27 Jan 2020

Prayers for the week of Brexit
27 Jan – 2 Feb 2020

Decisions about Brexit have left some feeling elated, others despondent, and many exhausted. Whether we share a majority opinion or champion the voice of a significant minority, we all need to learn to live well together.

During this historic week, we offer prayers for peace, solidarity and understanding. We enter into a future with many questions, but we continue to believe that better relationships can transform our divisions, and that something greater than any of us unites us all.

Monday 27 January 2020

God of compassion and mercy,
We bring to you our divided society and our broken world,
seeking your healing and transforming grace.

It is easy for us to point the finger at others,
yet we know that we all need your forgiveness.
So we lift into your presence today
not only those affected by our decisions
but also those we have separated from ourselves.

Break down the walls of hatred, distrust and bitterness
and open a way for us
to reach one another in truth and love.

Enable us to build a society where all can belong;
where we share our gifts in mutual respect;
and where the stranger can find a welcome.

Through Jesus Christ we pray: Amen.

Tuesday 28 January 2020
A Prayer for Times of Lumpy Crossings*

God of the earth
we were brought to a rocky outcrop,
a place of islands:
Rathlin, Ireland, Britain, Islay, Jura.
The crossings are not wide, but they are deep.

In this in–between place,
this place of lumpy crossings,
we have been formed.

And now we are at a time
where our crossings with each other
are deep, and wide, and fractured:
Britain, Europe, Ireland, Scotland
England, London, Leave, Remain.

May we be sustained by the hope of reconciliation:
may our difficult differences not divide us,
may our encounters with each other be transformative,
may our listening bring understanding,
may our resistance be changed by generosity,
may our love, feeble as it sometimes is, lead to more love.

We ask this
as a people on pilgrimage
towards our deepest vocation,
to be one, as God is one.

Amen.

(*One possible translation of ‘Corrymeela’ is ‘place of lumpy crossings’ – which may refer to the choppy waters off the north coast of Ireland near Rathlin Island.)

Wednesday 29 January 2020

God who unites those who would divide themselves from each other,
the difference between a 51 to 49 result
and that of 49 to 51
may be a single vote.
Yet to be in the minority – whether large or small
can feel like being written off completely.

Remind us that we are not so far apart,
that our differences, while often significant,
need not close us off from one another,
and that our points of disagreement
are not the only points of contact we can share.

Amen.

Thursday 30 January 2020

Lamb of God,
you showed us power by putting it to good use,
revealing your strength by empowering others.

May those who hold power
use it not to secure more power for themselves,
but to strengthen the fainthearted,
support the weak and help the suffering.

And may we, who sometimes feel powerless,
honour those in communities who serve others selflessly,
so that the seduction of serving one’s self
will not hold so much power.

Amen.

Friday 31 January 2020

Eternal and boundless God,

when a clock strikes and a great gong clangs
and a moment becomes symbolic of change,

Remind us that only humans
make sense of life by carving shapeless time
into calendar days and hours and minutes.
Only we impose order by placing borders on a map.

We are still the creatures of an eternal and boundless God,
citizens of a realm without territory,
and companions with one another on a journey without end.

May all our clanging cymbals be resounding calls for love,
the love that remains with hope and faith after all else fades away.

Amen.

Saturday 1 February 2020

God of all nations and no nation,
as we begin to renegotiate treaties and agreements,
and reapportion funds both foreign and domestic,
help us reintroduce ourselves to our neighbours,
near and far – so we can truly meet the people we often talk about.

May the fences we put up and the fences we mend be good for leaning up against,
so we can chat and hear the news and share our separate stories.
And as the talk gets louder with added voices and concern,
May we hear the good news you proclaim of a nation for us all. 

Amen.

Sunday 2 February 

Jesus of Nazareth,
and Britain; and Ireland; and Europe;
and this small plot; this blessed plot;
this new era we are in:
bless us as we sort out where we are,
and who we are, and how we fit together.

After years of argument and anger,
cobbled coalitions and strange bedfellows,
we have separated ourselves in ways that feel more permanent.

Yet the distance between Westminster and Brussels remains 200 miles,
a train to London will leave Union street today from Glasgow Central Station,
the flight from Belfast arrives at Heathrow in just over an hour,
and no one slows down between County Down and County Louth.

Our families and friendships stretch across borders and seas.
And we remain citizens of a boundless realm
where peacemakers are blessed,
the merciful are shown mercy,
and the divine response to human division is unconditional love.

Thank God.
Amen.

To download a Word document with these prayers, see our resources page: https://www.corrymeela.org/resources/faith-life