August Prayers | For the Church
GREETINGS, FRIENDS!
Our relationship with the church has been challenged and stretched greatly during the pandemic. Some have found comfort and support, others have slowly slipped away. As we prepare to enter back into more regular and in-person rhythms, let us pray for our churches, that they could be a unified and powerful witness to the radically restorative love of Jesus.
John 17: 20-23 (NIV) “My prayer is not for them alone. I pray also for those who will believe in me through their message, 21that all of them may be one, Father, just as you are in me and I am in you. May they also be in us so that the world may believe that you have sent me. 22I have given them the glory that you gave me, that they may be one as we are one— 23I in them and you in me—so that they may be brought to complete unity. Then the world will know that you sent me and have loved them even as you have loved me.
Let your continual mercy, O Lord, cleanse and defend your Church; and, because it cannot continue in safety without your help, protect and govern it always by your goodness; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.
(Prayer for the Church from the common lectionary).
Some resources for church unity and renewal:
Essential Partners - These are our friends out of Cambridge, MA helping us with our new Deeper Dialogues initiative. “For three decades, Essential Partners has invested faith leaders and community members with the tools to address polarizing conflicts. [Their] approach has been proven to generate trust, understanding, and connection across unbridgeable differences."
The Living Church - TLC is a corporation governed by members of the Episcopal Church and Anglican Communion seeking to champion the catholic and evangelical faith of the one Church and to hasten the visible unity of all Christians. TLC publishes The Living Church magazine, in continuous publication since 1878.
Christian Community Development Association - An ecumenical association of churches and ministries to inspire, train, and connect Christians who seek to bear witness to the Kingdom of God by reclaiming and restoring under-resourced communities.