Loving and gracious God, in the quietness of these moments, speak to our hearts. We come to your house each week to offer our praise and thanksgiving with our words, our songs, our acts of commitment, and affirmations of faith.   We long to know you completely and fully; and yet, we live in a world that pulls us in so many directions, distracting us from our purpose as the Body of Christ. Even this day we remember all our fancy words and acts of service mean nothing if they are not infused and undergirded with love, the kind of love you revealed to us in Jesus Christ.  

God of love and God of power, all our lives belong to you.

Wise and loving God, you have woven your creation together, using your relationship with us and ours with each other to give rich, intricate, and diverse patterns to all of life. We give thanks that you have created us for community, calling us into relationship with one another.  Forgive us for our internal conflict, and for our inability at times to see beyond ourselves. Teach us to love one another, even when we disagree, and to pour our energy into seeking understanding so that we may work toward the good of all your creation. 

God of love and God of power, all our lives belong to you.

Lord, you call caregivers to serve, and you give gifts to make their service possible. We thank you today for the willing and gifted hands and hearts in our Stephen Ministry. Thank you for our Stephen Leaders, who gladly serve to keep our Stephen Ministry flourishing. Thank you for our Stephen Ministers, who faithfully meet with their care receivers, extending the care of Christ to those who need it most. Thank you also for the support of our pastors and staff, and for all those who keep this ministry growing in our congregation. 

God of love and God of power, all our lives belong to you.

And because you have blessed our community here at Church Street, we who depend upon your love, mercy, and grace bring to you these prayers offered by our brothers and sisters in Christ: 

• Celebrating successful February 2nd surgery
• Gratitude for prayers: A transplant donor has been found
• Appreciation for all church volunteers
• Member grateful for negative cancer scan
• Thanksgiving for all who are being called to join our church
• Gratitude: all who have generously pledged for 2022 church ministries
• Prayers for wife and mother recovering from February 2 surgery
• Healing for one in ICU, Covid complications
• One asks for prayers for her Sunday School class
• Prayers for recovery: Church families affected by Covid
• Comfort for widower who recently moved to assisted living
• Dear family friend with cancer, that a route to healing may be found
• Two couples who are adjusting to health challenges at home 
• Continued prayers for two members in cancer treatment
• Strength and comfort for family: Cousin died of a stroke last week
• Continued prayers: Ill adult daughter, severe effects of Covid 
• Comfort for families of three church members who died last week
• God’s presence with an uncle who is aging and infirm
• Courage for brother in military who may be deployed to Ukraine

We are truly blessed as a congregation to have a multi-layered system of care, making it possible to serve the needs of all people. We give you thanks for the vision and wisdom of those who breathed life into each of these ministries – Congregational Care, Parish Health Team, and Benevolence Team – and for all who continue to make these ministries a vital part of our mission. May we never become complacent, thinking there is no need to expand our understandings of your longings for your creation. Surprise us with new visions, and give us the courage to follow the path you set before us, trusting that Christ is alive and goes before us to show and share what love can do.  

God of love and God of power, all our lives belong to you.

Remind us, O God, that, as we move in the world, though scattered, we remain the Church, the Body of Christ in action. Let us be workers together with you, performing deeds of mercy and kindness, and giving evidence of Christ’s love in all that we do, for it is in his name that we offer our prayer…….

Our Father who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name. Thy kingdom come, thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread and forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us. And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil, for thine is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory forever. Amen.

Loving and gracious God – we come today in praise and thanksgiving for you – the creator all good things. We remember that when you spoke the earth into being, you declared it good. As we stand on your earth and look up to the heavens and peer over vast waters and dig in the earth may we join in the chorus of, “It is good!” O God forgive us when we treat creation – your creation – as something disposable for our use. We confess we forget you called us to be stewards and not simply users of water, air, land, and space. Stir up in us a new commitment to work together to care about creation as an extension of our own bodies.      

God of all creation, make us one in the body of Christ.

O God who knit us together in our mother’s wombs, we are fearfully and wonderfully made. Forgive us when we turn to advertisers and celebrities for images of what we should look like. Forgive us when we are ashamed of our bodies; instead, may we take care of ourselves and know that you desire good health for all people. Give us a new vocabulary of wholeness and beauty; forgive us when we describe ourselves or others solely in terms of how we look or how we do not measure up. May we see each other’s bodies as sacred gifts and honor one another with respect, for you have created us in your image. May we see your grace in each other.  

God of all creation, make us one in the body of Christ.

We thank you for the gift of your church and all the different ways the body of Church Street expresses itself. In each church there are members working together to proclaim your reconciling word and do your reconciling word; therefore we pray for all churches in our city and for all United Methodist churches, that our hearts may remain in communion with all, that that our voices might truly be pleasing to you as one song.   

God of all creation, make us one in the body of Christ.

