Prayers for Diakonia

Prayers for Diakonia

DUCC-logo-no-background-height-900-px-199x300This week Ted, Ann, and Maylanne are at the national gathering of the diakonia of the United Church of Canada (DUCC).  Seems like a good time to share some prayers written by the recently graduated students of the Centre during a diaconal formation session in their Integrating Year:

Prayers For Diakonia

Creator, we give thanks for:

the fellowship of kindred souls…
perseverance in the midst of empire…
constant possibilities of turning towards your transforming presence in community
the love, care, strength, encouragement and gifts of precious time by all those who have gone before us…
those who have travelled with us to this point, alongside, in tandem, as lights up ahead, and live out a ministry woven with our own…
the Spirit of wisdom that blew over the waters of creation, that calls us into relationship with all my relations…
the expanding and expansive vision that glimmers at the edge of what we see in the world…

Amen

(Prayers written while reflecting on Global Perspectives Experience trips to Nicaragua, Venezuela, Egypt, Israel, and the Palestinian territories…)

Compassionate sustenance – God of all
we give thanks for turning
turn us toward all creation
open us to the many faces of God
We pray for all who do not have the freedom to travel and those who can not.
for all who are oppressed.
for all who struggle to feed their families,
for all who are trapped in oppressive structures
May peace be known by all.

God of multiple communities,
thank you for walking with us upside down and backwards,
to have the privilege of mobility that brings us to the places of transformation
in acts of solidarity and deep listening and experience.
Help us to hold in our hearts the expansiveness of your vision
that may look very different from the vision we think is being enacted.
As we are broken open,
may we connect with the brokenness, the movement,
and complications of those we encounter in the world. Amen.

We hold close to our hearts the sacred stories of the people we have encountered.
We give thanks.
We remember the faces we have seen.
We give thanks.
We treasure the lands all people call home.
We give thanks.
We are grateful of all the opportunities for deep listening and learning.
We give thanks.
Amen.