PRAYER FOR AND ASSURANCE OF GRACE for December 6, 2020 -- Advent 2B

God of the Jubilee year, God who renews the earth, pour your Spirit upon us we pray.
Open our hearts and lives so we too would bring good news to the oppressed, bind up the brokenhearted, proclaim liberty to the captives, release to the prisoners; and comfort all who mourn
God who meets us as we wander in the wilderness, show us the highway that we should follow.
Clear away the obstacles we have laid in our way. Lower the hills we use to block other people’s paths. Speak to our pain and struggle. Touch our hearts in this hour.
Hear again the words of God: Comfort, O comfort my people, says your God. Speak tenderly to Jerusalem, and cry to her that she has served her term, that her penalty is paid.
I will greatly rejoice in the Lord, my whole being shall exult in my God; for God has clothed me with the garments of salvation, God has covered me with the robe of righteousness.
We are forgiven and loved. God has laid out a highway in the desert to lead us to the Reign of Peace and Justice.
Thanks be to God! Amen

PRAYER FOR AND ASSURANCE OF GRACE for November 29, 2020 -- Advent 1B

God of Grace, you see our despair and come to offer us new hope.
O that you would tear open the heavens and come down, so that the mountains would quake at your presence
In a world disrupted by Covid-19, a world filled with injustice and fear, a world where we feel separated from our neighbours, we wonder what hope might look like.
Help us see hope in surprising places, as the world is changing around us.
In Grace shape us, mold us so that we are better able to follow the Way which leads to life.
we are the clay, and you are our potter; we are all the work of your hand.
God is at work here, today, in our midst. God brings us hope that conquers despair, forgiveness that allows us to start again and graciously invites us to join in shaping the world.
Thanks be to God! Amen.

For ADvent 2020

CALL TO WORSHIP
As the days get shorter, we prepare again for the wonder of Christmas
Waiting for a birth, waiting for the world to be changed.
This year the celebration will be different.
Covid-tide has changed how we connect with each other and added worries to life
Still we are called to gather for worship, to hear God’s promise of _______
________ that meets us where we are and leads us into the future.
Come, let us worship together...

COMMISSIONING:
Our worship concludes for today
and we go out to continue preparing for a baby who will change our lives.
Go into the world! Proclaim the Good News that is for all people, Emmanuel, God-With-Us, is coming.
We go to share God’s promise of ________ with a troubled world.
Go with God: Parent, Child, and Holy Spirit: Three-in-One and One-in Three
God's _______ is with us so we need not be afraid.

 

For November 22, 2020 -- REign of Christ Sunday

CALL TO WORSHIP (based on Psalm 100)
May the Peace of Christ be with you!
And also with you!
Make a joyful noise to God! Worship God with gladness!
God made us, we are God’s people.
Come into God’s presence with thanks giving!
God’s steadfast love endures forever. We share our thanks and praise!
Come, let us worship together...

PRAYER FOR AND ASSURANCE OF GRACE
God you ask us to be sheep, following the Good Shepherd.
You also commission us to be shepherds, caring for your sheep.
Both of those can be hard to do.
Sometimes we want to head off in our headstrong way, not following the Shepherd.
Sometimes we forget our duty of care for our neighbours.
Still you are there. Trying to herd us. Hoping we will care for our siblings, your beloved children.
We seek your grace and mercy, we seek your strength and wisdom.
Help us to be better sheep, and to be better shepherds.
...time of silent prayer...
In grace God cares for and loves us as a shepherd loves the sheep. God calls out our own caring and loving impulses so that we could care for our neighbours. Even when we forget, even when we choose otherwise, God knows we can do better and gives us the chance to do just that. We are forgiven. We are loved.
Thanks be to God. Amen.

SENDING FORTH (based on Ephesians 1:17-19)
May the God made known in Jesus Christ give you a spirit of wisdom and revelation.
With the eyes of our hearts enlightened,
may we know the hope God has called us to.
May you see the inheritance that awaits you in the Kingdom of God
may we see the immeasurable greatness of God’s power.
Go with God, with Christ, and with the Holy Spirit
Who lives and reigns in and around us. Amen.

 

For November 8, 2020 -- Proper 27A, 23rd Sunday After Pentecost

CALL TO WORSHIP
May the Peace of Christ be with you!
And also with you!
We have been called together by the Source of Life.
We gather as people who wait for the Reign of Love to break into the world.
In the presence of the God who has created and is creating, of Jesus, the Word-made-Flesh, and the Spirit who works in all of us.
Let us worship together.

OPENING PRAYER
God of Peace, of Hope, of Love, as we listen and pray and reflect this morning,
move in and through us. Renew and transform us.
God of Peace, of Hope, of Love, in this week when we will pause to remember,
strengthen our pledge to work for the Reign of Peace, of Hope, of Love.
God of Peace, of Hope, of Love, as we wait for that day when your Reign comes to full flower,
keep us patient, keep us ready, open us to your transforming power.
We pray in the name of the Prince of Peace, who gives us Hope and calls us to Love as we share words he once taught his closest friends...

