Prayers

The Lord God, Father, Son and Holy Spirit, is our creator.
We worship the Lord, the giver of life.
The Lord is our promise.
We worship the Lord, the giver of life.
The Lord is our judgement.
We worship the Lord, the giver of life.
The Lord is our hope.
We worship the Lord, the giver of life.
The Lord is our peace.
We worship the Lord, the giver of life.
The Lord is our salvation.
We worship the Lord, the giver of life.
Let us worship the Lord, our God.
Let us worship the Lord, the giver of life, our God.

Creator God,
along with the church universal, on earth and in heaven,
along with the angels and archangels,
along with your creation in all its travail,
we gather today to worship and adore you –
Father, Son and Holy Spirit.

In your dealings with the world, you have shown yourself to be a mighty God who knows the goodness of creation and life, an eternal God who travels faithfully with your people throughout the ages, a gracious God who bestows mercy and peace, a righteous God who calls the world to account for the way in which we live with one another, with creation and with the one whom we profess to be 'our God' – Father, Son and Holy Spirit.

As we gather in worship and adoration, here together, in your house, bestow upon us the fullness of the promise of Jesus, that where two or three are gathered, you will be in their midst.
 
And so we approach this time this place this worship you, our God, with a faithful trust that we are your people, invited by you to share in the new covenant of grace, mercy and love

So, gather with us, O God. Receive our worship and praise, and may we leave with a full and certain knowledge that your covenant love is within us, written on our hearts.
You are our God, our iniquities are forgiven, and our sins will be remembered no more.

In the name of Jesus Christ, our Lord.
Amen.

Gracious God,
in coming to worship, we know you welcome us,
yet we come to you, uncertain of our identity as your people,
but sure of our sins.
O God, forgive us and remember our sins no more.
We come to you unworthy of the grace we have received in your Son, Jesus Christ.
O God, forgive us and remember our sins no more.
We come to you unreliably as we fail in our promises to listen to or faithfully follow your call.
O God, forgive us and remember our sins no more.
We come to you ungrateful for the gifts of love, forgiveness and life we have received time without measure.
O God, forgive us and remember our sins no more.

Thanks be to you, for you are our God, the Lord, the giver of life, calling us as one people under one baptism into one faith, who offers merciful forgiveness and restores us into life-giving relationships with you, all creation and one another.
Amen.

Eternal God,
your prophet proclaimed the days would come when your covenant love would be written on our hearts. For the days that are here, and the days that are past, we worship and adore you, O God, because you have placed within our hearts the covenant love of a mighty God, gracious Father, Lord of lords, King of kings.

As we reflect on our lives before you, we can trace your promised presence, prompting presence and protecting presence. It is because of this that we know your faithfulness, mercy, grace and life. We give you thanks for these things. And yet, O God, our thanksgiving is not just for what we have received in the past, but because we know you are present with us today and will be into the future when we are finally welcomed into your eternal kingdom with Christ, our Lord.
Amen.

There was a day when God took our hand, but we pulled away
preferring another's.
We know there is true life in no other;
we have confessed our failings.
His hand remains steadily available to us.
In faith, our relationship with God, each other and the world has been restored.
Let us, therefore, take one another's hand, knowing we are held by him as we journey in hope together with a new song in our hearts.

He puts his law of love within us.
He writes it on our hearts.
He is our God.
He forgives our iniquities.
He remembers our sin no more.

Thanks be to God,
Father, Son and Holy Spirit,
world without end.
Amen.

Covenanting God,
make this your dwelling place once again
so we will come to be renewed by you and your life in us.
May your journey and our journey be joined together,
as we are covenanted in renewed relationship.

Suffering God,
take your place in the midst of us once again
so we will come to know you and your sufferings.
May your journey and our journey be joined together,
and our sufferings transformed by togetherness.
Amen.

Have ears to hear

For children

Mission control

Ask children what they think an astronaut needs most (apart from a space ship and space suit) to complete a mission successfully. Bring out the fact that she or he needs regular contact with mission control.

In today’s reading, Jesus was in regular contact with mission control. He prayed, he heard God speak and he always did God’s will. In the Bible passage we read that God spoke in a loud voice. More often, though, he speaks to us quietly through his word and in our hearts.

Explain that you are going to ask God to bring to your minds some things that he wants to do in the week ahead. Then, with some music playing softly, lead into a time of quiet with the words:

Father, our aim is to love and serve you.
Please show us the things you want us to do.

Bring the ‘listening’ time to a close saying:

Thank you, Lord God, that you hear us when we pray.
Help us to hear you and to do as you say.
Amen.

Drawn to him

(This is to be used along with option ‘Fingerpaint harvest’ from Be active .) Draw a cross on a large sheet of paper. Write the words of John 12.32 across the top and ask the children to read the verse aloud. Then ask each child to write the name of one of their friends on to their blank ‘ear of wheat’. With some worship music playing in the background, invite them to bring their ‘ears of wheat’ and stick them around the cross. Finish with a prayer thanking God that Jesus was willing to die so that all people could be drawn to him.

For young people

Invite the young people to arrange their good news stories from Get started into the shape of a cross and remember the idea of God’s goodness in people and in the world.

As a prayer action, ask each young person to come forward and choose a newspaper page. Invite them to write their own asking prayer onto the page and then to work with the rest of the group to make these into a paper chain.

As a closing reflection, play some instrumental music, or ‘Search for the Hero’ (see Resources ), and invite someone to read the Scripture of the day.

Creator God,
you have given us the expertise and knowledge to make contact with other people around the world.
Through communication on the internet, by mobile phone and satellite navigation our world gets smaller, physical boundaries disappear and distances grow smaller as we are able to speak to, and even see, our friends and family who may be miles away.
Help us to use these forms of communication wisely for the good of all.
We can reassure our family of our safety, we can relay good news, keep in touch and express our love. Let us never use our channels of communication for gossip or malice.
As we use our gifts of communication, help us also to be good listeners to our family and friends, and guide us to hear clearly what the people around us are saying.
The media in today's world often present a confusing message. Many people seem to be motivated by a selfish greed for money and material things.
Guide us, Lord, to hear the message that you sent to our world in the form of your Son Jesus Christ, who lived a humble life with no material possessions. Communicating only through the spoken word and travelling very little, Jesus' message of love has spread throughout the world through the example he set us in acting justly, loving tenderly and walking humbly with you, our God.
Amen.