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...
