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Prayers for Community in a Time of Pandemic

13 Mar 2020

The exceptional measures of social distancing during lockdown revealed the ongoing need we have as humans to be in community. 

The world needs community like never before. In that spirit, we offer this series of prayers. 

(The entire collection of Prayers for Community in a Time of Pandemic is found here.)

24 May 2021

God in our courage, God in our caution: on this beautiful day may we greet each other as companions on a shared journey. We acknowledge what we and others have carried: gratitude and sadness, excitement and anxiety; private struggles and collective hopes. As we take this next step forward, may we do so in the knowledge that we do not walk alone. 

Amen.

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21–23 May 2021

God with communities locked down, God with communities opened up: those first believers in resurrection gathered in fear behind closed doors, until a spirit of fire and connection, tongues of everyday language(Pentecost courage)came to be a part of who we are. Emerging from our fears, may we find words for the message we have to share. And may we gather separated people together in wonder of the good news this courage will spread.

Amen.

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20 May 2021

God with us as we make courageous choices, God with us when we need more courage: may we be filled this Pentecost with your Spirit to stand up and speak out; to make a better future for friends and strangers, for neighbours and enemies. May the grace we receive inspire new life so our message of hope out–voices our fears. 

Amen.

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19 May 2021

God of carefully chosen words, God of unfinished truth telling: be with us as we do the work of talking with ourselves. Before we go out to address a conflict or offer peace, or seek reconciliation, may we engage in an inner conversation of challenge and honesty, deep in a private humanity we discover we share. 

Amen.

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18 May 2021

God in deepening relationships, God in continuing conversation: may we welcome each other with courage, knowing that being together changes who we are. We pray that through respectful relationships we transform the imbalances of power to allow each one of us to fully belong. And may it be that inholding silence and in listening well to each other, we hear your voice in the midst of us. 

Amen.

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17 May 2021

God of victims and survivors, God who helps us hold our grief: our mourning and our trauma will take its own time. Some fifty–year wounds will still feel raw; and emptiness is not something that simply fades away. May we be part of a community that helps recover truth and supports families as they seek wellbeing. May we respond to pain with kindness, with therapy, and with advocacy, so that as our grief continues, our hope lives on.

Amen.

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14–16 May 2021

God in the question of who is my neighbour; God in the question of how close we might be: may our love for you be known in our love for strangers. And may our faith in you be found in the search for beauty and truth outside of what we call our own.

Amen.

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13 May 2021 

God in the agendas we set, God in the habits we keep: often the important is obscured by the urgent and our attention is spent on the crisis at hand. Remind us that the ongoing work of peace and justice remains essential. Our tending to relationships in society and in everyday encounters, our care and empathy, is the message of reconciliation that remains the priority of your people. Remind us that this good news is always more than AOB.

Amen.

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12 May 2021 

God in the Gospel according to Mark; God in good news we’re unsure how to share: the story of your reign speaks truth to our violence and forces us to struggle with the uses of human power: to include or exclude; to speak or keep silent; to bind or release; to obey or resist; to follow or flee. Be with us, crucified Christ, as we wrestle with fears; as we wonder without certainty but with faith. 

Amen.

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11 May 2021

God of creative thinking, God of win–win solutions: be with us in the seriousness of our disputes, and in the possibility of outcomes that resolve problems without picking a side, without going to court, without turning to violence. May there be power in our intervention, in our listening, in our empathy, and in our desire to find a path that leads us all to a better place. 

Amen.

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10 May 2021

God in the earth that can soften hard stone; God in the love that can soften our hearts: a rock we pick up and hold in our hand shows we can weaponise anything. Yet the same rock put down or put to good use shows another outcome is possible. May the weight of the stone we feel in our hands bring the load of that burden to mind, and may its release as we lay it aside bring softness to the roughness we hold.

Amen.

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7–9 May 2021

God who can be found in our peace; God who can be found in our conflict: to be human means to disagree; to have difference experiences and different needs. The more we understand our conflicts, the more we understand each other. So bless us as we deal honestly with our divisions so that we can find your peace together rather than impose our own. 

Amen.

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6 May 2021

God in our dearest friendships, God in the first moments that create lasting friendships: each of the bonds we cherish most began with newness and unfamiliarity. So may we approach each new encounter with hope. May we trust our ability to overcome first impressions; our power to lean in with curiosity; and the sense that we can become even more of ourselves in friendships we have yet to begin.

Amen.

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5 May 2021 

God of courageous hellos, God of grace–filled responses: as we emerge from behind these masks and find ourselves in the company of people we hardly know but with whom we share the story of a year, may we, with proper pacing and spacing, make and remake connections that last, even those that start with a fleeting exchange of passing and hurried hellos.

Amen.

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4 May 2021

God in the midst of good books and good chats; God in the swapping of ideas and what ifs: it’s the connection we’re after, the a–ha moment we know others will have. Sometimes we need someone else’s keen eye to see what is on the page right before us. Whether in person or online, in a group of ten or just two, be with us as we create within separate imaginations a story we unfold as we share.

Amen.

