Pray
For Our Community Continue to pray for all those who work in the NHS and health services, and for those who have the responsibilities of leadership and decision-making.

A prayer for Sunday 15 September

Sun, shining low on the horizon,
warming the shortening autumn days:
gardens and parks become blazes of colour,
trees and earth preparing to rest, rejuvenate,
restore for next year.
We give thanks for a season's gifts,
welcome nourishment for body and soul,
and acknowledge the movement of time
in phases of life and death.

We pray for all those charged with creating change:
change in attitude, understanding, priorities, intent.
For political leaders to hold true to their calling as carers for our world:
that all responsible for environmental decisions can
see beyond immediate economic concerns,
creating a vision for a shared world order,
enabling an environment of hope
and speak for Earth,
for the burden of responsibility to be communal,
and all harmful agendas to be shelved.

We lift up before God, the young,
the vulnerable in every community,
all in positions of trust.
Remembering all who tend earth and animal,
sustaining our existence through food,
and those who nourish our emotional lives,
in friendship, family, companionship, laughter, and joy,
we give thanks.

We honour individuals who have shaped
our patterns and understanding of worship:
Saints, Martyrs and Mystics,
whose insights we value,
whose examples we honour.

We bring silent prayers of our own burdens, both those of love, and those which lie heavily upon our hearts …
We pray for those who have died,
that they may rise to eternal life,
and that we may so live on earth that we are all prepared
for meeting God in our lives.

Amen

(From The Church of Scotland worship materials.)