Pete's Ordination prayers for the world

Creator God,

We lift to you our prayers for the world.

We thank you for those places in our world where peace, unity, love, generosity, abundance and purpose abound, signs of your Kingdom bursting through,

And we lift to you tonight the many places where these things are sorely needed and longed for

We pray for those places where lasting peace seems a far off dream. Places where conflict is brewing, or where it rages on, or where it seems to have finished but nothing will ever be the same and there is so much to rebuild. 

We think too of Christchurch and Sri Lanka, places where the human tendency to think in terms of us and them has recently led to violence and grief upon grief. Bring your healing, loving God. Help us to learn how to live together. Help us to see the humanity in each other. Bring your peace.

As the Federal election in our own country fast approaches we pray for genuine leadership. We pray for integrity and justice, for wise stewardship and for decisions based on your values.

And we thank you with great rejoicing for the rain! And we pray for those places where there’s not enough safe drinking water, where there’s not enough rain for the crops.

Refresh the earth with gentle rain, provider God, and help us to steward our resources well.

And Lord, who walked amongst us, we pray for our community, for the people who live in the streets around this church. Whether or not they know it, you see and know each one and love them. You know the ones who are doing well and the ones who are struggling.

You know the broken, the overlooked and the disengaged. You know their every need.

Merciful God, the lifter of heads, may your presence be known in our wider community. May the peace, unity, love, generosity, abundance and purpose that comes from you abound in us and around us and through us, your church,

and may it pour lavishly into the world around about us.

In Jesus name we pray.

Amen.

  

Good Friday prayer for the world

Jesus, our crucified friend, and brother and Lord,

Today we are witnesses to the story of the awful and wonderful events of good Friday,

the story passed from generation to generation; 

the story of your love

giving itself for us, once and for all.

On this day we remember that you know what it is to suffer

And so we lift to you the places of suffering in our world today.

We lift to you places of war and unrest where people fear for their lives and don’t know where to turn.

We lift to you the places where people are hungry, where there isn’t enough to go around.

We lift to you the millions of people who are displaced and longing for a safe place to settle and build a life, to make a home, each one known and beloved to you.

We bring to you those people we know personally who struggle with daily pain – physically or mentally or spiritually -  or those who live with uncertainty about their future because of sickness.

Merciful Saviour, even as you hung from the cross you were urging your disciple and your mother to look after each other. As we remember this we bring to you those in our community who are on the outer, who crave love, who long for a sense of community and safety, a place where they can flourish. 

May we, your church, be a place of welcome and belonging - a place to call home.

The day you handed over your power and let yourself be killed

Was the day that changed the course of history

And still has the power to change everything,

to change everything in our lives, to change everything in our world.

May we, because we know you and love you and follow you, be a part of this change, be a part of the healing that this hungry world longs for.

In your name, Jesus, we pray. Amen