Dear Heavenly Father,
Thank you for the privilege of meeting without fear, praying without danger and openly teaching and learning about you. Thank you for a thousand years of Christian tradition in this nation, and all the good that has been done in your name. Thank you for all the individuals and groups who have championed justice and goodness in your name. Thank you for those who continue to do so. Thank you for all the ideas of justice and liberty and compassion and goodness that permeate our language and literature.
Looking around at the world, we see many things to disturb us. There are wars in many places. There is poverty and oppression. Children are trafficked. Women are abused. People with any kind of difference from the accepted standards are bullied. There is flooding and there are earthquakes and there is disease and hunger and fear. Lord, spread your kingdom. Bless and prosper all those individuals and communities who are trying to bring light and hope. Protect the planet. Keep global warming within safe limits. Save and secure this beautiful, delicately balanced planet so that future generations can live here and thrive.
Looking at our nation, we are amazed and dismayed by the situations we are seeing week by week. Restore us, Lord. Give us leaders, in government and in business, who have dignity and true stateliness, wisdom and generosity, strength and compassion. Please transform us into a nation that feeds the hungry, educates everyone, protects the vulnerable, and facilitates co-operation both at home and abroad.
And here in Birmingham, Father God, as we anticipate the Commonwealth Games and all the excitement and business and inconvenience and opportunity they will bring, may we be inspired by all that’s finest and best in sport and international competition. May we in and around Bournville make sure that the lonely are befriended, the sick treated, the homeless sheltered, the hungry fed and the oppressed released. Please show us how we can look after one another this week and begin the change that our nation so badly needs. We pray that people looking at Rowheath and its people this week would be intrigued and attracted as people were long ago when they saw your earliest followers. We definitely can’t do that just by trying to be good. We need your Holy Spirit poured out in decadent quantity for such a change to take place.
Please send your spirit to transform us and our community.
Amen.