a gathering prayer

GATHERING PRAYER (congregational responses in bold)

Gracious loving Father, source of all life,
Source of all love, lover of our life,
We gather conscious of the pain and anger that is yours
at the destruction of your creation
at the dissolution of life
at all that is turned away from you
to fall into nothingness and loss.

Jesus, our brother, Christ, alive in eternal life and still our brother
We pray our thanks for your life poured out into nothingness,
for your life of suffering and of strength
for your life as a spanner in the works of destruction

We pray our thanks for the enormous newness and liberty
That flows from your victory among us and in us.
While our lives were still being knitted together
according to the pattern of Cain
you pulled the thread
and started a new garment of praise to God.

Where the very shape of our identity has been diseased,
Come, Holy Spirit, with healing,
so that at the core of who we are,
you will draw forth a new creation in Jesus the Christ.

bruce hamill 30.6.09