Sunday, November 17, 2013
Offered by Calum I. MacLeod, Executive Associate Pastor

O God, our help in ages past,
we give thanks and praise
for your constant love and abiding presence
in our hearts and in our community.

Our thoughts hearken back today
as we celebrate the first anniversary
of the dedication of our new building, the Gratz Center.
We give thanks for the positive ways it has impacted our ministry
to the congregation and community.
We give thanks for the beauty and grandeur of our church.
We remember those in the past whose faith formed the foundation
on which this church was built, O Lord.
Receive our prayer that you would continue to fill this house
with the radiance of your presence,
that it may be a sanctuary for all people:
a place of strength for the weak,
of refuge for the troubled,
and a place where the worship and service
of your faithful people here on earth
is caught up in the worship and service of heaven.

And in giving thanks for your church in this place, O God,
we pray for the church throughout the world,
that it would be the bright lamp of faith,
true to your calling as God’s own people.
Where the church is persecuted, Lord, bring deliverance;
where it is divided, bring healing;
where it sides with the powerful, challenge it;
where it cares for the poorest, bless it.

We pray for the world, for the people of Syria and Iraq,
Afghanistan and the Philippines, all places which know strife.
Inspire the nations to work for peace and disaster relief.

O Christ the Master Carpenter,
be our architect and foreman and colleague,
that we might be fellow-workers
in the construction of your kingdom.
May we build homes for the homeless,
bring hope to the hopeless,
create community for the lonely,
construct a place of sharing for the wealthy,
offer meaning to the bewildered,
and peace to the troubled.
Inspire us to live compassion in the face of meekness,
wholeness in the place of suffering,
life in the face of bereavement,
love in the face of fear.

And in all this, may we be true
to those who have walked this journey of faith
before us.
Those who loved us and told us the old, old story,
those who sat where we now sit,
those whose vision we seek to extend,
as dwarves standing on the shoulders of giants.

And grant that at the last we may be gathered together
in the Father’s house,
the family of God complete,
in the glory of your ever-loving presence.

Our Father . . .

Prayer © Fourth Presbyterian Church