PRAYER

From darkened churches with stripped altars, songs of lamentation and the bareness of Holy Week worship, to the bells of Christendom swinging in the morning sunshine, triumphs sounding on church organs and people proclaiming, “Christ is Risen,” – everywhere, our worship breaks through into this Resurrection season.

Let us with the whole Church and with the whole of creation rejoice in the Resurrection of Christ.

Let us celebrate life, rebirth and resurrection presence in, with and through all things and peoples.

Let us celebrate lengthening light and the springing of new life once again. Resplendent yellow daffodils defy yet cooling winds; songbirds seem not to mind the drab and grey and surprising lack of warmth. Yet, late snows do not last. Growth is inevitable. Resurrection is unstoppable!

Let us give thanks to our Risen Lord that all things blossom again and the landscapes of our gardens and hearts will change again to beautify and humanise this world –a world in need and in wait of our best selves.

So let us pray that we shall be open to the change we are becoming, the change we are feeling; open to the new that is within us even now – known or unknown: as a seed growing in new soil; a butterfly emerging from a cocoon.

May Easter and spring resurrection surface in us so people around will recognise us as Easter people and will find encouragement – as in seeing a light in the darkness. Let us proclaim Christ is alive and resurrection is all around.

An Easter prayer from the Moderator of the General Assembly of the Church of Scotland in 2021/22, Lord Wallace of Tankerness.