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3 May 2021

God of victims, God of offenders, God of communities with justice: may your restoring power be at work in our work of repair. Be with us as we name harms, as we hear grief, as we reach a place we agree holds truth. And be with us then as we replace our impulse for retribution or vengeance with a desire for restoration, with a new sense of what power is for. 

Amen.

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30 April – 2 May 2021

God of the people who serve, God of the power we share: in representative governments, we ourselves are responsible for what is done in our name. And so we pray for those who, holding the power we give them, have stood against violence and stood with and beside those who are vulnerable. May they and we know that what is right may require courage, but is accompanied by the resolve of your people; by an unworldly power that holds firm and secure. 

Amen.

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29 April 2021

God of neighbours you call us to love, God of neighbours we know only as strangers: the knitting together of our frayed social fabric starts with threads close to home. From door to door may we stitch a society of friendly exchanges, of glances that become real hellos. In a shared cup of sugar, or the lending of hands, may we make the connections and widen the circles that let more and more know love is near. 

Amen.

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28 April 2021

God who sees our invisible scars, God who helps heal hidden wounds: many of us carry pain stored not in tissue, but in memories; held there by coping mechanisms that keep us carrying on. May we in our interactions be gentle and respectful, showing dignity to each other. And may our inner strength and others’ outer grace meet at the point of need to apply the balm our souls still seek, the relief you help us find. 

Amen.

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27 April 2021

God in small heroic acts; God in the courage to stand up and speak out and lean in: big moments happen every day. Little gestures and simple acts of kindness can make the difference to the person not left alone; to the wrong not left unchallenged; to the hate not left to spread. Instead of getting up and turning away, may our impulse be to stand up so we can turn this silent societal shrug of ours into acts of collective civic courage. 

Amen.

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26 April 2021

God of those we consider a sect, God of those we consider a threat: we can slip into thinking that those who are different are not simply different but wrong or dangerous simply because they are not us. May our differences display a diversity of beauty rather than a danger of division. And may we rise together to see that because you and I are different, there is something to celebrate in what is not me. 

Amen.

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23–25 April 2021

God of those we call enemies, God in prayers we mean to pray: nothing in life or in death can separate us from your love. Your divine love. Your human love. Your divinely human love. May it be that nothing in life or in death will separate us from the humanity we share with others. With our enemies. Even when we cannot live together, may we remain connected by prayers offered for fellow humans, for those you continue to love.

Amen.

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22 April 2021

God of old acquaintances, God of renewed friendships: we pray for peace on a grand scale, for breakthroughs through negotiation, for brokered talks and systemic change;
but we know that peace comes also in the hand–written note, the courage to pick up the phone, the long–awaited acknowledgment of an unintended harm. May we attend to these little wounds so that in their healing we may discover the joy and power of reconnection.

 
Amen.

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21 April 2021

God who is never enshrined by one culture; God who lives in the exhibition of community: lead us to hear your voice in the stories and values of others. Help us to trust that exposure to different narratives will not distance us from you, but can bring us closer to a truth you help to write in lives we don’t yet know. 

Amen.

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20 April 2021

God who forgives us, God whose forgiveness leads us back into relationship: with the grace we have received from you, let us work to mend what forgiveness makes possible. May we stress not a desire to be proved right, but a desire to make right what still needs forgiven.

Amen.

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19 April 2021

God in stories told without words, God in pictures that move us: we consume images all day long. Our wide–awake hours have become like a dream: with a constant stream of the real and surreal merging into our experience. But we can still control this diet. We determine the large portion of what we see. So may we fill our minds with scenes envisioning peace. And may we project real lives of kindness, visible with and without our words.

Amen.

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16–18 April 2021

God who calls us to visit the imprisoned, God who frees us from the prisons we form: reconciliation assumes a new relationship with those we kept away. Give us courage to believe in rehabilitation: not just in others; but in ourselves. May we be part of the restoration your grace makes possible. Free us from the lie we tell that people cannot change, the cell we form around ourselves when we say we can’t be moved.

Amen.

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15 April 2021

God who helps us control our appetites; God of the righteousness we should be hungrier for: you know we are creatures whose minds and bodies, emotions and behaviours are deeply interconnected. Help us to listen to the wisdom beyond our rationality. Help us to connect our own basic needs to the needs of others, so we long for what is right and work for what is shared.

Amen.

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14 April 2021 

God in our private prayers, God in our corporate worship: we give thanks that the work of bringing before you our best and bringing out our better selves is not something we have to do alone. We can attend to the divisions of which we are a part by setting them before you; by naming and acknowledging together our hatred and our violence. In so doing, may we magnify the love and peace you name as worthy of our devotion. 

Amen.

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13 April 2021

God in the fist we relax open, God in the release that comes when we look ourselves square in the mirror: we confess that violence is not someone else’s problem, something we can lock away or hold back behind a wall far away from our innocence. We confess the hurt we ourselves have caused with words, with neglect, with held grudges and withheld love. Help us recognise the stone we carry before we scold others for what they may throw. 

Amen.

