Prayers for the week commencing Sunday 21st August 2022

Servicing the Bald Hills and nearby Communities

Prayers for the week commencing Sunday 21st August 2022

Prayer of Thanksgiving and Confession

Generous God – giver of all good things, with humility and thanks we recognise all we have comes from you. You are the one who sees us and provides for our needs.

With thankfulness we open our lives to share in your faithfulness and mercy and to respond to the needs of our world.

Silence

We give thanks for the many people who have gone before us as witnesses to your great love through serving those in need.

Loving God forgive us when we miss the mark of your heart for our family, our friends, our neighbours, strangers and enemies.

Silence

We give thanks for present witnesses who continue to join in God’s mission of compassionate care and loving service.

Forgive us for neglecting the poor, the marginalised and those who we define as different from “us”. 

Forgive us our sins…as we forgive those who sin against us.

Silence

Assurance of Forgiveness 

God hears and sees our regrets, our brokenness and our hearts.

Hear then Christ’s word of grace to us: Your sins are forgiven!

Thanks be to God.

Prayers for Others

Loving God, we thank you for your presence with us here today. 

We thank you for sending Jesus to live among us, our God in human form, so that we have your example of how to love and treat each other. 

Help us to put into practice what we have learnt today. 

Help us to treat everyone we meet with love. 

Let us not look at anyone as less then us because they are different to us. 

Remind us to bend down so that we can look up into the eyes of others less fortunate than ourselves, rather than looking down on them. 

Lord it is hard for us to think differently to the way we were brought up and the prejudices we’ve developed from a lifetime of experience. 

Remind us Lord, that we are no different or better in your eyes than the disabled, the aged, the poor and the lonely.

Encourage us to share your love with everyone that we come into contact with.

Dear Lord, hear us as we offer prayers for the work of Blue Care –

for the staff and volunteers

for the Chaplains and pastoral and spiritual care volunteers

for those in leadership positions.

We ask that you guide and bless the activities of Blue Care as it continues to be

part of your mission in Queensland:

for those whose home is a Blue Care residential facility

for those who are supported and cared for by Blue Care staff in their own homes

for those whose lives are enriched by activities at Blue Care respite centres

we ask that they may experience compassionate care based on your love.

We pray also for those we know well and those nearby who we should know better.

Please help us as part of the Uniting Church and in our daily routines to ease the suffering of all around us. 

We ask Lord that the hungry may receive food,

That the lonely may know love,

That the grieving may experience comfort,

That the sick may be healed,

And that the stressed may feel at peace.

We pray for those providing Religious Instruction at Bald Hills State School, that you will encourage them as they lead their weekly classes, and that they will feel supported by the class teachers.  May the Holy Spirit work in the hearts and minds of the children in these classes, that they will come to an understanding of the truths of the Gospel and respond to the message of your love and grace for them.

We pray for the chaplain at Bald Hills state School, Kylie Conomos, that you will continue to guide her and support her as she provides care for the students, teachers and parents of the school.

We pray for those whom we have not been able to worship with us recently, and we ask that they may feel your close presence with them each day, that they will experience your support and encouragement as they journey through life in this time of uncertainty and change.

We ask that you will guide and direct the Congregation and the Church Council as we consider our future

as your people in our community at Bald Hills.

Risen Christ, wherever we are, grant us the faith and courage to recognise you in our midst.

Risen Christ, Lead us deeper into resurrection life.  Amen.

The Lord’s Prayer

Our Father in Heaven, hallowed be your name,

your kingdom come,

your will be done, on Earth as it is in Heaven.

Give us today our daily bread.

Forgive us our sins, as we forgive those who sin against us.

Save us from the time of trial and deliver us from evil,

For the Kingdom, the power, and the glory are yours,

Now and forever.  Amen.