Prayers
The first two prayers are taken from Slow Down, Show up and Pray: simple shared habits to renew wellbeing in our local communities - by Ruth Rice
Be Present
Be present
Presence
Just showing up
Surely there’s more to it than that
Just being there
Staying in a moment
With another
Without agenda
Presence
Better than our gifts and presents
What better can we give another being
Than our being
With them fully
In their story
One human being to the other
Presence
Surely this is what we believe
What we seek
What we long for
What we practise
The ‘Word became flesh’ and he is present
Presence
As we embrace this moment
Not the next
We choose to be present
To the one who is ever-present
And in doing so we become his presence
To the ones for whom
Presence is the greatest present of all
Be Prayerful
To pray
Is to breathe
And in breathing know
The warmth of your breath
On us
In the stillness
To pray is to say
Anything and nothing and
To know as we are known
Spending time where love, not words, are the
currency
To pray
Is to ask
Believing he is good and he longs to give
To pull up a chair to the table with Jesus
And another for the stranger
And to cry out for the thing that breaks our heart
And to wait, knowing
He hears
He cares
He answers
The next three prayers are taken from Prayers of the People - edited by Karen E Smith and Simon P Woodman
In the stillness of dawn, in the morning of a new day,
listen to the voice of God calling us by name.
In the meeting of our lives, in the joining of our hands,
listen for the voice of God giving us our name.
We are God’s people.
Redeemed and renewed by the love of Christ.
We are God’s people.
Shaped and formed by the power of the Spirit.
We are God’s people.
Let God’s people bring praise and worship.
By Graham R Sparkes
O Lord, our God,
may this floor be holy ground where we stand to meet with you.
O Lord, our God,
may these walls resonate with the sound of your voice, revealed in your Word.
O Lord, our God,
may this ceiling be thin between heaven and earth,
so that we may feel ourselves touching heaven as we worship you.
O Lord, our God,
fill this space with your Holy Spirit
and change lives for ever here.
Glorify Jesus, for we pray in his name.
Amen.
By Peter James Cousins
God our Father,
we come to you this day in worship and praise:
to honour your name,
to hear you speak,
to be encouraged in fellowship.
We come because of who you are:
a good and loving Father.
You are our carer, protector, provider,
our rock to stand on during storms,
our fortress to hide in for safety during troubles.
When we realise who you are,
we come to worship in gratitude and love.
We come to discover why you show all this care and concern for us.
Why you look upon us with love and compassion.
And we come to ask where we can experience your love.
And to be assured again that it is always and everywhere.
There is nowhere we can go to escape you.
No hiding place where you cannot be.
No experience where you are not with us.
No darkness where your light cannot reach.
And when do we know your self and your love?
When we see Jesus.
Open our eyes and ears today as we read your word.
Reveal your love to us again, because we need reminding often of your grace.
So help us today to see you, to hear you, and to praise you as we ought.
By Margaret Hughes
These two poems were written in response to the themes raised in this edition, but Baptist minister Mike Sherburn
Becoming a moulded humanity
I am becoming, I am
I stand before Jesus,
my friend, my brother
and I am becoming
My birth-again, my baptism,
my quiet time, my rooted vine,
and I am becoming
But what am I becoming?
a Cartesian caricature of a Jesus follower?
a cardboard cut-out believer,
with a fixed-grin and thick skin?
an icon of spiritualised individualism,
a cartoonified Christian?
a desert island compact disc disciple,
scratched-up, isolated, endlessly spinning, shiny and brittle,
out of reach and out of date?
Do I only need myself to grow?
To mix saintly yeast in the bowl of
my faithfulness and raise a crust of piety
as proof of my religious adulthood?
Or does the early church stir a different blend?
Does Theophilus learn gathering in Acts?
Gathering in constant prayer,
in temple courts,
in breaking bread at home,
in organisation,
in testimony,
Gathering to hear, to unify, to love,
Gathering to know the Spirit and one another,
Gathering to be moulded by a heavenly potter,
to become the Father’s jars,
formed by his sanctifying and his saints,
formed by humanity, heart, hope and humility
Gathered and formed and becoming
Enduring God's offer
Can I need what God offers?
Accept the invitation to his vast vault
and enrich myself in his coffers?
Can I want what Jesus shares?
Walk in to the throne room and sit
alongside others on those jewel-encrusted chairs?
Can I endure what the Spirit provides?
Allow myself to be handfasted
to every saint walking besides?
For these are the gifts of the human divine
The present of those who are present to us
A staff room of stalwarts in the family firm
These people, His people, in sacred supply
We come to be given by Jesus to others
We’re cheerleaders for all our sisters and brothers
Each one the glory of Jesus, which must never be smothered
Gathering weaves us, day-by-day:
It’s the tapestry threads and cross-stitching patterns
It’s an opened-up soul that can let others lead us
It’s a softened-up heart – and ears that will listen
We cannot claim to be people of Jesus
We cannot say we belong in his pasture
if we turn down the gifts:
the people God offers
the people Jesus shares
the people provided to us by the Spirit
In them, with them, through them, we become
the family of God.
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