Prayer of Praise: –  

Most wonderful God, we love you because you first loved us.

Praise be to you for the countless blessings of your creation!

Praise be to you for your son Jesus, and for all the blessings of salvation!

Praise be to you for you the gifts of your Spirit, and all the blessings of the new creation!

Wonderful, wonderful, wonderful are you, God of unspeakable light and love,

all things are full and running over with your glory!

Glorious are you and praised be your name for ever! Amen!

Prayer of Confession 

Most wise and loving God, you are the one sure Source of grace, mercy and peace.

Thank you for not pandering to shallow penitence but for requiring deep repentance.

There is much in the things we do and say, to give us regret. There is even more in the good things we fail to do, to make us want to say “sorry.”

Yet we confess we are inclined to say “sorry” too glibly, and we treat mercy and forgiveness as a formality. In our better moments we know that such shallow religion will not do.

Today we come seeking something deeper and more radical.

You, saving God, know how things stand for each of us here this day.

You know of our hard-won achievements and our virtues.

You also know our lapsed good intentions, our blundering escapades, our broken promises and our petty ways.

You see both the large picture of evil and the smallest detail pertaining to each individual.

Please God, by your relentless Spirit drag us from shallow regret into sincere distaste of all that is less than loving.

Implant in us both the desire and the will to thoroughly repent, and to wholeheartedly accept your forgiving and reforming grace.

We abandon ourselves to whatever discipline and painful therapy may be needed if we are to mend our ways.

Most wonderful God, may your saving love never cease to amaze us, your forgiveness never fail to touch the darkest corners of our heart and mind, and your empowerment always be our hope and our joy.

Through Christ Jesus our Saviour. Amen!

Assurance of Forgiveness

Your forgiveness I proclaim to you, your absolution I declare to you.

While we were yet sinners, Christ Jesus died for us.

Our sins are forgiven.

Thanks be to God.

Prayers for Others:

We pray, loving God, for the liberation of all who are in bondage, be it physical, mental or spiritual.

We pray for all who are in spiritual bondage, slaves to fears and doubts, superstitions and grave errors, to oppressive religion, deceptive gurus, and charlatans,  or those who use the name of Christ for their own selfish gain or glory:

Lord, in your mercy set them free for faith and hope in you, and for the love that casts out all fear.

We pray for all who are in mental bondage, slaves to erroneous ideas and false prophets, to pseudo-scientific assumptions and dogmatic manipulators, or to erudite philosophies that lead clever minds astray:

Lord, in your mercy set them free for faith and hope in you, and for the love that casts out all fear.

We pray for all who are in physical bondage, slaves to harsh employers or their own rampant ambitions, to sexual promiscuity, love of money, and to alcohol or other drugs, or to national tyrants who enslave either by brute power or political cunning:

Lord, in your mercy set them free for faith and hope in you, and for the love that casts out all fear.

We pray for any of your children in this congregation who feel trapped in unemployment, degrading work practices, or bullying bosses, in unfortunate relationships, manipulative friends, or family feuds, or in a lost faith, spiritual anxieties, or habitual sins:

Lord, in your mercy set them free for faith and hope in you,

and for the love that casts out all fear.

O God, you have taught us that we are most truly free when we seek your will, not our own.

Help us to gain and enjoy this liberty by daily surrender to your love, so that trusting in your grace for our freedom, we may walk in those paths which you choose for us, and learn to love those beauties which partake of that true life which is richly abundant and joyfully eternal.

Through Christ Jesus our Liberator and Lord.

Amen!