Prayers for the week commencing Sunday 24th January 2021

Servicing the Bald Hills and nearby Communities

Prayers for the week commencing Sunday 24th January 2021

Prayer of Praise

 (from An Australian Prayer Book p225, The Book of Common Worship p298, The Book of Worship pp54 – 56, Opening Prayers p60, Prayers for God’s People Year B pp44 – 47) 

Leader:  All powerful and everlasting God, through the weakness of our mortal nature we can do nothing good without you, for you are the source of our strength and of sound teaching.  You call us to share in a life of freedom, of truth and of love.  Your Word summons us to faith.  Your Spirit transforms our lives.

    Our hearts are restless until they find comfort in you.  Our hopes are groundless unless they are anchored in you.  Our prayers are empty unless they are inspired by you. 

    We have so much to thank you for, loving God, your plan for each of us providing a purpose for our lives, your arms enfolding around us and protecting us, your power providing for us and sustaining us.  In adoring love and humble reverence may we yield ourselves to your service, so that your righteousness and peace may be known among all Nations, to your glory and honour.  Amen.

Prayer of Confession 

(from An Australian Prayer Book p225, Invocations p63, The Book of Worship pp54 – 56, Opening Prayers p60, Prayers for God’s People Year B pp44 – 47) 

Leader: Merciful God, we come humbling ourselves before you, recalling our neglects and our shortcomings.  We recall your standards and acknowledge that we fall short in so many ways.

All: You are ever coming to us, yet we are ever turning away from us.  You seek for us to focus solely upon you, yet our minds wander to myriad things and our desires command our attention.  We seek your mercy and forgiveness.

Leader: You come beside us and ask us to follow you, yet we pause to consider the cost. 

All: There are so many Earthly attachments that hold us back from answering your call.  We seek your mercy and forgiveness.

Leader: You have great plans for us, yet we disregard your Will for what you intend for us to be and to do.

All: We are faithless and frivolous, yet you show great patience with us.  We seek your mercy and forgiveness.

Leader: Help us to yield to your love, to be the means to lead Humanity to unity and peace.  In purity of heart, may we receive the blessings of your light and life.

All: Cleanse us from all of our sins and restore us to a right relationship with yourself.  In your name we pray.  Amen.

Assurance of Forgiveness  (from Mark 1: 15b)  

Leader: Mark, in his Gospel, records the preaching of Jesus to turn away from our sins and to believe the Good News of the Kingdom of God.  We have confessed our sins before God.  We have expressed our faith in the redeeming and cleansing work of Jesus Christ.  We, therefore, have the assurance that God has heard us and that God has forgiven us.

All: Thanks be to God.

Prayer for 26th January 2021

[UCA Assembly Day of mourning 2021 Worship Resources and Anglican Defence force chaplains Australia Day worship resources 2014] 

Leader: We praise you, God of the Universe, for this Nation of ours, for its contrasts of landscape and climate, for its times of droughts and times of floods, for its times of abundance and beauty.  We praise you for the stability of its Governments, for the ready provision of education and health care and housing, and for basic and accepted freedoms to choose how we live and work and believe.

  We accept the realities of our History, with its struggles in adversity, with its loss and grief, with its failures and neglect, with its inequality and poverty, with its injustices and abuses committed against peoples of different colours and races and cultures and creeds.

  We ask for your forgiveness of us, when by acts of commission or by our failure to act, we have contributed to the needs of others not being met, or we have contributed to the discrimination shown to another Human being who is equally valued and loved by you, or we have contributed to the acceptance of the presence of inequity and neglect when none should exist.

  We pray for the healing of our Nation, that you will eliminate any divisiveness and mistrust that divides us.  We pray that you will encourage those who have been wronged in the past and in the present to be moved to forgive the pain that they have experienced, to forgive the loss that they have suffered, to forgive the abuse that has been hurled at them, and to forgive the neglect and inequality that they have perceived coloured their life.

  We pray that paths of dialogue may open within and between our communities, dialogue that will lead to cooperation and the advancement for the Common Good, dialogue that will lead to the making of constructive and positive decisions towards the advancement of all peoples.

