From death to life - a reflection for All Saints and All Souls

One of my friends was in a pub on Thursday evening for a meal with her family. Of course, Thursday was Halloween. As soon as the last guests had finished eating, the landlord started to take all the Halloween decorations down and then he started to put Christmas decorations up. Please let’s let Christmas come when it should – about December 24 if I had my way!

Before Advent begins on December 1, we have some special Sundays in November. The lectionary in a few weeks will remind us of the end of the Christian story, the reign of Christ as King in glory. Next Sunday we will gather to remember the fallen of two world wars and conflicts since, and here today we are marking two Christian festivals Methodist people often don’t do – All Saints and All Souls. I know some people have stayed away from this service because it’s too hard for them but I want this to be a service of hope – we will talk of death and loss but we won’t stay there because our faith doesn’t stay there. We are an Easter people and alleluia is our song, but after four and a bit years of having me as a preacher, you know it is my conviction we have to do Good Friday and pain before Easter, we have to die in order to live.

First then, we need to remember. Canon Michael in the cathedral notice sheet for today shared a song from Iona he turns to at this time. The words encourage us to remember those who helped us come to faith, by singing songs and telling stories, by inviting us when we felt distant, by praying for us without being asked. We need time, intentional time, to pause and thank God for those who have shown us Jesus, those who have helped us come to faith, those who have sung songs and told stories, those who have invited us into Jesus presence when we’ve felt distant and those who have prayed for us without being asked. All of you come here with those people without who you wouldn’t be the people you are today: the ones who have shown you Jesus in word and in action. Parents, grandparents, husbands, wives, children, friends, Sunday school teachers, maybe even the odd minister. In a sad and horrible dark world, these people brought you light.

I am doing a school assembly in the morning in Grewelthorpe. We will talk about three famous saints – St Alban, the first Christian martyr in this country, St Wilfrid, our local saint, Mother Theresa who helped the poor in Calcutta made a saint fairly recently and then I will ask a child to look in a mirror because we all have the potential to be saints. I was at the welcome service for the new Anglican bishop of Whitby the other week.

At the end of the service, he thanked the saints “here in Northallerton.” He meant those who had made the coffee and baked cakes and made us welcome. The letters in the New Testament begin “to the saints” – we are to be distinctive, and those we remember, we remember good qualities and faith that stay with us forever.

I find taking funerals a huge privilege because you hear stories of people who did things you never thought they would do because you only met them in later life. We heard of Moses last days earlier. I feel a bit sorry for Moses as after years of journeying and people moaning and being horrible to him and giving up on God, he never saw the Promised Land but his life’s work was well done and his story is still told today. We remember those who have gone before us with gratitude.

Then we need to talk of death this morning. However hard that is! Here’s my second piece of writing by the late American writer, Mary Oliver. “To live in this world, you must be able to do three things: to love what is mortal, to hold it against your bones that your whole life depends on it, and when the time comes to let it go, let it go.” But that’s hard isn’t it. We don’t want to think about death and partings. That poem Death is nothing at all is often read at funerals, it ends in triumph but death isn’t nothing at all! But it is but a journey to something better and we will get to that. But most people don’t want to talk about it. Thomas in the Gospel didn’t get it. “We don’t know where you are going! How can we know the way?” Despite Jesus’ promises, the disciples couldn’t face death and a cross and it was all about a defeat and an end.

I meet regularly with Rob, the Methodist army chaplain at Dishforth. He told me this week over coffee that part of his role is to talk about death with the soldiers. He talks with them on operations, a bunker in Iraq or in Afghanistan. Imagine that.

Jesus goes to prepare a place for us. That’s amazing good news! And for some there is a peace that calms those awaiting the end of earthly pilgrimage. Last Sunday, the radio DJ Johnnie Walker presented his last programme after 58 years. He’s got idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis which makes breathing very difficult. I found a tear jerker of a programme on BBC Sounds where he talks about the future with his wife Tiggy. He only has a couple of months to live and in the programme they talk about his funeral and then how his spirit will be living on and being there for her. The programme is called Walker and Walker and I really recommend you find an hour to listen to it – with plenty of tissues!

Jesus does not save us from the reality and the sorrow of death. Even Jesus, confronted by the death of his dear friend Lazarus and the immense grief of his sisters, broke down and wept.

