leadinginworship

Fossil Fuel Prayer

Holy Spirit, you hovered over the deep,
and you know the deep problems we face today
around energy and fossil fuel consumption,
and the way this conflict gnaws at the church.
We live in a cold country, we need to keep warm.
Our homes are heated with oil and gas.
Help us find efficient and affordable ways
to keep ourselves warm.
We are people on the move; thank you for new technologies
that reduce our consumption of fuel,
help them become more accessible for the average person.
Thank you for oil workers who work outside in difficult conditions
so that we have the fuel we need to live.
Thank you for environmentalists who challenge us
to think outside the fossil fuel box.
Preserve us from the power of big corporations
who think only about profit and the bottom line.
Give wisdom to our politicians as they make decisions
that are good for us, and for generations yet unborn.
Much has been accomplished in this age of oil,
and much harm has been done;
the effects of climate change impact us all.
Forgive us our sins where we have been wasteful,
and show us how to live differently.
Equip us to be true stewards of your earth,
mindful of the needs of our sisters and brothers
and the creatures of the sea, the sky, the land.
The earth is yours, and all that is in it,
we worship you alone.  Amen.

Beauty of Holiness Call to Worship

Come, worship the Lord
in the beauty of holiness.
Holiness present in the silent pulse
of the earth beneath us.
Holiness present in the beating
of the sun and stars.
Holiness present in the chorus of life,
breathing together, even here in this room.
God of creation,
open us to the beauty in and around us
in this hour of worship

Advent Peace Prayer for the Fish We Will Never See

Lord, you know we give thanks for fish often enough,
the ones on plates on our table, served up hot and tasty.
Today we say a prayer for the fish we will never see,
the ones who live in the streams by our home,
the ones who swim up rivers to great lakes,
and the fish in the wide and salty ocean.
Swimming in the dim light they inhabit a wilderness
of water, theirs from the beginning of time.
We see only the edges, the surfaces.
Hear our prayer for the mighty lake sturgeon,
and for the carp, the bass, the silver chub.
We pray for the salmon we will never eat,
and the sunfish, and the minnow.
We pray for sharks and clownfish,
for mackerel, pickerel, perch.
We are connected with all these by our drains,
by our sewers, by the effluent pipes of our factories.
Our plastic floats on their home,
our microbeads penetrate their flesh,
and their gills breathe water tainted by our chemicals.
You sent us a Saviour who was Living Water.
The water of life that sustains
our brothers and sisters the fish,
is part of our own flesh and blood.
We are all creatures, help us live in peace.
Give wisdom to scientists who study fish,
and bureaucrats who make policies that affect them.
Give us eyes to see what we cannot see,
and a heart to care for all who live in the deep.

Earthy Congregational Prayer

God of sea and sky,
God of this great earth laid out under the sun,
we come with thanks on our lips and praise in our hearts.
Thank you for life and breath,
and senses to experience the beauty all around us.
Thank you for the dear ones we love, those around us, those far away,
and those who we will only see again in heaven, by your mercy.
We ask for your comfort for those who grieve
and those who are sick, especially...
Today, we come with prayers for this earth,
and help for humankind as we live upon it.
Show us the way to live responsibly, not wastefully.
Open a curiosity in us to learn about the fish in streams and lakes nearest to us,
curiosity about the birds that fly over us,
curiosity about the wild creatures, our neighbours.
We don’t want to walk by on the  other side 
ignoring the living beings you have put in our path.
Clean water, clean air, wild spaces are what you created:
open our eyes to how our actions impact our neighbours.
Give wisdom to politicians as they make decisions 
that will affect generations after us.
Help us amplify the voice of First Nations and Inuit elders,
the water walkers and the ones who see,
prophets whose words are sent by you to guide us.
Those of us who are settlers live and worship you in buildings
built on their traditional territory.
We need paths to peace where treaties have been broken.
God you offer us a hope-filled future,
and you will show us how we can get there from here.
Be our guide in all we do and say this week,
Amen 

