DEDICATION OF NEW AV EQUIPMENT

INTRODUCTION
PRAYER
Here in this place of worship we gather in the name of God the Creator, the Redeemer and Sustainer.
Here we dedicate this Audio Visual equipment to the service of God.
Let us pray:
Source of Life, you call us to be the church.
A community of faith where all are welcome to celebrate your presence, a community which gathers together to grow stronger, to love each other.
Source of hope, you call us to be the church.
A community of different abilities and needs. A community that strives to serve each other as best we can.
God present in this place, and in our homes, and in the bits and bytes of our digital world.
You have gifted humanity with technology that helps us connect, that helps us care, that helps us be the church.
We give thanks for the gifts of many who have made this part of your Body what it is. We give thanks for the vision of hope that keeps this community of faith moving into an uncertain future.
May this equipment which both enhances our experience in this building and allows us to expand our gathering out into the world help us be the church. May we have the wisdom and the courage to use all the tools you have given us in ways both traditional and innovative so that we can share your promise of hope, of love, of a world renewed.
In Christ’s name we dedicate this, and all the tools of our worship life, to your service, God who brings us together.
Amen.

Backpack Blessing

Hi God!

Another School year has started.

And every day people load up these backpacks

with school work and notes to (or from) the teacher and lunches and snacks.

Keep them safe.

Keep the straps from tearing, the zippers from jamming or bursting.

Help the backpack avoid the mud puddle or the toilet bowl.

Help it stay where it belongs so it can always find its human.

Keep the precious papers put inside safe, not scattered over the street (or the kitchen floor).

But really God we worry about the people who carry these things.

Keep them safe.

Keep them away from bullies, keep them from becoming bullies.

Make them brave enough to help when they see another person being bullied.

Sometimes school is scary, some days it seems too hard, some days we just don’t want to go.

God when this happens make us strong enough to keep trying,

remind us that learning means making mistakes so we can try again,

help us find the good things even on a horrible, terrible, no-good, very bad day.

And while we are at it,

we worry about all those other people.

The teachers who prepare and present lessons,

the parents who send their children off to school (sometimes worrying about what the day will be like),

the bus drivers who get kids from one place to another,

the people at after school programs who take over when the bell rings.

Help them too God.

God you promise that we are not alone.

At home, at school, on the bus, and everywhere else you are there.

Thank you.

Amen.

Prayers at the Foot of the Cross (2014 edition)

God of hope, God of promise, God of light

on this day we gather to hear a story that speaks of hopes dashed,

promises left unfulfilled,

of death and darkness crushing life and light.

Today we remember a betrayal,

a trial,

a conviction,

an execution.

We remember that when one speaks out against the powerful there is often a price.

We remember a story that took place long ago in a far away land.

And yet....

Today we remember that crosses and injustices are not only a distant reality.

We remember that the world still strikes back against visions that,

somehow, are “not right”.

And so...

As we remember the old story today, help us also to hold in our prayers:

those who are punished for doing or saying the right things,

those who are condemned and rejected for being who You have made them to be,

those whom the world has called expendable, whom Jesus calls “the least of these”,

the ones we are called to serve, to protect, to nurture – as if they were Christ staring at us.

As we recall the powers of the world, may we always remember those who are crushed by that power

...time of silent prayer...

God of life and death, God of hope in despair, God of light in the darkness,

today as we tell the story, may we be reminded of its truth.

Today as we hear again of how few remained to watch at the cross,

may we be challenged to think of when we take the easier road.

Today as we hear the anguished words “it is finished”,

may we remember that it is not finished,

may we remember that as people of faith, people who follow the one on the cross,

we have a duty and a calling to share and preach his vision of a world transformed,

to pray and yearn and work for the day when the Kingdom is full and real around us.

And accordingly...

Even as we mark the darkness falling on this day, in this moment,

remind us of the hope and mystery that:

light replaces darkness,

hope defeats despair,

and life conquers death.

As we await the dawning of a new day, may we be filled with the passion of Jesus of Nazareth,

the passion for a world that could be so much more than it is.

And, filled with that passion, may we live it out in our daily lives,

willing even to risk a cost equivalent to a cross outside the city gates.

We pray in His name.

Amen.

