INVOCATION & LIGHTING OF CANDLES
Source of Life and Love, you call us together to support each other.
You bring light into our world, light that darkness can not defeat (Christ Candle is lit)
The world you created, the world you love, has such diversity
A variety of ages, birthplaces, genders, sexual expressions, racial origins, a multi-hued picture
All beloved parts of your beloved family, all part of the rainbow that makes up the light (Rainbow Candle is lit)
As we gather here this afternoon, fill our hearts with love for all our neighbours,
remind us that all are welcome, that all belong in the world you love.
And help us ensure that this love, this welcome, this belonging, is part of how we all live together.
Amen
PRAYER OF CELEBRATION AND COMMITMENT
God who has created and is creating,
Source of life and love in abundance,
Holy Mystery who is Wholly Love.
Over and over in our faith story you remind us
to draw the circle wider,
you urge us to welcome the outcast and the stranger.
Over and over again in history you have shown us that
the arc of the moral universe may be long
but it bends inexorably toward justice.
And you invite us along for the journey
toward overwhelming acceptance,
full inclusion, justice for all.
Today we gather here in this place to celebrate.
Today we recognize that this community of faith has jumped aboard the town car of justice
and made a public commitment to make;
your abundant love,
your promise of abundant life,
your hope for a world where all are fully included and allowed to be
exactly who you created them to be,
explicit in our life together.
We make a public pledge to be intentional about sharing that vision of the world not only within these walls,
but also in the world outside them –
in Grande Prairie and in the wider world
in the best ways we can.
Today we celebrate the wondrous diversity that makes up your world,
the amazing rainbow of identities that makes up the spectrum of our community.
May all of your beloved children:
whenever they were born,
wherever they were born, wherever they live now,
whatever the colour of their skin,
whatever their gender identity or sexuality,
however they express their identity,
may they all know your abundant life and love.
God who has called us to this place and time,
Love Incarnate who has moved us to make this commitment today,
help us live out the pledge we make public this day.
Help each of us, as individuals and as communities,
be open to have old assumptions and understandings challenged.
Give each of us the courage to stand alongside our neighbours,
to speak out against voices that would demean or condemn them
simply for being who you created them to be.
In a world so often filled with hatred and fear and division,
may our voices be ones of inclusion and love and faith.
We pray in the name of Jesus, who commands us to love each other as we love ourselves,
to love each other as you first loved us.
For in doing this, sharing this wonderfully abundant inclusive love,
folk will know that we are indeed your people
and following your Way.
Amen.
