For June 22, 2025 -- Proper 7C

PRAYER FOR & ASSURANCE OF GRACE
Steadfast God, the world around us is a busy noisy place.
Sometimes it is overwhelming and our anxiety soars.
Caring God, there are so many demands on our time each and every day.
And in trying to meet them we sometimes forget to care care of basic needs.
Calming God, sometimes the anxiety, the noise the business lead us to melt down.
So we try to run away, to retreat into a safe place, to hide somewhere until the danger has passed.
Source of Life, God of Grace and Mercy, when we are overwhelmed, when we forget to take care of ourselves, when we want to hide away from the world,
Remind us to stop, to pause, to care for ourselves, help us to listen for your voice in the midst of the storm.
...time of silence...
In the storms and chaos of life, in the times of silence and calm, God is there. God leads us to the place we need to be to care for ourselves, to help us grow, to be the people God created us to be.
Thanks be to God. Amen

Prayer for the Centennial of the United Church of Canada

 

God who calls us to be the church,

we celebrate the many faces and guises your church has worn over the centuries

each one with its own gifts, each one with its own challenges

yet all linked together in Christ.

This year we celebrate 100 years of a particular part of the larger Body,

this experiment we call the United Church of Canada.

We give thanks for the dreamers and visionaries of over a century ago,

people who saw a possibility and then gave years of their lives

working to make the possible real,

bringing together multiple churches in the hopes “that all may be one”.

God who has whispered, and still whispers, in our ears,

pushing us forward, opening our eyes to new understandings of what it means to be faithful.

We celebrate the times when we listened.

We give thanks for those who spoke boldly both to church and nation,

for bold discipleship and leadership over the years,

calling us to daring justice work.

We pray that we can follow in their footsteps.

God who is with us in out triumphs and glory, you are also with us when we stumble.

We admit that we have not always been the church we could be.

We have hurt each other,

we remember our mixed history with our First Nations, Mètis, and Inuit siblings,

we remember the times we could have spoken louder but chose the safer route,

we acknowledge that at time people have been made to feel unwelcome or unworthy

even in this United Church of ours.

And as we remember we repent, we lament, and we pray that we can learn a better path.

God of our present, we know that all is not well with the church.

There are so many stories of faith communities struggling.

Too often anxiety and dis-ease mark the ways we describe ourselves,

making it hard to hear the continued whispering of the Holy Spirit

urging us forward, showing us Good News, giving us hope.

God of abundant life, in the midst of our dis-ease help us see the new life in our midst.

God of our future, that undiscovered country,

we don’t know where this experiment called the United Church will be in 10, 15, 20 years.

How will we be the same? How will we be changed?

As we live with the uncertainty and unknown, help us be faithful.

Open our eyes and ears that we might see and hear you leading us forward.

Give us a vision, a hope, a promise.

Help us be a church that embodies Deep Spirituality, Bold Discipleship, and Daring Justice.

God who calls us to sing the songs of faith in a new key or with different words,

God who challenges us to grow and evolve as individuals and as a church,

we pray for this church that we love, this church that sometimes frustrates us,

sometimes infuriates us, and often holds us together as the world crumbles.

We give thanks for those who have gone before,

we celebrate with those who walk with us today,

we pledge to pass on the songs, the stories, and the hope to those who will follow us.

We offer these prayers in the name of Jesus of Nazareth, the Risen Christ, the head of the Church Universal as we share words that he once shared with his closest friends:

Our Father...

Maundy Thursday Communion Prayer

Source of light, and life and love, you invite us to the table.

We gather here in the name of Jesus, the Servant King,
who challenges us to love family, friend, neighbour, and enemy,
and who reveals most fully your loving purpose while sharing your hope for what the world could be.

God who has created and is always re-creating,
you spoke and the world came into being,
in you we live and move and have our being.
As part of the world you love, as some of your Beloved children,
we reflect on the many gifts that have filled our lives.
We join our hearts with the rest of your Beloved children around the globe who sing, shout, and dance their thanks.
And we name, aloud or in silence those things for which we are thankful this evening...
For all your goodness God, we sing thanks and praise.

Ever present, ever loving God, you promise to be with us always, to the end of the age,
you are there when our hearts are heavy with pain, sorrow, grief, anxiety or fear,
you are there to carry us when our strength fails,
you share our tears and comfort us in our dis-ease.
Here, tonight, in your presence we hold in prayer all of your Beloved children who struggle
and we name them aloud or in silent prayer...
Comforting God, may all those who are in pain, who are afraid, who weep, all those who struggle
know that they are loved this night.

God of our past, our present, and our future, The One who was and is and is to come,
From the beginning of our story you have found different ways to communicate with your children.
You have sent messengers and teachers, prophets, priests and pastors.
With joy we remember them, the named and the unnamed, the famous and the unknown.
All those who have been part of our cloud of witnesses, reminding us of the Good News,
all those who have challenged us to be who you created us to be.
God of community we give thanks for all we have learned for others in our walk of faith.

God who has been and is and will be active in the world.
As followers of Jesus of Nazareth whom we name as Christ, Messiah, Word-Made-Flesh
we give thanks for his life, teachings, death and resurrection.
We remember what he taught about the Kingdom that is and is yet to come.
We remember who he modelled what living as citizens of the Kingdom of Love should look like
as he ate with the marginalized, healed the broken-ness in life, calling all to love each other
and we commit our selves to follow The Way he showed us.