Pentecost Prayers of the People

God of wind and flame,

blow into our lives. Ignite the fire of hope, fan the flames of possibility.

Transform us into a people who share your love with a world in pain,

a people who proclaim your hope into a world given to despair,

a people who live as though the world can be changed into the kingdom that is to come.

Baptizing God, who calls us to be a baptizing community,

you speak to us in many languages over the course of our lives:

the burbles and laughs and wails of infancy,

the indistinct speech and partial words of toddlerhood,

the strange syntax and slang of late childhood and adolescence,

the full language of adulthood,

the quavering speech and muted tones of old age.

Speak to us in the language that we need to hear today,

hear us in the language that we speak.

God of many languages.

You sing the language of joy with us, you join us in the dance of life.

Hear all of your children who sing and dance and praise this morning,

those who celebrate new life with all the possibilities of the future,

those who celebrate relationships, both the new and exciting and the long-term yet still exciting,

those for whom the wonder of life fills their being to the limit,

may they hear your voice joining in the singing and the shouting...

...time of silence...

And yet, God of life,

you also speak the languages of pain, of sorrow, of fear, of despair.

Hear all your children who speak, who wail, who whisper in these languages this day:

those who find themselves in hospital beds, or waiting anxiously beside those beds,

those who gather to say farewell to one who is traveling, or one who is moving,

those who gather at graveside to say that longer farewell,

those who worry about where the next meal, or the next rent cheque, will come from,

those who live in places where peace is just a word, a faint hope, a distant dream,

May all those whose language is rent by pain hear you lamenting with them,

...time of silence...

God of Pentecost, God who speaks with many tongues, God who makes God-self known in many ways,

fill us with Your Spirit this and every morning,

hear the prayers we share using many different languages,

we pray in the name of Jesus of Nazareth, the one we call Christ, whose life,

death and resurrection show us the path to the Kingdom.

We pray as people of the Spirit,

who lights our fires, who fills our lungs with air,

who blows us out into the world to live and serve.

Amen.

Prayers of the People for Mother's Day

Nurturing God,

on this Mother's Day we pause to remember the gifts of mothering.

And as we remember we pause to give thanks for the ways you are a mother to us:

for nurturing us, giving us the guidance and the freedom we need to grow in experience and wisdom

(even if we are sometimes headstrong and make unwise choices);

for comforting us when we are wounded in body or spirit, helping us to heal and be stronger for it;

for believing in and challenging us, calling us to be more than we are, encouraging us to live out our potential;

for giving us the swift kick in the backside that we need at times, not letting us coast, reminding us to keep trying and growing; we offer words of thanks.

Gracious God,

on this day we also give thanks for those on our lives who have been like mothers to us.

Some of them are related to us through blood,

some of them have come into our lives through happenstance,

some of them have been part of our lives for decades,

some of them are new to us,

but many people have nurtured, taught, comforted, challenged, encouraged us.

Without them we would not be who we are,

and so we give thanks for them and all that we have learned from our interactions with them.

And yet, in the midst of our thankfulness, we remember...

We remember that there are those for whom Mother's Day is difficult.

There are those for whom the relationship between mother and child is strained, or difficult, or non-existent.

There are those who are distanced from their mothers, and mothers distanced from their children,

by geography, or illness, or unhealed hurts, or communication failures.

There are those who have said farewell to mothers or children, not to meet again until we join in the life which lies beyond this life.

For all these mothers and children who meet pain or struggle this day we pray for comfort, that they would know they are not alone.

On this day also we remember those who want to be mothers but are unable, or those who still carry the wondering of having given up a child for adoption, or those who wish to know the woman who carried them but never will.

May they too know Your peace.

God of life,

today and everyday we give thanks for the gifts of life.

Today and everyday we also remember the people in the world who know more about curses than blessings.

Today we remember that the roots of Mother's Day lies in women's grief at burying husbands and brothers and sons as a result of brutal warfare,

and so we pray for peace and justice throughout the world.

And so in the spirit of those roots we pray today for that time when we live out Jesus' prayer “That all may be ONE”, for the vision of a truly just society where none are on the outside, for the day when Dame Julian's words”all manner of thing be well” have come to full fruition.