Today, as we remember those we have loved and lost and all the saints, we are allowed to weep and to be sad.

 This kind of grief is a sign that we are human and that human connections matter. They mattered greatly to Jesus of Nazareth.

But we are also urged toward hope and not despair. “Did I not tell you,” Jesus reminds the grieving Martha in the Lazarus story, “Did I not tell you that if you believed, you would see the glory of God?” Death is real but it is not the end.

Finally here’s my third piece of writing. The theologian and author Jan Richardson writes this:

God of the generations, when we set our hands to labour, thinking we work alone, remind us that we carry on our lips the words of prophets, in our veins the blood of martyrs, in our eyes the mystics’ visions, in our hands the strength of thousands.

From all we read in the New Testament, the grave is not the absolute finale of the great act of life. “The trumpet shall sound and the dead shall be raised incorruptible.” But we are not given any details as to what happens after death. Lazarus is nowhere quoted, even though his sisters and friends must have asked him what it was that he saw. But we believe heaven, eternity is a party of eternal delight with God, free from pain and suffering and yes our loved ones, your loved ones, look down on you cheering you on, a great crowd of witnesses. Peace I leave with you says Jesus.

So today, we give thanks, we remember the journey from death to life and we anticipate the joy of heaven. And as we remember stories and our faith and a faithful God, we work to make our world better like our forebears and Jesus did.

Adrian Roberts is one of the lay readers in the Fountains Benefice and he’s written a weighty tome on the hope for an afterlife. He quotes C S Lewis:

 “There have been times when I think we do not desire heaven, but more often I find myself wondering whether, in our heart of hearts, we have ever desired anything else.”

And Adrian reflects helpfully: “All our yearnings for something more than life can offer may be an indication that it was never intended that our existence and significance should be confined to this life alone. It may well be we were always meant to end up in a realm of ever increasing joys and wonders, a realm of the new where we and all those we have loved will be transformed in ways we can barely imagine but which will also be a realm in which we realise that we have finally come home to that distant shore.”

I know this isn’t the easiest service to come to, and I know this hasn’t been the easiest sermon to write but I hope remembering and revisiting the heart of what faith is about, you can take away some hope today. For our loved ones are safe and the triumph of heaven is mighty and onr day we will be there too. Until then, may we keep praising God who in a Jesus has said death cannot hurt us and eternity is our gift.

Following God’s saints in the ways of holiness and truth, we keep going in the peace of Christ.

 Thanks be to God.

Treasure in heaven?

I wonder what you were doing in the early hours of Friday morning about twenty to one? We were out aurora searching. It turned out late Thursday night and early Friday morning we didn’t need to book expensive cruises round Norway to see it, we just needed to drive to Dallowgill and park by the chapel. There was an amazing mixture of green and red and apart from the wind absolute peace and silence. The world at twenty to one on Friday morning was still and calm and problemless. Rather like Robert Browning’s Pippa Passes: The year's at the spring and day's at the morn;Morning's at seven; The hill-side's dew-pearled; The lark's on the wing;The snail's on the thorn: God's in his heaven— All's right with the world!

But then we come home and find all’s not right with the world.

I began writing this sermon a few hours before our aurora hunt.  

I was sitting waiting for a talk in the Crown Hotel in Harrogate which is hosting the annual Harrogate Literature Festival at the moment. I relax by watching and reading about politics and social history. So I was waiting to listen to one of our former Prime Ministers.

I wonder if you got a chance to meet a Prime Minister living or dead who it would be? Churchill? Liz Truss?!?! My Dad worshipped Harold Wilson. I’m reading a book about Wilson at the moment. Anyway I was waiting for Theresa May. She was talking about leadership and the abuse of power and a plea for all of us to return to serving and being responsible for each other.

I often watch the news on catch up quite late at night and the other night with a mixture of Israel and Gaza and the Lebanon and Syria and Yemen and Iran and hurricanes in the United States it was almost too much to watch. We need to pray for all those in leadership who have a responsibility to lead with integrity and compassion and not for their own end. Sadly this doesn’t happen in some places and it leads to where much of the world finds itself today. We cry peace peace but there is no peace. We are tired of war and negativity and we need a different narrative. The Old Testament passage for this Sunday is part of Amos prophecy to a people going off the rails. He longs for justice in the gate, he longs for good spiritual leadership out of the shrine at Bethel, he warns of an abyss. They hate the one who rebukes in the gate: Amos told us the cause of coming judgment – the terrible way that the people of Israel treated one another, especially how the strong took advantage of the weak. The weak had no voice in the gate and were robbed by oppressive taxes. The rich took advantage with bribes so they could drive the poor from justice.

