Gracious God,
We gather today with the business of “church” in mind.
Our thoughts are filled
with schedules and policies,
long-term planning,
and budgets.
Open our hearts and minds
to the movement of your Spirit
so that we never lose site
of the fact that being your church
is our work
and in all our tasks,
the Holy is present.
Teach us to honor the Holy in one another.
And teach us to share in each other’s burdens and joy.
[read aloud the prayers of the congregation]
And help us hear the silences and see the gaps
acknowledging those burdens so heavy
that words alone cannot bear them,
and those delights so sweet
we are left speechless.
[pause for silent prayer]
Teach us how to best love one another.
And remind us that being a congregation together
is a commitment that is renewed in our daily work–
in the most mundane of chores.
We are together to do good in the world.
Stir up in us a desire to serve
and to live peaceably,
devoting our ways to walking in the living traditions of Jesus
to welcome the excluded
to side with the weak
to care for the vulnerable.
Blessed be!
Prayers of the People 