This we pray in the name of the one who taught about your love, your justice, your hope for the world, Jesus of Nazareth, our rock and redeemer, our teacher and guide, in whose life death and resurrection we find the path that leads to the Kingdom. AMEN.

A Christmas Prayer

God of Hope
We live in a world that all too often gives us reason to despair. And yet You offer us the promise of hope. In a world where so many struggle to get enough to live on, where it seems impossible to move forward against the force pushing us backwards, where it is so hard to see that things will get better, You offer us the promise of the Kingdom of God. This Christmas season, rekindle the fire of hope in our hearts. Reawaken in us a vision of the possibilities the world holds. Make us into hope-bearers, carrying Your Hope to places where despair seems to be winning.

God of Peace
So often Peace is just a word, a word whose meaning has been lost. Certainly it hardly seems a word that describes a world where children are shot at school, or firefighters shot responding to a fire, or marketplaces are blown apart by bombs, or enough money is spent annually on military expenses to feed the globe for decades, or so many other things that shatter the peace of which the angels sang. Tonight we celebrate the birth of the One we call the Prince of Peace. Tonight we listen again for the song of angels bending near the earth to touch their harps of gold. May we hear the siren call of Peace in our world. May we become makers of peace, in ways big and small, wherever we go. And may the Peace of Christ become not just a greeting we share in worship, but a reality in the world at large.

God of Joy
Churches and houses around the globe this night ring out with the sounds of Joy. “Joy to the World! The Lord is come” we sing. And yet joy is far from the minds of many this Christmas season. We hold in our hearts all those who are alone this night, and those who have an empty space at the table this Christmas, and those who find themselves in or beside a hospital bed. Sometimes Christmas is not what we want it to be. And the Joy seems to be lost. May all those who struggle to find joy in their lives know that they are not alone tonight. May they hear the word of promise that the baby is born for them, that in the midst of their struggles there is a promise that in the long term all will be well, all manner of thing will be well.

God of Love
That is the core of our lives isn't it. Love. That is what keeps us going, that we are loved and that we love others. In the end that is what it is all about. In love You continue to break into our world, into our lives. This Christmas season, and throughout the year that is to come, fill our hearts to overflowing with love. And may we, having experienced Your boundless, unlimited, passionate love, pass it on to all we meet. May love become the watchword and guidepost of our lives and the lives of all Your children.

God of Birth
Tonight we gather to celebrate a birth that happened long ago, the birth of a child laid in a manger because there was no place for his family in the inn. But tonight we also celebrate births that happen everyday. We sing praises for hope born anew in the midst of despair. We watch as peace is born in the middle of violence and struggle and disparity. We listen as joy is born afresh in the broken-hearted. We are overcome with emotion as love is born time and time again, overcoming fear and distrust and hatred. For all the births we celebrate this night we offer songs of thanksgiving and praise.

These things we pray in the name of the baby who now lies in the manger, the child who later taught his friends to pray together saying:
Our Father, who art in heaven…

Prayers for a Funeral Service

OPENING PRAYER

God who creates and re-creates us,
God who laughs with us and weeps with us,
God who walks with us each step of the way, carrying us when our strength fails,
we gather today with hearts breaking with grief, with voices crying out words of lament.
And so we ask that you would move in and around us today.
As we gather to remember and say good bye to NAME,
be the shoulder we can cry on, the arm we can lean on,
help us to see through the veil of tears that there is hope
for life continuing.
Gracious God, as mysterious and wondrous as you are,
you are also a compassionate God,
as attentive as a hen with her chicks,
as tender as a mother with a newborn child,
as watchful as a shepherd with the sheep,
as protective as a father’s warm embrace.
and so we come into your presence to grieve NAME’s death,
asking that your Holy Spirit would be here to ease our pain.
As we give thanks for all that he/she added to the lives of those around her/him,
as we release our tears and anger,
as we say our good-byes, remind us that we are not alone.
In Jesus’ name we pray, Amen.



