Prayers of the People - August 22, 2010. by Marion Pope.

Sung Prayer Response: More Voices # 15:
Holy sacred Spirit, breathe your breath on us.
Holy sacred Spirit, breathe your life in us.

Touched by intangible joy!
Set free by your breath!
We join hands with you and each other
to be your song.

Goodness we gladly applaud,
we give thanks for those who grace the world with your justice and compassion,
saints who inspire us to freedom,
teachers who open our minds to learn,
friends who listen with a passion for mutual understanding,
creation which breathes life into our despair and
stories which sing our love songs.
With thanksgiving for the life of Katharine Hockin we join with her in the
Ecumenical prayer, as we pray with the church in Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania.

God is our Mother Father, ordainer, sustainer!
So we affirm – and then claim to be members of a great family – all of God’s people knit in community, sharing the heritage of common parentage: humankind – black and white, brown, yellow and red – all one royal blood!
And yet, and yet – is it so?
We say we are one, yet act with division;
fear and defensiveness rise in our hearts.
And we cannot listen, not really listen,
to what our brothers and sisters are really saying,
we would tell them our message but they cannot hear us.
We would preach the gospel, spread the evangel –
but gospel, evangel are already sharing,
a sharing that communicates, hearer and teller,
telling and hearing in mutual converse.
May we listen, and listen and try with a passion for understanding, to have ears to hear what our sisters and brothers are saying – saying to us and of us.
May we come to our God with honesty and love
and a will to establish a common purpose among us.

Goodness we gladly applaud, be our song.

Sung prayer response  - MV 15

Trusted friend on the road,
May those with whom we pray now
Know you care through the care of others from near and distant places.

You walk with those flooded out of home, school, work, field and sacred places
in Pakistan, China,
with refugees around the world, some seeking a new life in Canada,
with First Nations striving for the integrity of being responsible for their communities,
with Sisters in the Spirit advocating for missing women, and
with others we name, aloud and in silence.

Trusted friend on the road, be our song.

Sung prayer response - MV 15.

Cure of the frightened and flawed,
may those of our communities with whom we pray now
know that you calm our fears, comfort our pain,
will us to wholeness and are our prayer.
Names of Bloor St. United and TSP churches:
and others we name now aloud and in silence.

Cure of the frightened and flawed, be our song.

Sung prayer response - MV 15.

Touched by intangible joy!
Set free by your breath!
We join hands with you and others
to live your song.
Amen.