OPEN FOR PRAYER

We invite you to pray for the needs of our world, the Church and ourselves:

Heavenly Father, Resurrected Lord: We thank and praise you for bringing us together again in fellowship and prayer. We are privileged to walk with You, with one another and with the rest of your creation. Thank you for continuing to appear to us on Easter morning and on all mornings whenever we remember to look for you. Thank you for always speaking with us, for teaching us, and for guiding us towards true joy and happiness through your Word.

World and Country
We pray for the world that so desperately needs your healing touch. Grant us the courage to be instruments of your peace in the face of conflict and strife, inequality and want.

We pray for all those suffering from war, poverty, disease, discrimination, and disasters both natural and manmade. We think today of those who are living on or behind the front lines of armed conflicts or in places where their fundamental human rights are denied or ignored. We think of those caught in the crossfire of others’ wanton greed and unlimited thirst for power in Yemen, in Iraq, in Syria, in Xinjiang, in eastern Ukraine, and in so many other corners of the world. We pray that you would keep them safe from physical harm and comfort them with your Holy Spirit, even as we pray to you this morning.

We pray for Canada. We pray for families and communities that are being torn apart by ideological divides, by different understandings of the concept of “freedom,” and by conflicting ideas for responding to the ongoing challenges posed by COVID. Please bring your peace to rain down on them and on us. Instill or renew in all our hearts a fervent interest in the health and well-being of the commons. Reignite and deepen our commitment to treating others as we would have them treat us.

We pray for governments, peace officers, public health officials, medical researchers, front line workers, local communities and families across Canada who continue to confront the crafty challenges posed by COVID-19. Guide and strengthen them, and us, as we continue to take careful, well-informed steps towards recovering some semblance of normalcy in our lives as individuals and as a worship community. We thank you for the COVID vaccines and treatments that have been discovered and developed to date. We pray that you would continue to guide the heads and the hands of the scientists who are making every effort to keep us all safe.

We seek forgiveness for our complacency in the face of Islamophobia, Anti-Semitism, homophobia, transphobia and all other manifestations of humankind’s hatred of the very diversity and complexity that You created.

We acknowledge our collective quietness in the face of enduring racism that leads to broken promises and empty bromides for our Indigenous, Black and Racialized communities. We pray for a groundswell of protest and action that will finally address the many structural inequities that contribute to their disproportionate suffering and early death in this country. We humbly ask your forgiveness for tolerating the status quo, and we thank you for your patient, daily invitation to pick up our own crosses and follow your example of sacrificial love.

Church
As we pray for Your Church, may we its members in faithful witness preach and practice the good news of you, our Resurrected Lord and Saviour, with love and unity to the very ends of the earth. Please guide those of us who are settlers on this land as we pursue conciliation and allyship with our Indigenous brothers and sisters and their communities all across Turtle Island.

As the Christ Church Deer Park parish, we pray you will heal those of our number who are sick; comfort those who are bereaved; be present in a very real way with those who are isolated and lonely. We pray that you will encourage them with your Holy Spirit, and remind them that they are deeply loved and vitally important parts of your Body.

We pray for your continued safekeeping of all those who are working to maintain, strengthen and grow this community and to feed our collective souls with the Good News of your Gospel. We pray that you would continue to guide and comfort Cheryl, Cathy, Ali and the entire staff of Christ Church Deer Park, both clergy and lay people. We thank you for their individual and collective ministries, and for their willingness to hear Your call and to answer your voice.

Ourselves
Finally, we pray in Jesus’ name for ourselves, our friends and families. Heal any broken relationships we might have. Forgive us our wilful blindness to suffering and injustice, and make bigger and better in us the love, the empathy, and the generosity that come only from your Holy Spirit. We pray all these things in the wonderful, powerful, and loving name of Jesus Christ, your Son.