Prayer or meditation
Prayer for this day
Spirit of Life, Spirit of Love,
Spirit of Hope, Spirit of Justice,
God known by many different names:
You have given us a day unique from any other.
You have connected us, all of us, with each other, and with the world, in ways that are largely a mystery to us.
You have given us little
Prayer for diversity
Spirit of Life, Spirit of Love,
Spirit of Hope, Spirit of Justice,
God known by many different names, yet known to all faiths:
What a gift you have given us by making us different from one another!
Each of us with our own perspectives and beliefs,
Each of us with our own strengths,
Each of us
A prayer of concerns and joys
Spirit of Life, you who animate the Universe
Help us to remember the gift that is a human life.
With our consciousness and senses, we can touch, taste, see and feel
So much that is good, and alluring, and enticing.
Spirit of Life, some of us here today may be thinking of concerns more than joys,
A prayer to the cosmic christ
O you who animate the universe
You who are mother and father to us all
You who give us the blessing of life
You who live inside us and without
May we learn to see You in creation
And may we find in this a comfort
And a celebration.
May we find a name for you
An alphabet of life and living
A is accepting that there are other points of view to be considered.
B is recognising what is beautiful in ourselves as well as in others.
C is nurturing curiosity in all and everything around us,
D is daring to be brave and speaking out against injustice, not easy to do.
E is enjoying what
Winter blessing
(Written during a winter of discontent)
Taste winter – let it nourish you.
Drink deep from the icy draught
the frozen lake holds out;
it is medicine for the soul,
more potent
than the sugared promises of summer.
Let the broken trees,
made wise by their losses,
cradle you in skeletal arms.
May the open
Offering prayer
This church is sustained by what we are able to bring to it:
Our time and our energy,
Our love and our resources.
The morning collection will now be gratefully received to support the work of this congregation.
All that is
I close my eyes with gratitude
I open my ears to hear another’s voice
I let go of what I think of how things should be
I feel the wind or rain or sun if I make sure that I do
I dance I move I take heartbeat shaking actions
And beauty
I create
I