Please feel free to join us in the prayers prayed in worship Sunday, June 23, 2024:
Loving God, you created all that is,
and you accompany all creation
with your unshakeoffable love.
You have created us for life lived in community
with you and with each other,
in relationships of justice, healing, and love.
You set us in families, and you gift us with friends.
You create and re-create us in your image,
and, in Jesus Christ, you call us friend.
We give you thanks and praise.
And yet, we live in troubled, conflicted times,
separated from other in this isolating age.
Knowing that you have called us to love as you love,
we bring you the concerns that weigh heavy on our hearts,
and ask for your help.
We pray for the world – for the Earth
in this time of climate unravelling.
Help us to realize the damage we have done and continue to do,
help us find our way to sustainable, healing ways
to live in this new reality we have brought about.
Help us to love the world as you do.
We pray for peace wherever there is war –
for Ukraine, and Sudan, for Israel/Palestine.
We pray for peace in Gaza –
for an immediate and permanent cease-fire and a return of hostages,
for an end to genocide and collective punishment.
for the restoration of access to the essentials of life,
for peace with justice.
We pray for all systems that harm and demean,
in our nation particularly systems that oppress
on the basis of race, and gender, and who we love.
In this Pride Month, may we celebrate the broad and beautiful spectrum of gender,
and the diversity with which you create and nurture families.
May all people be blessed and nourished
in the love of embracing families – of birth, adoption, and choice –
may all people know the love of kindred spirits,
and the companionship of bosom friends.
We pray for those who are ailing and hurting, in body or in spirit,
for healing;
for those who are unhoused, shelter;
for those who are hungry, food enough and more;
for those who mourn, comfort;
for those who are weary, strength and a sustaining breath.
Give us loving, steadfast, vulnerable hearts,
so that we might nurture the gifts
of family, friendship, and belonging.
Empower us to grow together in the Body of Christ,
that we might better reflect the image of you
embodied in the depth and diversity of humanity.
Together, in this community of kindred spirits,
we join our voices with the voices of all who have ever called your name,
praying as Jesus taught:
Our Father/Mother, who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name. Thy kingdom come, thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread, and forgive us our sins, as we forgive those who sin against us. And lead us not into temptation, and deliver us from evil. For thine is the kingdom, the glory, and the power. Amen.
Photo credit: Hanna Busing, used with permission via Unsplash
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