PRAYER FOR GRACE
God of life and death and life beyond death,
we gather together today all too aware of the fragility of life.
We gather today all too aware of the pain in the world,
and of the ways we may not respond to that pain.
We know that we are not perfect,
that we do not always live out Your love as we truly could.
There are times we carry guilt for things we have done,
for things we have not done but could have,
and for things that we only see in hindsight.
Some of this guilt is warranted, and some of it is not,
sometimes we take on things that are not ours.
To deal with the guilt we have earned and the guilt we place on ourselves, we need your grace.
As we open ourselves to you, naming in silence the times we think or feel that we have come short, move in our hearts, remind us that we live in Your grace, remind us that we are loved and forgiven and accepted.
...time of silent prayer...
Here is the Good News! Nothing in death or life separates us from the love of God. We are loved. We are accepted. We are forgiven. Thanks be to God. Amen.

Prayers at the Foot of the Cross (for Good Friday)

God of life, today we pause to remember the power of death.
Today we tell the story of what happens when someone angers those in power.
Today we tell a story of betrayal by a friend, trial by empire, execution as a way of silencing the one who names injustice.
Today we tell a story that happened long ago in a land far away.
Today we tell a story that continues to happen today in places close at hand.

As we remember the story today help us to see its truth.
As we tell of Jesus' trial and execution remind us of those who are found legally guilty for doing and saying the right things.
As we tell of the friends who are conspicuously absent from the cross remind us how easily we slip away when the struggle for justice becomes dangerous or challenging.
As we look at the cross remind us of the power of empire in any age, and remind us of our duty as people of faith to proclaim a different empire, a different kingdom, a new way of living together.

God of life, today we pause to remember the power of those in charge to run the world.
Today we remember the many people near and far who are broken by that power:
those who live in places where peace is just a word, not a reality, not even a dream
those who are pushed to the margins because of their race, their gender, their bank balance, their marital status, their orientation, or any of the countless other ways we find to set people apart
those who live with nothing so that others may live with abundance
those who choose to challenge the injustices in their world and are crushed beneath the feet of those in charge
...time of silent prayer...
But even as we remember that power we remember that day follows night, hope replaces despair, and life will conquer death.
And now, as we prepare to leave this gathering, may we do so ready to challenge the empires of our world, even if such a challenge leads us to a cross outside the city gates.
We pray in the name of the one who showed us the depth of his passion for Your Kingdom, who taught us to live in love and justice, in whose life, death and resurrection we can find the path to Kingdom living, and who taught his friends to pray by saying:
Our Father, who art in heaven...

For the Early Service on Christmas Eve

Lighting the Advent Candles
We light this candle to remind us of Hope. Hope for the world, hope that lightens the darkness of despair.
Light of Christmas, shine in our hearts and in our world
We light this candle to remind us of Peace. Peace in a world that is rocked by violence, peace based on a world where all can live in comfort and safety.
Light of Christmas, shine in our hearts and in our world
We light this candle to remind us of Joy. Not just being happy and merry but a deep Joyfulness that fills our hearts and souls with a sense of well-being and contentment.
Light of Christmas, shine in our hearts and in our world
We light this candle to remind us of Love. Love is the way we live together, love as the cure for the dis-ease that rocks the world.
Light of Christmas, shine in our hearts and in our world
And now the night has come. The baby is going to be born. And so we light our center candle to remind us that the Light of the World lives among us all.
Light of Christmas, shine in our hearts and in our world

Echo Prayer
Thank you God,
Thank you for Christmas.
Thank you for coming as a baby.
Help us to remember
what Christmas is about.
Help us to share gifts
of love, hope, peace and joy
with everyone around us.
Amen.

BLESSING
The night is still, and yet...
The air rings with angel song
A child is born
And so we rejoice
Go out to share the Christmas Joy. Go to proclaim the Christmas Peace and Hope. Go assured that we live in the Christmas Love. Amen.

For August 29, 2010 -- 14th Sunday After Pentecost, Proper 17, Year C

Call to Worship/Opening Prayer
The invitation has been given:
Come and gather, come on and all, come as you are!
The welcome mat is laid out:
Come in and sit down! Join us!
We gather to sing and listen,
we gather to pray and be refreshed.
Hospitable God, welcoming God,
may this time together fill us with vision of what it means to embrace Radical hospitality.
Challenging God, coaxing God,
may this time together push us to ask ourselves hard questions about ourselves and push us to new actions.
Loving God, encouraging God,
we pray in the name of Jesus, who teaches us how to welcome others in your Kingdom.
And who teaches us to pray together saying...

