Prayer: Beauty and pain

Lord, please teach us how to pray, and help us to pray now.

We all know this life you have given us is full of both beauty and pain. Sometimes those are just words, but in preparing these prayers I've been struck by their reality. We don't know how long we get to be here, we don't know what joy and tragedy are waiting on our doorstep, but we do know that right now there is such rich joy and such deep hurt.

We thank you for Bishop Andrew's love, care and service for us. We are shocked and upset to hear of his serious illness. We pray for him, and for all our friends and family who are unwell. We pray for healing, for peace, for relief from pain. We take joy from the words Bishop Andrew chose to emphasise in his letter: "nothing will separate me from Christ's love".

We pray for everyone who is grieving the loss of someone they love. After we've lost someone we see more clearly the privilege we had to know them, and the longing we have for more time. We pray for ourselves here, and also for the people in Gaza, the West Bank and in Israel who have lost so many people. As people in Gaza continue to live in unthinkable conditions and the UN human rights office accuses Israel of war crimes in the West Bank, we ask for mercy. We pray for the people of El Hasher in Sudan who suffered devastating attack by the RSF, described this week as genocidal. Our grief blends with theirs. We ask for ways through in these places that make space for everyone to live in safety and peace. We ask for new voices that offer hope and humanity. Will your beauty break through?

We celebrate the joy of welcoming Lydia to our church. May we offer a peaceful, joyful home to her. We hope and expect a self-giving love in her care for our church; we pray that her exercise of power will be Christ-like in its generosity. We ask for a loosening of our own little power structures: a flexibility of spirit that makes space for change, and makes time to allow new ideas to take shape. Give all of us generosity towards our church leadership: looking to love and to cherish, and open to being loved and cherished ourselves.

Many of us here know the joy of having children, some the pain of losing a child, or the breakdown of our families. This week it's been hard to listen to the reports about the systematic rape of children by grooming gangs in London. Many of these kids were from troubled backgrounds and it's hard not to think that their abuse has been overlooked because they weren't the sort of nice respectable children who somehow "deserve" looking after. We acknowledge our own willful blindness and we ask you to change us. We pray for change in our society to stop this hurt. We pray for those working to enforce the law, and those shaping our laws to prevent these awful things from happening.

Amidst all this beauty and pain, as voices around us suggest that we should look inward, protect ourselves from foreigners, or the wrong sorts of people, we turn to you and ask "who is my neighbour?" and listen to your answer. Make us peaceful and open people, a peaceful and open church, ready to demonstrate to everyone we can that nothing can separate them from Christ's love. Grant us the mercy of being able to hear for ourselves: nothing can separate us from your love.

Amen