End of the Year Prayer

We’re still here, God,
another year come and gone 
like a freight train.
Some parts are clear and memorable,
and there are blurry parts that went by too fast.
Thank you for every hug and handshake,
every smile and look of reassurance.
At the end of the year, we sit across the table,
and say “Here we are," like a benediction.
Our feet are on the ground, this good earth,
thank you for the way we are paying more attention.
Touching, tasting, drinking in the beauty,
inhaling the melodies on the wind that sing the world.
And yet, if we are honest,
there are too many broken hearts here on planet earth,
too many too broke, too hungry, too beaten, too forsaken.
Who knew the garden of Gethsemene could be this big?
Our knees aren’t made for this kind of praying,
and we’re not good at it either.
This year has found us torn between life as normal,
with all its dear particularities,
and life in a heap at the edge of the road, torn and bloody.
God of Hope, where is your relief?
Thank you for a Saviour who can say #MeToo,
and who lives to tell us the way through.
Hear our prayer for the year ahead,
help us believe in rainbows, sun after the bleakest storms.
Help us believe, against all odds, in love.
This time next year we want to be telling you
about another trip around the sun.
And its been glorious.

Winter Solstice Prayer for the Northern Hemisphere

God of Winter

even at mid-day today the winter solstice sun

crouched low over the southern horizon.

Low noon, and the day is short.

Darkness sits with us early and late,

lingering longer the further north we go.

Bundled against the cold,

the lack of light weighs on us,

and we are plagued with dark worries

in these troubled times.

And yet, you order this big old earth.

Sailing through space it tips only so far,

but no further from the sun.

Thank you for solar power and centripetal forces

which grip us, warm us, and give us life.

Thank you for reminders when we become too

self-absorbed with our own importance:

the world is spinning as it should

without any help from us.

God of the distant Spring,

be with us in this cold season.

Be our light when all other lights fail;

we live and move and have our being

in your love.

A prayer for times like these

For a world where lies are accepted at face value;

hear our prayer, God of truth.

For a world where racism in high places is tolerated;

hear our prayer, God of the oppressed.

For a world where people with disabilities are mocked;

hear our prayer, God of the disadvantaged.

For a world where the rich hold the reins of power;

hear our prayer, God of the poor.

For a world where men violate women with impunity;

hear our prayer, God of the downtrodden.

For a world where the earth is ignored and neglected;

hear our prayer, God of the voiceless.

For a world where nations interfere in enemies’ elections;

hear our prayer, God of the disenfranchised.

For a world where the church is charmed by false gods;

hear our prayer, God of the lost.

For a world where free speech is threatened;

hear our prayer, God of the silenced.

For a world where hatred is growing by leaps and bounds;

hear our prayer, God of the vulnerable.

For a world where dissent is dangerous and necessary,

hear our prayer, God of those who suffer for righteousness’ sake.

God of hope, we turn to you for vision and courage

as we strive to be faithful in word and deed,

followers of Christ in times like these.

A Prayer for the Stream Behind My Apartment Building

Creator God:
I am sorry for this little stream,
its banks straightened and cemented.
Graffiti decorates the culverts,
and it’s dotted with plastic bags and bottles.
But trees still grow and shelter,
dappling with shadow,
ducks and dragonflies dally,
birds swoop and the wild creatures come to drink.
Now in fall, yellow leaves sail on its dark surface,
it’s still a place that delights.
This little stream retains its beauty
even after we’ve abused it.
We turn our backs on it, and yet it flows,
gurgling and burbling, bustling its way
beyond our banks, slipping through rivers
and lakes and rivers and down to the sea.
You know this stream from its beginnings,
carved by glaciers, fed by springs a mile deep.
You remember when human eyes first saw it,
when people drank from it, and hunted near it.
You imagine a beautiful future for your stream.
My prayer today is one of repentance for deeds done
and a deep desire for a lesson falling down on us like rain.
Living Water, teach us that water is life.

