We pray for presbyteries –
And for presbyters,
For all who seek to lead and serve congregations,
specialized ministries, and ministers in their district.
We pray in thanksgiving for presbyteries’ particular work
In preparing persons for Word & Sacrament,
In serving as pastor, counselor, and advisor to
Its teaching elders, educators, commissioned ruling elders
And to its congregations.
We could not be the Church without the ministry of presbyteries
and their support for pastors and congregations.
We pray that you continue to intercede in our presbyteries
to give creativity and wisdom
when needing to find new models for ministry
when serving as mediators where there is conflict,
when recognizing grief and seeking new rituals for remembrance,
when calling on our polity
to use it to build relations, not to enforce rules.
When struggling to address social injustice and structural racism.
and wish to do this holistically, not with tokenism.
Help our presbyteries be among those that take a chance, make a choice, to wake up!
To live the gospel with the knowledge that we risk loss,
but with the assurance that we live in you.
Help presbyteries be creative in meeting,
while rejoicing to see each others’ faces on Zoom
rather than the backs of heads in rows of chairs,
we miss handshakes and hugs.
Help presbyteries keep the best of what is being learned now…
that we re-create council meetings and processes.
That we mourn AND move….
Lament AND leap forward in faith.
Just as fall is a celebration of the past harvest
and winter a time to rest and renew in readiness for what is to come,
for something NEW,
Let this season be part of a movement toward living as you call us.
We pray that you equip our presbyteries for all that is needed
as they strive to be whole =
Healthy, holy, and hopeful.
God of grace, HEAR OUR PRAYER.
