
Breathe into awe…

Image 5: Silver Cassia
Your creatures praise you, O God, for the wonders of creation.

Image 6: Response
Let all things their Creator bless,
and worship God in humbleness

Image 7: Wattle
Breathe into awe…

Image 8: Wattle
Your creatures praise you, O God, for the wonders of creation.

Image 9: Response
Let all things their Creator bless,
and worship God in humbleness

Song of Praise (Ross Langmead)
Creator of this great land, we adore you.
Renewer of your people, hear our praise.
Transformer of all life, you often take us by surprise.
Continue to be present in life-giving ways.

Ian Ferguson, offered for worship 04/09/2022, Season of Creation 1

SONG:  Song of Praise, Written for the Commission for Mission
by Ross Langmead for Synod worship, September 1996. Used with permission

Prayers of Confession & Lament

Watch or 40:09

The first of the Laudato Si Spiritual Exercises asks, “Am I hearing the cry of the Earth? Am I responding to the distress of my siblings in the family of creation?”
Let us listen now in a prayer of lament and confession:

Breathe…
Tune into the cry of creation, the pollution, the waste, the extinctions, the fires, floods and storms.

Bless our Lament, Creator God,
Bless the tear we shed for the resources we have squandered.
Bless the sigh we breathe out for the atmosphere.
Bless the head we hang for the creatures lost and exploited.
Bless the hands we wring for the things we have broken and wasted.
Bless us as we lament.
Cradle us as we regret.
Restore us as we start afresh.

Have mercy on us.
Forgive us our part in in this pain.
Show us your steadfast love.

May humankind be freed from the greed
which is destroying the earth;
and may your church family
be courageous in standing against
the forces that threaten life.
Amen

Word of Grace
Out of love for the world,
our creator comes to be part of creation
as the living word of wisdom,
Sophia, Jesus the Christ,
to heal and inaugurate a renewed creation.
In Christ grace, hope and promise live beyond our brokenness.
His word resonates in creation saying:
You sin is forgiven. Thanks be to God.

God’s renewing grace invites a response from us. Take a moment to reflect: what are you doing now to respond to the cry of the family of creation, and what more could you do?
Share with neighbours…

Ian Ferguson, offered for worship 04/09/2022, Season of Creation 1
Prayers adapted from: https://www.greeningthelectionary.net/442189851

Prayers of the people

Watch or 50:25

Before we start – let’s settle ourselves in our chairs, close our eyes or focus on our candle, plant our feet carefully and deliberately on the floor to sense to earth below us. Take a few slow breaths to drawing up from our feet to connect with the spirit of the earth and with the spirit within us. Sense the air settle around our heart-space with each breath.

Loving God, we come to you in prayer acknowledging the incredible beauty and wonder of your creation and the stunning gift of life that you provide to each of us. As we breathe deeply into our lungs, we stop to consider the wonder of our own existence, the incredible complexity of our bodies, the interplay of our organs: muscles, bones, eyes, ears, skin, blood and nervous systems, our brain and its chemistry.  All providing us with the ability to dwell in and explore your beautiful creation. Forgive us when we criticize and condemn or neglect our bodies, forever wanting to change and improve them rather than dwelling in their wonder, our ability to be present, to move, to engage, to create, to think and explore the world around us.

Show us instead, how to be part of your creation, celebrating its beauty and adding to its wonder with our very existence. May we always use this gift of life to care and protect the earth.

As we sit here with our feet planted on these old wooden floors, made with magnificent trees grown centuries ago, we acknowledge our deep connection with mother earth – this stunning blue planet that provides us with so much beauty and wonder: air to breathe, food to eat, shelter and warmth, forests to explore, stunning oceans and mountains, waterways and canyons, places of extreme beauty that can take our breath away. We also acknowledge the small wonders of flowers, insects, birds and hidden animals just outside our doors. The amazing creative patterns that occur all around us if we stop and look closely.

But we know that mother earth is deeply wounded and we feel her pain and her cry for healing and repair. And we want to say sorry. We want to apologise for our neglectfulness that means we rush on by and often do not stop to wonder – when we let our needs, our wants, our safety, our convenience, our fears and anxieties blind us to the beauty that is in and around us always.

Forgive us for expecting everything to be safe, bug free and risk free to protect our needs without concern for other species and their habitat needs. Instead, let us wonder at the importance of the mosquito and the fly and the ant and even the cockroach and their role in this fragile ecosystem, to protect and create healthy soil and for the important food they provide for our wildlife.

More than anything, we want to apologize for the part we play in using the resources of our economic system that wants to extract and exploit, trash, control and concrete over all this beauty for our convenience, our wealth, our safety and security, at the expense of other beings on this earth. As we watch companies knowingly destroy more and more habitat, extract fossils fuels and witness the impact on our very climate, on our oceans, species extinction, show us how to be part of a people that says stop, enough!

Help us to be the people who turn around and work together to advocate for change, to restore, to recycle, to protect, to regenerate and heal this beautiful place. Not just for generations to come but for all living beings that are part of this incredible, interconnected beautiful world that you have created.

Help us to seek the wisdom and knowledge of our first nations people to heal this earth together. Help us to recognise the healing that this wisdom can bring, not just to the earth but for all of us.

Dear God, we hear your cry and we feel the pain, give us the courage to take action to be part of your healing world. We thank you that your creation is forever renewing, recreating, rebirthing and we want to be a part of this renewal and restoration. We pray that our lives can be a part of this creative and recreative cycle and seek your love and courage to stop and choose beauty in everything that we do.

Amen

Meredith Budge, offered for worship 04/09/2022, Season of Creation 1