God of All Creation, we feel you moving within us and around us, opening doors, tending us in our woundedness, and binding us together in love. In that spirit of togetherness, we lay before you the most recent celebrations and concerns of our community of faith.  As you wish the best for us, we leave all in your caring hands:

• Thanksgiving for prayers: Infant in ICU now breathing on his own
• Thankful for prayers: Safe travel to & from Houston & promising medical test results
• Gratitude: Cousin in Florida overcoming severe Covid complications
• Father grateful for prayers: has found a wonderful caregiver
• Grateful daughter in rehab center is improving
• Thanksgiving for meaningful weekend retreat for our Youth
• Husband feeling prayer support during his divorce
• Prayers answered: A house has sold
• Gratitude: a father is much-improved following long Covid struggle
• Thankful that meds are helping a member with memory loss
• Prayers appreciated for a friend who died peacefully this week 
• Gratitude for Church Street clergy who work with joyful professionalism
• Prayers for a wife, mother, and community volunteer, for her safe & successful surgery on February 2
• Healing for all church members suffering with Covid
• Wisdom and guidance for one unsure of the future
• Healing prayers for sons whose father died last weekend
• Young woman in need of a transplant, for a donor to be found
• Guidance for wife whose husband has memory loss 
• Continued prayers for two members in cancer treatment
• Prayers for cousin on life support following a stroke
• Comfort and direction for all in mourning
• Continued prayers: Ill adult daughter, severe effects of Covid 
• Comfort for family of church member who died today
• God’s work within family – three youngsters whose father died recently

We offer this prayer in a spirit of unity – acknowledging that we all have differences that you call good, and that your love draws us into one spirit and one purpose. We pray in the name of Jesus Christ whose life, death, and resurrection makes us one and who taught us to pray…

Our Father who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name. Thy kingdom come, thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread and forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us. And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil, for thine is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory forever. Amen.

Welcoming One, we can imagine you now in our mind’s eye, with your arms outstretched, bidding us draw close.  You must know quite well how  overwhelmed and vulnerable we feel.  The pandemic continues to unfold around the globe and the media churns out unrelenting stories of instability and discontent.  Even though your mercies have brought us through more than a year of dread, we are still rattled.  We peer out the window at the same world, yet it seems a strangely unfamiliar place.  Ah, but then our eyes fix on those stately trees that have withstood both storm and drought, as if they possessed some secret power.  It is no secret, though, for far beneath their leafy grandeur and textured skin breathes a labyrinth of roots, a network securely embedded deep within the earth.  Tighten our hold on you, O Faith that Never Fails, that we might also withstand the torrents of the time in which we live.  Make our grasp firm and stable, we pray, till we also stand as resilient witnesses of our faith in you. 

Welcoming God, we praise you.

In your mercy and wisdom, you have held the life of this world as a parent holds a beloved child, always wishing the best for us; indeed, it was you who formed us and the earth which nourishes and sustains us.  By calling us into a community of believers, and by endowing us with talents for building up your kingdom, you have multiplied and extended our own strength. Help us acknowledge the gifts you have planted within us, Lord, that we might labor together for your purpose and your glory always.

Empowering God, we praise you.

How grateful we remain for the hearts infused by love that are beating every day throughout the world, near and far.  We gaze in wonder at those who face real dangers in taking your word to forgotten territories, who tenderly care for the ill and the dying, for those who live sacrificially that others may have their needs met, for those who stand true to your calling.  They are as trees in our midst, whose roots hold steady and whose acts rise ever heavenward. We thank you for these noble disciples who live out their faith in such varied, but mostly unheralded ways.

Calling and Confirming God, we praise you.

And as Jesus always reminded us of your loving concern, on behalf of your people in our church family, we extend these praises and prayers:

• Two express gratitude for support from our Parish Health Team
• Aunt gives thanks for safe birth of twin nephews on Tuesday
• Three grateful for recovery from Covid
• Gratitude for work of our Covid Task Force 
• Family celebrates birth of healthy son on January 8
• Prayers appreciated, hospitalized mother is improving 
• Brain surgery was successful, tumor benign
• Family grateful for holiday visit with adult children
• God’s grace and comfort for family, sudden death of young father
• Three members whose parents died during the holidays
•  Healing grief for husband experiencing a divorce
• Premature nephew in ICU, prayers for his survival
• Prayers for one having a driving test on Tuesday
• Grieving family: Niece killed, leaving two young children
• Healing prayers for three brave women in cancer treatment
• A niece’s husband nearing death, that it may be peaceful 
• Member with ALS, strength for wife, sole caregiver
• Two members with severe vision impairment and neuropathy
• Husband with memory loss, courage for wife
• Healing for mother recovering from bladder surgery
• Beloved daughter with Covid complications, for healing
• Guidance for wife, caregiver of husband with Parkinson’s
• Healing of friend recovering from serious accident
• Continued recovery from ankle injury 
• College-age grandson battling depression, now outpatient
• Wisdom, guidance for young single mother with 3 children
• A father in hospice care, his sons who are grieving
• Healing prayers for an alcoholic
• Two suffering from depression and Parkinson’s-related illness 
• Safe delivery of first grandchild on Friday

Caring God, hear our prayer.

Keeper of All Our Hours, thank you for receiving our prayers and for forgiving us when we fail to notice the ways you are moving in our world.  We confess that we do quake when bad new spins, though your grace remains sufficient. May the blessings you have brought us come to mind even before our heads rest upon our pillows this night. And then, may our eyes be opened in new ways tomorrow, that we might behold your stirring around us and within us.  In the name of the One who remains our refuge in every era, we offer these prayers:

Our Father who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name. Thy kingdom come, thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread and forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us. And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil, for thine is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory forever. Amen.