PRAYER FOR AND ASSURANCE OF GRACE

Merciful God, we try to live in the Way of wisdom, but sometimes we get confused. There seem to be 2 sets of rules and it is hard to choose. The common sense of the world seems much more attractive than the Radicalness of Your Way. For all the times we play it safe, when we stay in our comfort zone, forgive us.

...time of silent prayer...

God's Way is not always easy or comfortable. But it is always available. When we make other choices God is always there to lead us back, never holding our wanderings over our heads. God is Gracious and Forgiving. We are a forgiven people.

Thanks and Praise to God! Amen.

BENEDICTION:
God called us here together, welcoming us just as we are.
And God calls us to welcome others, just as they are.
As we go out into the world,
We go remembering that all are welcome in God's kingdom.
Which means that we have a message for the world,
we share God's message of welcome, of Radical acceptance and hospitality
As you go to welcome the world, go out knowing that the God who creates, re-creates, and sustains us is with you every step of the way.
Thanks be to God! Amen!

For August 8, 2010 -- 11th Sunday After Pentecost Year C

PRAYER FOR AND ASSURANCE OF GRACE
God we admit that we let the comfortable get in our way. We confess that we sometimes let religion get in the way of being faithful. For all those times when we have been diverted from living out Your love, forgive us we pray.
...time of silent prayer...
God is gracious and forgiving. When we stray from The Way of wisdom God gracefully draws us back. WE are loved and forgiven.
Thanks be to God! Amen.

Prayer to close a Pastoral Relationship

God of community, you call us to live and work and minister together in communities of faith.
You encourage us to grow together, to love together, to celebrate together, to weep together.
We know that in our communal life there are times when people come and times when people go.

9 years ago we began a new ministry relationship.
New friendships were formed, new bonds began to be built.
Promises of mutual support were made, a covenant of mutual ministry was built.
In the time since, bonds of care and concern have grown.
We have shared the good and the bad with each other,
we have laughed, and cried and raged with the events in the world.
We have learned and disagreed and discussed.
And for all of those 9 years we give thanks. For friendships and support, for challenge and growth.

But now the time has come to mark the end of that relationship.
We move forward into a future that is always uncertain.
As we move forward we name that, although the ministry relationship of the past 9 years is now ended, the bonds of care and concern, the ties of friendship, still endure.
Today we release each other from the promises made at our covenanting.
Today we look forward as we each go our own ways and while there is sorrow there is also excitement and hope.

God who has walked with us all these years together, we trust that you will continue to walk with us as we walk along the path of life.
May the connections formed in this relationship strengthen all of us to face what the world may have in store.
May the learnings shared enable our continued growth as followers of The Way.
And may we all be better for the laughter and the tears and the time we have shared together.

WE pray in the name of the One whose name we bear, Jesus of Nazareth, the one we call Christ. Amen.

CLosing Prayer for an Annual Meeting

God of our coming and going,
God of our past, our present, and our future,
we have met, we have celebrated, we have remembered.
We also have visioned, shared hopes, dreamed dreams.
And now we go out into the world in which we do most of our living and our ministering.
As we go out, remind us that we do not go alone.
As we go out, remind us that we go with a mission.
As we go out, fill us with love, hope, and peace to share with the world.
May our lives and our ministry be signs of Your love and promises and possibility for the world. Amen.

Opening PRayer for an Annual Meeting

God of our past, our present, and our future,
Source of life, in whom we have our being,
One who has created and is creating;
today we gather to celebrate our life together over the last year.
We give thanks for all the ways we have experienced Your presence over the last year.
As we think back over the year we remember those times we have gathered to say farewell to members of our community, we name and remember them again today {read names from Annual Report}. We also pause to remember those who celebrated their relationships and their love over the last year {read names}.
Today we remember also many hours of worship and service together, meals shared with each other and the wider community, shared laughter and tears, shared hopes and dreams, fears and anxieties.
God of our past, our present, and our future,
today we also move from remembering the year that was
to looking ahead at the years that will be.
In our time of reflection and visioning this afternoon,
open our hearts, our minds, and our souls to your wisdom and your guidance.
Inspire us with your vision for how we can flourish as a part of Your global body.
Fill us with a sense of who and how we are called to be in the world.
May our discussion this day re-energize us and cause us to be renewed in purpose so that we can better share your love with the world. Amen.

