Bringing Brexit into the Church - Intercessions.

Prayer of Intercession

Our Father, your kingdom come,Your will be done on earth, as it is in heaven. You have called us in all our life together, to seek first the Kingdom of God and your righteousness.

We pray for our country, this place where we live, and where so much that is important in our shared life is under threat, and we seem to be stuck in a mess of our own making.

Brexit has made us stressed and angry, afraid and divided. We have strong opinions and not enough understanding; we take sides, point fingers of blame, refuse to listen to others and shout all the louder ourselves. God, forgive us.

We pray for our Parliament, and all those we have elected and appointed to represent the interests of our country and our people. Father that is one of our greatest fears – we are starting to choose who are our people. We use words like LEAVE and REMAIN as slogans and insults. We use phrases like ‘enemies of the people’, ‘no surrender’, ‘disaster capitalism’ ‘do or die’ as if we are at war with ourselves.

We pray that you will give wisdom and humility to those who have power; undermine the pride and arrogance that often closes off good ways forward; enable those who speak for us to do so with truth and integrity, and to refuse acceptance of lies as if the truth doesn’t matter.

God of the nations, our country must make far reaching decisions soon. Guide and direct us into the paths of peace; stem the flow of invective and hostility; bring minds together to find understanding and a way ahead that enables justice, the common good, and care for each other. Our continent has known terrible wars, and these past 75 years we have lived peaceably and constructively. Whatever the outcomes of these next weeks, may we find ways of living in friendship as partners rather than as competitors and rivals.

 

Father, in times of crisis and anxiety your prophets spoke words of comfort and truth. May we hear and obey their words, and make those words our prayers in these next weeks:

In our hearts, and in all places of power and decision-making, "Let justice roll down like waters, and righteousness like an ever rolling stream."

In our prayers for ourselves and for all who exercise power on our behalf, may we and they hear your command, "Seek the welfare of the city where I have sent you into exile, and pray to the Lord on its behalf, for in its welfare you will find your welfare."

Eternal God, remind us, because we forget far too easily in the heat of argument and in our determination to get our own way; You have shown every one of us what is good, and what it is that you the Lord requires of us, "to act justly, and to love mercy and to walk humbly with our God."

Teach us once again as a nation to be a place of welcome and refuge for others; lead us as a people to a new understanding of our place among the nations; bring us to repentance and changed ways; give us hearts less selfish and more generous, less afraid of others and more welcoming to each new stranger; give us minds less angry and more peaceable; show us how to turn down the volume of our own shouting and so to listen more carefully to what others say, and think, and feel; give us courage and wisdom to be impatient with lies and defenders of truth.

Forgive our own part in the divisiveness, by ways we speak, or treat others, or refuse to listen to those we disagree with; forgive the faintness of our light and the lost savour of our salt; make us peacemakers and seekers of justice; fill us with passion for a society where people are safe, where compassion is on the increase, where we learn again the joy of kindness, and in which we walk the way of Jesus with arms open in welcome to the stranger, hands reaching out to the hurting, and feet walking in the narrow ways of loving God and neighbour for Jesus’ sake,

Amen

Comments

[ANGELA ALMOND]

Amen!

[Bill Jones]

We Christ-followers in America would do well to echo your words for our own country. Both of our countries are terribly divided right now, as is the Church. Thank you for your grace and wisdom.