A Settler Prayer for Peace

Creator God
hear our prayer for settlers everywhere,
for people living on land stolen
and traded unfairly from indigenous peoples.
You know our cruelties,
our disregard for cultures and histories,
our cavalier dismissal of treaty rights,
our personal prejudices, our institutional racism.
We are part of a colonial system so insidious,
those who benefit don’t even see it, even when it’s in front of our faces.

You are a God who names, a God who hears.
You know the name of every missing and murdered indigenous woman.
You heard the cries of every child in every residential school.
You know the original names of every landmark,
in languages that no one living knows.
You hear the earth groaning as it is torn and broken,
its holy balance polluted and poisoned.
Send us a chinook peace to melt our permafrosted hearts,
a Great Spirit of hope that blows through our land,
rearranging landscapes, upsetting tables where money is counted.
A wind that changes our hearts and gives us courage
to seek justice, love kindness
and walk humbly together,
settler and First Nations, Inuit and Metis,
for we are all God's children.

Responsive Winter Solstice Prayer (for the northern hemisphere)

God of Creation:
the winter solstice sun is low,
crouched over the southern horizon.
All day long shadows pivot and turn
pointing to a longer night, the longest night.
And so we pray,
Lord, we are longing for light!

Our community has touched
the darkness of death this week,
as we said good-bye to our dear friend ___________.
Thank you that we who dwell in darkness
have seen a great light in our Saviour Jesus Christ.
He welcomes us in death to an eternal resurrection
to dwell with you in glorious light
with all the saints in heaven.
And so we pray,
Lord, we are longing for light!

Comfort the family of _____________,
and our whole community as we grieve her passing.
Help us carry the heaviness of grief together.
We pray for all who lonely, and those who are sick,
especially those in the hospital:  ______________.
We pray for all who are burdened in this dark season
with dark thoughts and melancholy moods.
And so we pray:
Lord, we are longing for light!

Thank you for places we see light.
For every act of kindness, no matter how small.
For hungry people being fed at the foodbanks in our city.
For the many people who helped to provide affordable homes this week
through the work of Habitat for Humanity.
For all who donate their time and money to help those less fortunate.
We know that the world needs more light like this!
And so we pray:
Lord, we are longing for light!

On this fulcrum day
where the earth swings its way back towards the sun,
we give thanks for Jesus Christ,
who came as Light into the World,
illuminating our way.
And so we pray:
Lord we are longing for light!
In every way, every day,
help us to walk in your light! Amen.

[If there is room in your bulletin, you can print this out,
or if you are reading this now on a Saturday before you lead worship,
you could instruct the congregation,
“When you hear, ‘And so we pray’,
please respond with ‘Lord, we are longing for light!’”
Have them practice this once before the prayer.
Then as leader you would say the last two lines.]

 

Amazing Congregational Prayer

Thank you God for this amazing world,
that is both diverse and complex.
Thank you for a world that includes snowy tundra and desert,
that includes rocky mountains and tropical beaches,
that includes icy lakes and warm oceans,
that includes cold winds and warm breezes.
Thank you that the world is not all the same.
Thank you for its beauty and our place in it.

Thank you for our amazing families,
that are both diverse and complex
You know our relationships inside out,
you know that we have family we love,
family we tolerate, family we can hardly stand.
Give us patience with our families this week.
When we would count the ways we have been neglected,
teach us to remember that we too overlook others.
When we would keep track of hurtful words,
call to mind the thoughtless words we have spoken.
When we would itemize the imperfections of our family members,
reveal to us our own shortcomings.
We need Jesus to show us the way,
giving us a love for our families
as deep as the need for love within ourselves.

Thank you for our amazing congregation
that is both diverse and complex.
Thank you for all who work so hard to make this place tick.
Thank you for those who teach children and youth and adults,
serve meals, donate money, clean sidewalks, arrange flowers
Thank you for those who pray, who work on committees,
handle our finances, practice music and hospitality,
share stories, clean up, visit the sick, play instruments
and attend our services.
Thank you for all the gifts you`ve given
and the way they are used to build up this body of Christ.  