Litany of Hope and Promise

Note:  the final 5 lines at the end of each section come from Seasons of the Spirit.

God, there is so much worry and anxiety around the world.

Things seem so unsettled and unstable.

And yet the story of faith reminds us to hope for the future.

Help us to see the possibilities that always come with birth,

help us to be people of hope,

help us live out Your hope and justice.

Teach us to sing your praise, O God.

Teach us to sing with notes formed by hopes and acts of justice.

Teach us to sing with harmonies shaped by mercy’s wide embrace.

May all the earth join the chorus and dance to your beating heart.

God, through wise ones of old you show us a vision of what could be.

Through mystics and prophets of today you challenge our vision of the present.

Remind us of that vision of peace and justice.

Empower us to live as if we believed it was really possible.

Teach us to sing your praise, O God.

Teach us to sing with notes formed by hopes and acts of justice.

Teach us to sing with harmonies shaped by mercy’s wide embrace.

May all the earth join the chorus and dance to your beating heart.

God today there are many who wonder where their next meal will come from,

today there are many who look for work and income,

today there are many who look for meaning in the face of life's disappointments.

Soon we will sing of a child that is born.

Soon we will here tidings of great joy that shall be for all people.

As we tell the story and celebrate the birth, push us look into the face of the newborn,

and see there a world of possibility.

If indeed the birth of any child is Your message of hope for the future,

may we see that hope this Christmas.

Teach us to sing your praise, O God.

Teach us to sing with notes formed by hopes and acts of justice.

Teach us to sing with harmonies shaped by mercy’s wide embrace.

May all the earth join the chorus and dance to your beating heart.

God, centuries later we hear again the promise of Dame Julian that

All will be well, all will be well, all manner of things be well.

And part of us finds it to be unbelievable that such a promise could be true.

When our despair grows and the shadow threatens to overcome the light,

remind us that we are people of hope.

When we are tempted to find relief from the present in trying to recreate the past,

call us to be people of the future.

When life's music has faded, or become a funeral dirge,

Teach us to sing your praise, O God.

Teach us to sing with notes formed by hopes and acts of justice.

Teach us to sing with harmonies shaped by mercy’s wide embrace.

May all the earth join the chorus and dance to your beating heart.

GRIEVING WHAT MAY BE LOST – A Prayer for Many Voices

Note: Each paragraph will be read by a different pray-er, hopefully scattered throughout the worship space

OK God, I think we all know that something new has to come.
It has been too long waiting, we need a re-birth of our economy.
And yet we want it to be the same basic model,
an economy we know and find comfortable.
A new basis for how we work may leave some people behind,
it may mean that jobs we once took for granted no longer exist,
it may mean that new skills and new realities need to be learned.
And that frightens and worries us.
That fear and worry may blind us to the new birth that is possible.
God who creates and re-creates,
Open our hearts to the reshaping of our lives.


Ah God, as the years go by there have been so many changes.
Leaving home, getting married, having children, raising children.
With each change something new and wonderful has been added.
But with each change something else has been lost.
What changes lie ahead? What will I have to give up as I get older?
It is always a trade off I guess.
New in, old out. But sometimes I have to admit that I miss the old.
God who creates and re-creates,
Open our hearts to the reshaping of our lives.

The world is going to pieces around us, we echo the age-old lament.
What will the future bring? Will we recognize it?
Will we know how to adapt to it?
Old ways of communicating seem to be disappearing,
old rules about how to act are being ignored.
New ways are coming in, ways we don't understand.
As the new comes in will we lose too much of the old?
What will the cost be?
God who creates and re-creates,
Open our hearts to the reshaping of our lives.

What will the church look like 5 years from now?
Will it still be a part of our community? Will it still be relevant?
Is it relevant now for that matter?
Maybe we need to change how we are the church together.
But what will that changed church look like?
What hymns will we sing? Will the story still be told?
The church needs to be re-born. The church needs to change.
I can see that but it doesn't mean I have to like it!
God who creates and re-creates,
Open our hearts to the reshaping of our lives.

And the people all said amen. Amen.

