Month: June 2020

These are the intercessions we prayed during last week’s Zoom Evening Prayer:

The response to the words „Lord in your mercy“ is „Hear our Prayer“

Dear Lord,

This year, because of  Corona, we have been given the opportunity, and the time, to examine the way we live and to face up to the fact that we have not been wise in our use of the world You gave into our care. Forgive us our arrogance and selfishness and show us how we must change so that we respect the delicate balance of nature and cease to destroy people, animals and other life forms through our thoughtless and insatiable consumption. 

Help us to combat the suffering caused by climate change where this is possible.

We ask You to strengthen the church in a century when Christians are often considered to be hopelessly out of date and irrelevant. We ask Your blessing in particular on those who are persecuted for  their faith. 

Father God, we thank you for the peace and prosperity we enjoy here in Germany. Send Your Spirit  to inspire us to share generously. May we help,  with humility, to bring about  justice and prosperity in all nations. Let us cease to see those from other countries as foreigners but as Your children and our brothers and sisters. Help us to escape the prison of outlived traditions and old prejudices which make us unable to move forward along your path.

Father, have mercy on us in our fight against the Corona virus. We thank you for the work of scientists seeking a cure and  a vaccine. Grant them success Lord. Bless those suffering from Covid 19, relieve their pain and fear and save them from death. Be with  the people in those countries which are most badly affected and with all those doing their best to help.

We pray for our church of St thomas à Becket, hoping  that the outcome of this sad period of closure  will help us to live even more faithfully according to the laws of love Your Son’s life showed us. Help us to be an encouragement to those in need.     We thank You for the peace you give us to comfort and strengthen us  in difficult times. We ask for your guidance for our Bishops Robert and David, Leslie our Archdeacon ,John Newsome our Dean.and for Father Pete our locum.  We trust in You to call us a new priest in Your good time.

We are grateful for the tireless enthusiasm and hard work of our Wardens and the Church Council.  and for the chance, in this time of trial, to get  to know and appreciate each other more despite the fact that our meetings are mostly online or on the phone.Lord be with those who are very much on our minds, our families and friends, those living and those gone before us.  We bring them before You in a moment of silence.

Merciful Father, accept these prayers for the sake of Your Son our Saviour Jesus Christ

These are the intercessions we prayed during last week’s Zoom Evening Prayer:

Almighty and everlasting God, we ask you blessing on all those, whoever and wherever they may be, fighting to contain and conquer Covid-19. We ask you to give wisdom and a sense of responsibility to all those in authority, and to enable them to fully harness the skills of all medical and scientific staff involved.

Lord, in your mercy

Hear our prayer

Father, we thank you for bringing us together and we ask you blessing on our Bishops, Robert and David, Archdeacon Leslie and our Area Dean, John Newsome, and sister churches in the Diocese of Europe, but also on churches here in Hamburg that like the nearby ‘Michel’ are facing serious losses due to falls in visitor numbers.

Lord, in your mercy

Hear our prayer

Father, we pray that the struggle against this plague, like the one against cholera in Hamburg, may eventually bring lasting benefits for the existences and the health of your peoples around the globe, in the Eastern and Western, Southern and Northern hemispheres alike. Help those fighting to eliminate hunger that in the words of one reading this week, ‘the valleys may be so thick with corn that they laugh and sing’. Be with all those in the arts, hospitality and travel sector whose livelihoods are under such pressure.

Lord, in your mercy

Hear our prayer

Father, we remember all those confined in institutions, in prisons and hospitals and care homes. Keep alive in them a spirit pg hope that relief will come when it is safe.

Lord, in your mercy

Hear our prayer

Father, we thank you for the gifts of sight and hearing and movement, we ask you to be with all those who, for age or other reasons, are contending with problems in those areas. We thank you for the variety of quite recent inventions to alleviate the problems, and also for all the equipment that
can bring worship, music and drama and news right into our homes.

Lord, in your mercy

Hear our prayer

Father, we thank you for bringing us together this evening and we give thanks for Fr Pete and all those making our Friday and Sunday gatherings possible. Yesterday was the feast of St Barnabas, known as the son of encouragement, so help us all to spread a gospel of love, joy, peace, patience
and humility.

Lord, in your mercy

Hear our prayer

Then participants were invited to share their own prayers if they wished to do so.