Thank you for the amazing way you work in our world,
in diverse and complex ways that we can hardly understand.
Thank you for the role you give our congregation and our families,
sowing seeds, being salt and light everywhere we go.
We pray especially today for those we know who are sick….
Our hearts are heavy with the story in the news this week [name story]…
you know how peace was broken and how it can be healed.
We call on your amazing power to renew, to restore, to rejuvenate.

Bless our congregational meeting this Sunday,
we want it to be a good time of community sharing and visioning.
May the words we hear(d) today from scripture
speak to us about who you want us to be this year,
in this time and this place.
We pray this in the name of Jesus our Saviour, Amen.

Rainy Day Congregational Prayer

Thank you God for rain.
For the feel of raindrops on our skin,
the way we taste rain in the air,
for the sound of water hitting the thirsty ground,
for its transformative greening power,
for the smell of wet earth.
We give you thanks
for the grace of water falling from the sky.
We confess that we are parched for your presence.
We go through dry times,
times where grief stretches us out,
exposing all we are to your gaze.
There are times when we lose all patience
even with those we love; the well of love runs dry
even for those nearest and dearest.
There are times where fear parches our throat
and we can’t even find the words to pray.
Thank you that we find you even in the desert.
Thank you for the way your love seeps into our lives,
for the way it envelops us like a fine mist,
for the way it soaks us like a deluge,
just when we need it most.
This week our city mourns for
a fallen police officer, _____________,
killed in the line of duty.
Thank you for the way this grief
has opened our hearts in gratitude
for the everyday selfless service
that so many offer in our city.
We pray for the ___________ family,
our police force, and our city as we grieve this loss.
We pray for all the people in our congregation
who are going through dry times;
dry spiritual times, and places of physical pain
where we are thirsty for relief.
Especially today we pray for _________ in hospital,
that you would sustain them and comfort them in a time of trial.
Thank you for our congregation,
and the way you water the garden of our lives,
so we can bear fruit for you.   Amen.

 

Great Provider Table Grace

God of farms and fields,
God of the earth’s rich harvest,
God of markets and grocery stores,
God you Great Provider:
each day our bodies meet you
in tabletop worship.
Thank you for giving us food for life,
for our bodies’ deepest hunger.  Amen.

Congregational Prayer for Christian Unity

God of grace:
Thank you for Alberta, our beautiful province,
land of prairie and boreal forest, rolling hills and  towering mountains.
Thank you for our connection to this land,
our favourite spots and places, where we seek out beauty and peace.
Thank you for Alberta’s connection to the rest of Canada,
its connection to our continent, its oceans,
for the atmosphere we share with the whole world,
for the deep heat of the earth’s core
that is the base of every country on earth.
Thank you for the unity of the world,
even as we love certain parts of it,
and feel its separateness acutely. 

In the same way, thank you for your church.
Thank you for the particularity
of our Mennonite Brethren congregation here in Lendrum,
the people, our community, our faith.
Thank you for every other Christian church in Edmonton today,
worshipping in so many ways, using so many rituals, and so many languages.
Thank you for churches in Belgium, Botswana, Bolivia, Bulgaria and Burma…
Christians praising the name of Jesus
in cathedrals, basilicas and small church buildings,
in open air services and house churches.
Thank you for our place in the whole body of Christ. 

Forgive us, God, for our short sightedness,
our parochialism, our obliviousness to the richness of your body,
even here in Edmonton, let alone the whole world.
Open our minds to the wideness of your family,
the love you have for all peoples,
and the broadness of your plan for salvation.
Thank you for Jesus, who showed us the way,
through his inclusiveness and his sacrificial love.