Invocation Prayer for a Meeting of District Municipal Representatives

Source of life,
none of us lives for or because of ourselves, we all live as a part of a community.
Help us to work together to build communities that sustain and enhance life.
Awaken in us an awareness of how best to raise up the hopes and dreams of all our members.
Make our communities places where all can live fully and fruitfully.

Source of wisdom,
May those of us who have been selected as leaders within our communities remain open to your wisdom.
Remind us that the common sense and wordly wisdom we have been taught sometimes needs to be set aside in favour of a Holy Wisdom, a new way, a different path.
In the discussions that take place this day open our hearts and minds to sense the wisdom you have to share.

Creative Spirit,
We live and move and have our very being in you and in the world you have created and are creating.
In all we say and do keep us aware of the need to ask how this affects the world around us.
Keep us from forgetting that your creative energy is alive and active in the world today bringing life and hope that flies in the face of despair and death.
In this time of discussion about the realities of today and the possibilities for tomorrow help us all be people of hope. Open us to the promise that all will be well, all will be well, all manner of things be well.

May this time of meeting be blessed by your presence, may they who meet be blessed with your wisdom, may the communities they represent be blessed with your hope. Amen.

Opening Prayer For Annual Meeting

God of the seasons turning,
another year has come and gone and once again we gather for the Annual Meeting of this Congregation.
To this place we bring all the celebrations and hardships, the joys and the sorrows of the past 12 months.
Here we pause to remember those whose lives we have celebrated as we said the last farewell of death. (pause)
Here we remember the highlights of the year: Harvest and Ham suppers, An Evening of Singing, worship and picnic out at the lake, friends gathering together to share stories and reflections of faith. (pause)

Here also we gather to look forward to what the coming years have in store.
We know that they will not always be easy, that life will always have a mixture of easy and difficult.
As we meet and discuss the life and work of this part of your family we pray that you would be a part of our discussion.
May your Spirit move in our hearts, opening them to hear what each of us has to offer, bringing light to both possibilities and realities, drawing us always to consider what you would have us be and do in this time and place.
Remind us that we are called to be bearers of Christ’s life, light, and love to all we meet.
Help us to live in such a way that we draw closer to your vision for us and journey faithfully in your Way.

In this time together we celebrate the many gifts we all have to offer.
Help us offer what we can to your service and your glory, mindful of our great giftedness in so many ways throughout our lives.
These things we pray in the name of Jesus of Nazareth, the one we call Christ, in whose name and hope we gather together as a community.
Amen.

Sound System Dedication

DEDICATION OF NEW SOUND SYSTEM EQUIPMENT
INTRODUCTION
PRAYER
Here in this place of worship we gather in the name of God the Creator, the Redeemer and Sustainer.
Here we dedicate this sound system equipment to the service of God.
Let us pray:
Creating and Re-Creating God, we give thanks for the gifts of all who have gone before us. We give thanks for all who are here now. We give thanks for the promise of gifts that have yet to be shared. Today we pause to remember all those who have given gifts in memory of loved ones now gone. Today we give thanks that because of those memorials we can enrich the life of this faith community. May this equipment help to offer all who are a part of this faith community a fuller worship experience. And may we be encouraged to raise voices in praise in response to hearing God’s promise, God’s hope, and God’s love. Amen.

Election Prayer

Monday January 23 is election day in Canada. This is a (modified) segment from the Prayers of the People this morning:
God who calls us to live together, to share our joys and sorrows, we pray this day for all who will be going to polling stations tomorrow. We pray that we all will have wisdom and discernment to choose what we believe to be right for our country. Grant that we may have the strength to make choices based on a vision of what we could be, rather than out of fear of what may be.

We pray for all who have chosen to put their name forward. May they be gracious both in victory and defeat. May they all feel able, after the votes are counted, to continue working towards a better Canada, whether inside the Parliament or outside.

We pray for those who will be elected, the ones who will sit on the government benches and the ones who will sit on the opposition benches. Grant them, we pray, wisdom, courage, strength and discernment. Allow that they will use more energy dealing with the truly important issues and not get distracted by the flashy issues that make for good headlines and sound bites.

God who calls us to live together in joy and sorrow, these things we pray in the name of Jesus, the one who calls us all to work for a world where we can all live together in your shalom. Amen