 PRAYER FOR AND ASSURANCE OF GRACE
God you challenge us to be ready, to wait for the day when all will be well.
If we are honest, we get tired of waiting. We can only keep ready for so long.
Then other things happen and our attentiveness fades.
God you call us to be ready, to keep the light burning,
And as life goes by our stores of patience and energy burn off.
We might not be ready when the time comes
God of Grace, as we try to live out your call to be light to the world
keep our flask of oil filled, keep our wick trimmed, help us be ready.
God of Grace, when we let the oil run out, when we are not ready, when the flame sputters,
forgive our inattention and impatience. Renew and refresh us. In Jesus name we pray.
The God who calls us to be light to the world refills our flask of oil, relights our blown out flame, forgives our impatience and inattentiveness. God helps us to be ready for the turning and transforming of the world.
Thanks be to God! Amen.

 COMMISSIONING:
As people eagerly awaiting the coming of God’s Kingdom,
we go out to tend our lamps, to keep them burning as signs of hope
As people trusting in God’s abundance,
we carry our full flasks of oil to keep the flame of hope burning.
As people who are light and salt to the world
we go to let our light shine, not letting anyone blow it out or cover it up.
Go with God, who first said “let there be light”, with Jesus, the Light of the World, and with the Holy Spirit, the flame burning in our hearts, souls and bellies.

Prayers for a Regional Council Meeting

 

Opening Prayer/Prayer of Confession

God who calls us to be the church,
you call us to form a community shaped by the values of the Kingdom,
a place where we celebrate Your presence, seek justice and resist evil, love and serve each other.
This evening we gather as people who have been called into leadership in this part of the church in this place and time.
As we meet tonight move through and within us, flow through the bits and bytes that connect us across the miles, awaken in us a vision for what the church, this testing ground of the Kingdom, could be.
We know that this community of communities that we call the United Church has not always lived up to what it could be, what we tell ourselves we are.
We admit that the church is prone to the same prejudices and biases as the wider community around us.
God you call us to be the church,
a community of broken but hopeful believers, trying to embody Christ’s presence in the world.
Help us celebrate where we get it right, help us admit where we have missed the mark.
And then, through the Grace and Mercy proclaimed by Jesus of Nazareth, help us sing of the church.
Empower us to live out the mission to which you have called us, move us to live as citizens of the Kingdom.
We pray in the name of Jesus, crucified and risen, our judge and our hope, who we proclaim as Christ, Messiah, Saviour, and Friend.
Amen.

Prayer to share In Memoriams and Celebrate Ministry Transitions

Source of life, God who shares every aspect of our lives as individuals and as communities.
You are there in the beginnings and you are there at the endings, and you are there in all the changes.
As we gather together tonight as the Northern Spirit Regional Council we mark beginnings and endings and changes since the last time we gathered together.
Tonight we pause to remember those in our communities who have taken their final breath in this life, who have moved to that which follows. We name them and we give thanks for the leadership they offered to their communities [read names]
May they rest in peace. May light eternal shine upon them.

God who calls us to be the church.
Tonight we pause to celebrate the beginning of a new Community of Faith, Living Spirit United Church in Drayton Valley. We welcome them into the larger Community known as Northern Spirit Regional Council and the even larger community known as the United Church of Canada.

Gift-giver, who calls us to use our gifts for the enrichment of community,
you have called us all into leadership in some form or another.
You have called some of us into paid ministry within the church.
Some are called first into one part of the global, church and are later led to exercise their leadership within the United Church of Canada. Tonight we celebrate [name] who has followed that leading to share his ministry in our midst.

As time goes by, the seasons of life move us into different places and we may choose to retire from one role to explore other ways of living, leading and serving.
So tonight, God of the turning seasons, we celebrate those who have lived out their call and now move into the new adventure of retired ministry [read names]
We thank them all for their years of service and wish blessings on them as they discover what new challenges you might have in store for them God of Grace.

God of beginnings and endings and transition we lift all these people in prayer in the name of Jesus of Nazareth. Amen.

Resources for October 11, 2020 -- Thanksgiving Sunday

PRAYER FOR GRACE
God of Grace, help us to remember.
Help us to remember the times we have been blessed.
Help us to recognize the gifts that fill our lives.
God of Grace, help us to be thankful.
Open our lips in songs of praise and thanksgiving
Open our hearts in prayers steeped in deep gratitude
God of Grace, help us to be generous
Move us to respond to your abundance by paying it forward
Move us to give from what we have to enrich the world around us.
...time of silent prayer...
God calls us to remember, to be thanks-filled, to be generous. With Grace God encourages us to live out that call.
Thanks be to God: the Giver and the Gift, who challenges us to live lives of memory, gratitude, and generosity. Amen.

COMMISSIONING:
We have prayed, we have listened, we have opened ourselves to God’s presence.
Now we go out to live as people who remember, who are thankful, who pledge to share God’s gifts with the
world where we live and love.
Go with God, the Gift Giver; with Christ, the Gift; and with the Holy Spirit, who empowers us to be gift givers and gifts in our own way. Be Blessed and be a Blessing.
Amen