Today like people in churches around the world, we come with petitions;
we have grieving people among us, we need your comfort here.
We have sick people among us, in mind and body, we need your healing here.
We have despairing people among us, we need your hope here.
We long for your Spirit’s power;
empower us to be a community that offers comfort,
that encourages healing, that lives in your hope.
And now, we join together with churches around the world,
as we pray the prayer you taught us to pray:  Our Father...

Congregational prayer for a snowy day

God, thank you for heaps of clouds,
with all their many colours of gray,
the way they drop snowflakes willy-nilly,
blanketing us with white.
Thank you for the sounds of winter;
the echo of a train whistle,
the tick, tick, tick of icy crystals hitting the window,
the squishy sound of snow under under our boots. 

Jesus, we want to follow in your footsteps,
placing each foot carefully in the place where you walked.
Your tracks leading straight to the place
where people are hurting
where people are hungry
where people are needing your help. 
Sometimes we get lost in our own thoughts,
and lose our way entirely.
Thank you for being with us even in lost places,
thank you for leading us home.

Today we pray for those who are walking through the cold winter of grief,
and those who face health challenges. [name specific people]
Be a shelter for us in every storm.
We pray especially today for people who are homeless,
who live under bridges or in cars or empty buildings,
and face the bitter cold with no warm place to go home to.
Help us to open our hearts to their needs,
and bless the individuals and agencies
who are working to bring justice and hope. 

Thank you for your Holy Spirit
enveloping us with love.
Deep love, falling over us,
moment by moment,
one flake at a time.
We want to come to worship
like smiling snowbound children
wading through the world
knee deep in blessing.
God of ice and snow,
hear our prayer on this northern nippy day,
Amen.

Creation Care

I’m another in the long line of admirers.
Eve and Adam admiring the garden,
Abram staring, open-mouthed, at the stars,
Elijah running through a beautiful rain,
and David singing, always singing on the hillsides.
God’s praises being sung through the ages,
praise to a Creator whose work stands the test of time. 

This time, it’s my turn.
I close the computer, open the back door
and step into the garden.
My heart is a sounding board
for the night sky, deep with stars.
The fragrance of today’s rain still lingers,
and the crickets are singing all night long.
It’s God’s earth and I care for it. 

So what do we do about the
parts per million invisible to the naked eye
that change our atmosphere, thinning the ice cap,
raising the oceans, transforming our weather?
What about the beached whales, the bewildered polar bears,
the news of one more species never to be seen again?
 
Creation has cared for me, nurtured me,
held me close and taught me to sing.
I don’t know what it will be today:
a song of lament, a song of justice,
a chant for peace, a chant for change,
a hymn for hope, a hymn for healing?
Open now my lips, Lord,
and my mouth will sing out your song.

Thanksgiving prayer for farmers

Thank you, God, for farmers!
For those people who have touched the soil,
who have known it intimately,
the feel of it in their fingernails,
the taste of it, the way it smells after the rain.
For those who have cared for animals,
touched them, heard their cries,
nurtured them carefully.
Being a farmer can be a hard life,
the bills don’t match the income,
the weather doesn’t co-operate
or the markets are fickle.
Be with farmers, Lord,
and particularly the farming families in our church,
in hard times as well as good.
Help us to create a society where farmers are respected,
and compensated for their work fairly.
Help us to personally be thankful for their work,
that sustains us in the most basic way possible.

We pray for farmers and communities around the world
where the rain did not come,
or the rain came too hard, or too late,
for those whose soil is depleted,
or who cannot afford the cost of production.
So many in the world are hungry today
because of a poor or non-existent harvest,
 or because war interrupted the harvest.
Open the hearts of the world, open our hearts,
to be generous, to share the bounty that you give us.

All of our farming relies on the good earth,
and we pray for the earth today too.
Help us take care of it, help us cherish it,
help us pass it on, safely, to a new generation.
Guide our governments to make wise decisions regarding the earth.
Particularly we pray for our Canadian politicians,
that you would open their eyes to the long term health of our rich land,
giving them the courage to make decisions that will benefit
Canadians a hundred years from now.

