For those not with us
We pray for those not with us,
those still on their way here,
pray for those hurrying to join us this morning
let them find calm despite anxiety,
respite in their rush.
And we pray for those who are joining us online,
still looking for a charger,
whose audio is still connecting,
those who are about to tune in this morning,
maybe still waiting for a kettle to boil or a child to settle…
We pray for those who are not with us yet:
those who are making their way here.
And those who do not yet know about us yet,
but who are also making their way here,
even though they do not know it,
yet.
Let’s pray for those in the future –
who will pray,
one day,
with us.
Let us take a breath here.
Let us breathe in community with the past
and breathe out community with the future,
just as the in breath pre-supposes an out breath,
so does the past pre-suppose the future,
and so let us breathe here a while
and consider the present,
as that instant between in breath and out.
That instant is the living moment,
and it is within the vastness of this moment
that we experience eternity.
We pray for those not with us
For those beloved and departed
who we honour
By using the gifts which they taught us
In the pursuit of the true life which we seek.
We pray for those not with us yet, those still on their way here,
And we pray for those who may-be
will watch this in a recording,
at a later date,
and if this is you –
I invite you to enter in to this moment with us as we pray –
I invite you, as you watch, to pray with us;
yes, even if you feel foolish doing that,
Time traveller,
pray with us;
You are in our thoughts now,
so let our thoughts be in your prayer
in the future,
as we pray for unity
across the uneven spaces of time.
A prayer we speak with voices of the future and voices from the past,
voices perhaps of those who,
seated in these pews
prayed for us;
although they didn’t know us
they nonetheless prayed for us,
the congregation of the future,
that they knew would be needed to carry this work of wonder and of worship forward;
we pray in person and online
in response to them,
in reassurance and in response,
we pray now with voices from the past
from prayer to prayer
and breath to breath
we pray with voices in the future
and say together words
that have united us over centuries and millennia
and which begin:
Our father
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