Here tonight we remember a special part of the story, a special meal just before his death: (Luke 22:14-20)

When the hour came, he took his place at the table, and the apostles with him. He said to them, “I have eagerly desired to eat this Passover with you before I suffer, for I tell you, I will not eat it until it is fulfilled in the kingdom of God.” Then he took a cup, and after giving thanks he said, “Take this and divide it among yourselves, for I tell you that from now on I will not drink of the fruit of the vine until the kingdom of God comes.” Then he took a loaf of bread, and when he had given thanks he broke it and gave it to them, saying, “This is my body, which is given for you. Do this in remembrance of me.” And he did the same with the cup after supper, saying, “This cup that is poured out for you is the new covenant in my blood.

God of Grace, as we continue to eat and drink and remember,
pour your Holy Spirit onto and into us.
Reawaken in us the dream of what the world could be, fan the fires of passion for your Kingdom.
Embolden us to give of ourselves to spread your love and hope where ever we go.
Help us follow The Way of Jesus Christ.
We pray these things in his name and memory as we join with millions of others through the centuries and across the miles to share words he once taught his friends: Our Father...

The Bread we Break is the Bread of Life
The Cup we Share is the Cup of Love.
Gifts from God for the People of God.

PAlm Sunday 2025

PRAYER FOR THE JOURNEY AHEAD
Parades are exciting, hope is exciting, we like to cheer and wave
God we are quick to join in on the exciting stuff.
But beyond the parade, in the hard work of changing the world, that is less exciting.
God help us to stay around when the cheers die down and the heat and pressure start to rise.
We follow Jesus into the city, we join the crowds along the roadside.
Give us the courage to stay committed as Jesus challenges the comfortable and familiar ways we know.
Or if the heat and pressure get too much, if our anxiety and fear win out.
Help us find the way back after we have taken time to be afraid, lead us back out of our hiding places, help us live into the love that casts out fear.
God as we walk through this week of triumph, challenge, defeat and disaster,
Open our eyes to see the new dawn that awaits, the promise of light shining over the horizon. Amen.

For March 23, 2025 -- LEnt 3C

CALL TO WORSHIP
When the days drew near for him to be taken up Jesus set his face to go to Jerusalem (Luke 9:51)
Thomas, who was called the Twin, said to he fellow disciples “Let us also go, that we may die with him.(John 11:16)
Throughout this Lenten season we travel with Jesus to Jerusalem, daring to face what lies ahead.
Everyone who thirsts, come to the waters! Incline your ear and come, listen so that you may live
We seek God where They may be found, we call upon Them while They are near
Come to sing, to pray, to celebrate God’s presence! Let us worship together...

OPENING PRAYER
Gardening God, you have planted us in this place and time.
Help us to grow, to be fruitful, feed us with things that sustain and satisfy, help us drink deep of the water of life.
In this time together this morning,
open our ears, our hearts, our souls to receive your life-giving word, dig around us and feed our roots.
Then lead us back out in joy, let us go forth with peace,
as we join in the songs of praise of the world around us.
We pray in Jesus’ name as we remember words he once taught his friends...

For March 16, 2025 --Lent 2C

PRAYER FOR & ASSURANCE OF GRACE
God, you invite us to follow your Way, you offer us a whole new future.
But sometimes the promise takes so long to come true that we start to doubt
Sometimes we make back-up plans in case the promise somehow fails.
And again you come to us, calling us to be people of hope, to trust in the promise.
Help us to trust, help us to be people of hope.
God of the promise, there are days when we feel alone, surrounded by people who are out to get us,
There are days when we feel like lone voices sharing a different vision in a wilderness of opposing voices
There are days when it is easy to lose heart.
God of grace, when we lose heart, when we doubt the promise, when we fall back to our own plans,
Forgive our weakness, remove our anxiety and despair, renew us to trust and hope.
From the witness of the ancient writers we hear these words of assurance: (Psalm 27 1, 13-14)

The Lord is my light and my salvation;  whom shall I fear?

The Lord is the stronghold of my life; of whom shall I be afraid?...
I believe that I shall see the goodness of the Lord in the land of the living.
Wait for the Lord;  be strong, and let your heart take courage;  wait for the Lord!

In that confidence we will be people of trust and hope. Thanks be to God. Amen.

For February 23, 2025 -- Epiphany 7C

PRAYER FOR & ASSURANCE OF GRACE
Source of life and love, you challenge us to love and serve each other.
And we commit ourselves to do that.
Source of life and love, you challenge us to go further, to love and serve those who mistreat us.
That is harder, but we commit ourselves to try our best.
Source of life and love, you challenge us to avoid judging each other.
Help us offer forgiveness, forgiveness that runs over.
Source of life and love, in your grace help us grow in faith hope and love.
Help us learn from our successes and failures, help us treat others as we would be treated, help us love and serve our friends and our enemies as we strive to follow The Way of Jesus.
God, who is our source of life and love, does challenge us to go beyond the simple, to go the extra mile in love. The same God shows us grace and mercy when that extra step feels just too much. In grace God picks us back up and helps us try again, offering forgiveness that runs over whatever measure we might use.
Thanks be to God! Hallelujah! Amen.