PRAYER

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Most gracious God,

As summer drifts serenely into autumn,

And golden days and misty nights

Crowd into shortening hours,

We give You thanks for Your good gifts

Surrounding us.

Fields of promise and plenty

That challenge the meanness of our giving

To sisters and brothers

Around our world.

Colours and hues

That challenge the limitation of our welcome

As we exclude and narrow scope

When You, our God, paint life from broadest palette.

Prepare us now, as seasons shift and change,

To enter into this new season of our Church’s life.

When work restarts, horizons stretch,

And possibilities of new visions come near,

Come near to us, Lord Christ,

And bless us at this time.

Come bless our worship that it may lift us up

To praise Your holy Name.

Let song and prayer and speech

Unite to make each time of worship

Rich, diverse and joyful.

Come bless our sharing,

That ours may be a Church that stretches out,

And welcomes and includes.

That hospitality matched with grace and laced with love

May reach out to the places where we live.

Come bless our meetings,

That they may be enriched with wisdom,

Imaginative, bold and clear,

And shaking of what holds us back or down,

So in this year we may serve all in hope.

Come bless our giving,

Generous, cheerful, glad,

To build Your Church with purpose and with faith,

Through sacrificial love,

That cares for Christ, community and world.

Come near, Lord Christ,

That in this time, this place, this world,

We may be blessed, empowered, and graced

For Your love’s sake.

Amen

This article appears in the September 2018 Issue of Life and Work

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