  Give us the courage to ensure that the realities of our past do not determine the realities of our future.  May we not seek to take upon ourselves the guilt for the sins of others in the past, especially the sins of the Church, but lead us instead, Lord God, to celebrate what we have and who we are, to accept that “we are all part of the story”, and to seek pathways for moving forward together as a Nation.  ( Home ‐ Australia Day )  

  So that we may together build a better future for our Nation, teach us to tolerate diversity, to respect all Cultures, and to care for our land and of our waters.  Help us to work towards a just sharing of the resources of our Nation and of the opportunities that it affords.  Give us a passionate commitment towards justice for all, and for structural and social change to improve the quality of life for all peoples in all communities, especially for the disadvantaged and the neglected.

  May your authority and love be the foundations upon which we walk together as one People who share this Nation of yours.  Bless us so that we might be a blessing to others.  Through Jesus Christ our Lord. 

All: Amen.

Prayers for Others

Leader: Let us bring our cares and our concerns before God.

  Almighty God, we pray for us, your Church, that we may hear your call to be salt for the Earth, to be instruments of your love, to be faithful witnesses to our families, our co-workers, and our communities of your message of forgiveness of sin and reconciliation with you.  May we manifest in how we think and in what we do and say, the values and virtues of Christian Discipleship.

  We pray for greater openness to your written Word so that we may allow it to penetrate our hearts and to motivate us to serve you.  May we take the time to read, to ponder and to pray with the Scriptures so that we may deepen our relationship with you and take on the mind and heart of Christ.

  We pray for Christian Unity, that you will heal the wounds and misunderstandings of the past, lead all who proclaim you as Lord to offer a more united witness to the Gospel, and to offer greater service towards our suffering and vulnerable neighbours.

  We pray for all who are ill, particularly for those with the Coronavirus: that you will heal the sick, protect the vulnerable from diseases, strengthen healthcare workers, and to make all vaccines effective.

  We pray for all who are alienated or disconnected from you, that your Holy Spirit will redirect their hearts to the life and wholeness that can only be found in a personal relationship with you.

  We pray for greater care for the Earth and its resources, that you will guide us in being good stewards of your gifts to us and in properly managing what we have so that future generations can enjoy them.

  We pray for our Governments, that you will inspire their clear understanding of current issues and guide them in addressing the economic, healthcare, and safety concerns of our Society.

  We pray for all who have experienced persecution and discrimination for their faith, that you will give them the strength to remain faithful and that you will protect them from further harm.

Copyright © 2021. Joe Milner. All rights reserved.<br> Permission is hereby granted to reproduce for personal or parish use.

  And, now, let us pray together the prayer that Jesus taught his Disciples to pray.

The Lord’s Prayer

All: 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 for ever.  Amen.

Hymn

“Jesus Calls O’er the Tumult” – TiS 589  AHB 505 

  1. Jesus calls us! O’er the tumult
    of our life’s wild restless sea,
    day by day his voice is sounding,
    saying, ‘Christian, follow me’:
  2. as, of old, Saint Andrew heard it
    by the Galilean lake,
    turned from home and toil and kindred,
    leaving all for his dear sake.
  3. Jesus calls us from the worship
    of the vain world’s golden store,
    from each idol that would keep us, saying,
    ‘Christian, love me more.’
  4. In our joys and in our sorrows,
    days of toil and hours of ease,
    still he calls, in cares and pleasures,
    ‘Christian, love me more than these.’
  5. Jesus calls us! By your mercies,
    Saviour, may we hear your call,
    give our hearts to your obedience,
    serve and love you best of all.

Cecil Frances Alexander
1818–95 alt.

Benediction and Blessing   

Leader: Celebrate and demonstrate the unity that we share in Jesus Christ our Lord.  Commit yourselves to worship, to witness and to serve as one People under God, until God’s promised reconciliation of all Creation is complete.

[UCA Assembly Day of mourning 2021 Worship Resources]

And may the blessing of God, Father, Son and Holy Spirit, be upon you and remain with you always.  Amen.

Benediction Song

From “May the grace of our lord Jesus Christ”  Scripture in Song  volume 2  number 42 (247)

May the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ,

And the love of God our Father,

And the fellowship, the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with you,

For evermore, for evermore, for evermore.  Amen.

At Aiden’s Parish Community

(based in 2 Corinthians 13: 14)