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12 April 2021

God of the change that begins from within, God of the difference that starts with our learning: Turn our discomfort and our impulse to look away into curiosity: drawing us in safely, leading us into better questions, replacing our assumptions with deeper understanding. And then may we see a change in ourselves and in how this story may play out. 

Amen. 

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9–11 April 2021

God whose voice brings new life, God whose song recreates our world: when the news discourages and the scene before us is one we wish we could turn off, may we close our eyes and listen. May the sounds you bring to our ears and the landscape we create within ourselves through music and rhythm and song calm us when we need calmed, inspire us when we need inspiration, and encourage us to live for others whenever we need new courage. 

Amen. 

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8 April 2021 

God of where an old church stood, God in the spring that christens this field: we pray for those whose frustration becomes anger and violence. We pray for those whose work it is to convince the hope–starved that we are close to something better. We pray for peace. We pray that in the space between the old ways we thought were gone and the new life still possible, that you would stand with those who stand for peace. And hope. And a future marked by what we share rather than what divides us.

Amen.

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7 April 2021 God of the places we know and love best, God of the places we’ve yet to discover: so much of what we think derives from what we see; and so much of what we see derives from where we sit. Give us courage to move from well–worn cushions and dug–in positions. Give us foresight to believe that the view from there is just as illuminating as the one here: a sacred spot where we will see more in this world. 

Amen.

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6 April 2021

God of the story we need to tell, God of the story we need to hear: if we only hear from one side, we fail to hear the fullness of your voice, spoken through the lives of people we think we know but to whom we have not listened. Give us courage to open our minds and hearts by opening our eyes and our ears to stories you are waiting to tell us, to stories that are already here. 

Amen.

5 April 2021

God of the courage that comes from the heart; God of the journey that starts from within: we pray that this small step we take today will lead us from our tomb and along a path of solidarity and peace. As we come to you in prayer as pilgrims in the dark may your fiery, contagious spirit resurrect a hope–filled life so that we might be your people with new courage in our heart. 

Amen.

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4 April 2021

A prayer for Easter morning:

God of unbounded joy, God of undying love: women went to a tomb to tend to the crucified dead. They came back the first preachers of resurrection. As we come back from this tomb of grief and begin to live again, may we proclaim with unbridled joy what the world is dying to hear: that death is not the end; that love remains what is most divine; and that God continues to live in the beating heart of our humanity. 

Amen. 

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3 April 2021

A prayer for Holy Saturday

God of grieving, God of silence, there is a strange gift in having time, one whole day this holy week, to sit with questions of why and how long and to hear no response at all. To rush from Friday to Sunday, from death to resurrection, wouldn’t do either justice. Nor would it dignify the life of those whose daily pain and grief and constant pleas for justice go unanswered in the world’s daily rhythm. Let your silence fill this silence, until our empty noise dies out. 

Amen.

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2 April 2021

A prayer for Good Friday.

God of the crowds crying, ‘crucify!’ God on the cross crying, ‘forgive them’: by doing and not doing, we have repeated that Friday scene in countless ways, in countless places, to countless sons and daughters. We know not what we do even when we know too well. We are now facing death in a new way. And human frailty. And human need. And human solidarity. Perhaps as we begin to see as you see the reality of who we are, we can finally begin to love as you love, answer compassionately the cries we hear, and be able to forgive, ourselves. 

Amen

1 April 2021

A prayer for Maundy Thursday.

God who washes our feet, God who commands us to love: before the prayers in the garden, and the stations of the cross; before the tomb and the spices and the stone they put in place, there was this moment when you showed us what it meant to be divine. May we not forget that the power to defeat death was not what you wanted us to imitate. It was to lay aside all other things and to love. 

Amen.

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31 March 2021

For the Wednesday before Easter:

God of the shared bread and the common purse, You broke bread with those who broke your trust and took more than they needed for themselves. You still do. May our shared response to a common threat lead us each to reconsider what we need and what we want, and how we divide what we have. Break who we are so that we can be more for others.

Amen

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30 March 2021

For the Tuesday before Easter:

God of the fallen grain, God of the children of light: it was in your being broken down that you were lifted up. It is in releasing our lives to others that we bear your lasting truth. As we head further into this week, a community dispersed, may our relinquishing of self, and our selfless love for others broadcast wide the great good news that even in death there is glorious new life, and that darkness will not overcome it. 

Amen.

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29 March 2021

For the Monday before Easter:

God of Lazarus and God of Judas, your great love raises the dead, and condemns what is wrong in this life. During this holiest of weeks we see hatred and brokenness, and hypocrisy; but also beauty, and mercy and undying love. Your death made clear what must come to an end: our fear, our waste, our selfishness. Yet we rejoice that in this dying lies our rebirth and that you will bring the world, and all the grace–filled good in us, back to life. 

Amen.

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Earlier prayers are available via these links and on our resources page.

Prayers from March to Easter 2020

Prayers from Easter through Pentecost 2020:

Prayers from June to mid–September 2020

Prayers from September to December 2020

Prayers from New Year’s Day to Holy Week 2021

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Prayers for Community in a Time of Pandemic

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