Thank you to Jane Kuepfer for offering prayers today:
Gracious and Generous God – In your love we live and move and have our being – as individuals, and as a body in which your Spirit lives. We offer ourselves to your work and to your way when we give our offerings, when we give our time and energy, when we make commitments to be part of this family of faith. God, take what we offer and bless it, that your spirit would be known beyond these walls, and that your love would reach the places it is needed.
As a congregation that is committed to being a welcoming community, we pray these words offered for Pride month:
“God of love and light and life,
We come to you because we want to embody your love.
We come to you because we need you to light our way.
We come to you because we seek to live our lives in you.
Thank you for each LGBTQ+ sibling in faith, among us and around us.
Thank you for the rainbow gifts of queerness to your Church and to your world.
As we build diverse community together, in your image, we ask that you call each of us by name, so that we might follow.
Show us the kaleidoscope of your grace, colourful, beautiful, and always giving us new perspectives.
Lead us toward the horizon of your love, always just a little further, a little wider, a little beyond what we thought we knew.
Open our hands to the wind of your Spirit, felt but uncontrollable, trusted but undefinable, around us and within our very breath.”
We are thankful for Alissa Bender who wrote those words, and for all who are helping us to understand and love more fully.
God, we hold with you this morning those we know to be in the midst of hard circumstances – we extend our compassion to those among us and around us who are suffering: from illness or injury, from loss and grief, from anxiety and fear. We join our hearts with those who are frustrated, exhausted, sad, lonely.
We desire courage for those needing to move forward, wise discernment for those making decisions, peace for those who are uneasy. God, you know all our struggles and needs as human beings in this complex world.
As those who are largely privileged and secure, teach us to live toward your ways in all we say and do. Protect those who are vulnerable and lead us all toward greater love and lasting peace.
We pray for all who are caregivers for aging parents and loved ones.
Surround and keep safe our loved ones in long-term care.
We pray for our Households of Faith: May love abound in each home and in each heart. May each home be filled with joy and may God grant health, strength, and meaningful relationships.
We pray as followers of Jesus, whose disciples learned to pray saying simply: Our Father, who art in heaven…