We are so thankful for the beautiful home you provide for us,
for Niagara, rich in soil and generous in weather,
a garden of delights for us who live here.
It’s your gift, and we thank you for it.
Amen.

Living water congregational prayer

Thank you for water;
for its smooth cleanness as it runs from our taps,
water that is safe for drinking,
water that doesn’t stop running.
Thank you for beautiful blue of lakes,
for the chortling of streams, for the rushing of rivers,
for the richness of water resources.
Thank you for water from the skies,
for water that falls on gardens and crops,
fuelling green growth, food for the world.
Thank you for water for fun;
for swimming pools filled with laughing children,
and sprinklers making rainbows on the hottest days.
Water is so everpresent, so powerful and lifegiving,
we almost forget that it is a gift from you.

We come with prayers today for people who are sick,
we need your spirit of healing flowing into our lives.
There are people here grieving the loss of loved ones,
comfort them with visions of eternal streams.
Where we have given up hope; fill us now.
Where we are lonely; fill us now.
Where we can find no love in our hearts; fill us now.
Forgive us for living parched lives,
wastelands where we think only of ourselves,
and spare no thoughts for those around us.
Thank you for your presence, which bubbles up,
refreshing and enlivening our hardest places.

Today we pray for dry places in the world;
for lands where people walk long distances for water,
where weather patterns have changed, and people wait for rain.
We pray for countries like Israel and Palestine where access to water
becomes a weapon of oppression.
Lord, give us a thirst for righteousness and justice!
Help us work for peace in our world,
for there is so much water and yet many are thirsty.
We pray all this in Jesus’ name,
who is Living Water for us all,  Amen.

Psalm of Praise

Lord you give life to life
from Day 1, your Spirit brooding over the deep,
your wind rushing, your breath filling.
As creatures of the earth we rejoice in life
using our breath, our being
to raise this hymn of praise:
Hallelujah to the sun’s hot passion
embracing the ground’s great shoulders.
Hallelujahs for the growth from seed to plant
greening the earth;  its fruit—beauty and food!
Hallelujahs for generations of life
tumbling one after another.
Life creeping, swimming, flying, running,
below, above, upon, within.
All the world sings, calls, signals, speaks
praise to God whose glory grows in all that breathes!

This morning, with humble hearts,
knowing your love, we bring before you our needs:
for healing from our sicknesses and sorrows,
for reconciliation with those we have harmed,
for peace among our warring nations.
These are the dry valleys
where your Spirit will triumph.
Fill us, enliven us to be ambassadors of life abundant,
breathing out your song in harmony,
the choir of the created,
singing to our Creator,
whose Holy Spirit is unending, ageless, eternal.

Life to Life Congregational Prayer

Lord you give life to life!
From day one, your Spirit brooding over the deep,
your wind rushing, your breath filling.
As creatures of the earth we rejoice in life
using our breath, our being,
to raise this hymn of praise:
Hallelujah to the sun’s hot passion
embracing the ground’s great shoulders.
Hallelujahs for the growth from seed to plant
greening the earth;  its fruit—beauty and food!
Hallelujahs for generations of life
tumbling one after another.
Life creeping, swimming, flying, running,
below, above, upon, within.
All the world sings, calls, signals, speaks
praise to God whose glory grows in all that breathes!

Knowing your power, knowing your love for us, we bring requests this morning;
we pray for those who are preparing for marriage, and who are newly married,
especially ______________;
give these people wisdom and steadfastness
and above all, love, as they join their lives together, and form new families.
We pray for all we know who are sick, in mind or body,
or who suffer from chronic conditions,
especially we name ________________ who are in need of your comfort.

We long for reconciliation with those we have harmed.
Forgive us for harsh words or harsh actions.
There is conflict in our world, we think of the war in __________;
raise up peacemakers who love negotiations more than they love weapons.

Fill us, enliven our church to be ambassadors of life abundant,
breathing out your song in harmony,
singing to you, our Creator,
whose glory shines through all the world. Amen.