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THE INTERCESSIONS
One of the following forms is used:
Form 1
The minister may pray in his or her own words for the church and the world.
Form 2
The people may be asked to pray for:
- creation
- peace and justice throughout the world
- the needs of Wales
- the concerns of the local community
- the Church, universal and local
- those in any kind of need
and to give thanks for the departed.
Silence should be kept after each bidding.
Appropriate responses may be used, for example:
Loving God
Heal us and make us one.
Form 3
These prayers may be used in whole or in part.
God of compassion,
who in Jesus
walked our streets,
shared our lives,
knew our hearts,
and suffered for love,
we bring to you our prayers
for the church and the world.
Loving God:
Heal us and make us one.
We pray for the church in all its diversity,
that the Holy Spirit will fire us with the passion of Jesus,
to speak boldly and tenderly the good news of your grace,
to comfort the battered and broken-hearted,
and to set free the burdened and oppressed.
Loving God:
Heal us and make us one.
We pray for churches committed to working together,
for churches energetic, growing, and thriving,
and for churches tired, struggling, and losing heart.
We pray for imaginative projects and risk-taking partnerships,
for new initiatives and established activities.
And we give thanks for signs of your kingdom
made real in all Christian communities of faithfulness and service.
Loving God:
Heal us and make us one.
As we seek to embody your values of justice, freedom, and peace,
give us the wisdom to discern and the power to do your will.
In a world of lies, may we speak the truth.
In a world of greed, may we give sacrificially.
In a world of bloodshed, may we practise nonviolence.
In a world of revenge, may we be agents of reconciliation.
Loving God:
Heal us and make us one.
We pray for the world and for Wales.
We pray for the poor and the homeless,
for the marginalised and persecuted;
for those whose health is failing, through illness or age,
and for those who are racked by anxiety, fear, or despair.
We pray for those whose relationships are strained or broken,
and for those who are lonely, dying, or bereaved.
May every person come to experience life in all its fullness;
may every community be a place where humans flourish.
Loving God:
Heal us and make us one.
God of compassion,
in the stillness of our hearts,
we bring to you our deepest prayers …
Silence
Assure us of your presence,
and may your love surround and strengthen
each person we have prayed for.
Loving God:
Heal us and make us one.
We bring these prayers
in the name of Christ.
Amen.
At the end of the Intercessions, the Presiding Minister may say:
This is the table, not of the church, but of the Lord.
Lord, we come to your table,
trusting in your mercy
and not in any goodness of our own.
We are not worthy
even to gather up the crumbs under your table,
but it is your nature always to have mercy,
and on that we depend.
So feed us with the body and blood
of Jesus Christ, your Son,
that we may for ever live in him
and he in us.
Amen.