 

The gate was the law court in ancient cities. Israel’s courts were so corrupt that they silenced the poor and righteous. The effect of this culture of injustice was that the prudent keep silent at that time, for it is an evil time – godly and righteous people did not speak out either fearing retribution or knowing it would do no good.

“Judicial decisions for each community were taken at the gate of the city, where the heads of families and other elders assembled to hear witnesses, arbitrate disputes, decide controversies and generally dispense justice. The space on the inner side of the gate together with rooms or alcoves in the gate area itself were used as courtrooms.”

Though you have built houses of hewn stone, yet you shall not dwell in them: Amos tells us God’s curse for Israel’s wickedness. Though the wicked in Israel gained fancy houses and vineyards from their oppression of the poor and railroading of justice, the gains were only temporary. God would evict them from their dishonestly gained houses and vineyards. Seek good and not evil, that you may live; so the Lord God of hosts will be with you: Amos proclaimed God’s cure for Israel’s sin. They must begin to simply seek good and not evil. They must transform their corrupt courts and establish justice in the gate. Amos was talking to God’s people who were immersed in the law and the law included how you treat other people. Did you hear Tim Walz have a swipe at Donald Trump having some God bless America Bibles produced and outsourcing their production to China? “We just found out his Trump-branded Bibles—yeah, they’re printed in China,” Walz said at a Michigan rally. “This dude even outsourced God to China!”The Minnesota governor then feigned pity on Trump and offered to be “generous.” He said, “I don’t blame him. He didn’t notice the ‘made in China’ sticker, ’cause they put it inside, a place he’s never looked: in the Bible.”

Don’t you just love an American election? Maybe though we just want a peaceful aurora world every night. We cry to God. What shall we do? 

I was struck by the Message translation of part of Psalm 119 in our prayer time at Allhallowgate on Wednesday.

 I’m homesick—longing for your salvation;
    I’m waiting for your word of hope.
My eyes grow heavy watching for some sign of your promise;
    how long must I wait for your comfort?
There’s smoke in my eyes—they burn and water,
    but I keep a steady gaze on the instructions you post.
How long do I have to put up with all this?

People are searching for that aurora world. Let’s look at a rich young man. He says “what shall I do to inherit eternal life?”

I love this from the Church of Scotland worship material. “Imagine that one Sunday morning, three new people come to in to your church. If your church is anything like ours, then I imagine that there will excitement at seeing new people come. One of these three new arrivals is a wealthy young man with leadership experience, and a deep concern for eternal life. The second person is a lady with a bad reputation, whom people choose to avoid. The third person is called Zacchaeus. He works in finance, and the rumour is that he is crooked. You barely notice him coming in – he doesn't stand out in a crowd – and of course he immediately starts climbing; up to the balcony. Of these three people, which is the one that you would be most pleased to see in your church?

I imagine, being honest, that many of us would be pleased to see the keen, religious, wealthy young man. We may already be thinking about when to approach him to become an elder, and the healthy effect his tithing is going to have on the church finances. Yet when these three people met Jesus, it was the lady with the reputation who went away from her encounter with Jesus and became a successful evangelist in her own neighbourhood. It was Zacchaeus that left his encounter with Jesus as a changed man. However, in the whole New Testament, the wealthy young man is the only person described as feeling sad after meeting Jesus.”

As he describes the encounter Mark puts in a beautiful phrase (v21): ‘Jesus looked at him and loved him.’ No one else in this Gospel is described in such a powerful way. Jesus loved him: his heart went out to this young man. Why? Is it because he is moved by the urgency of the question? Is it because he knows the question can unlock a whole new future? Is it because he knows the demands of following will be too much? Jesus’ answer challenges the notion of ‘inheriting’ eternal life; perhaps because the questioner had inherited his fortune and status and could only see progress in those terms.

Jesus answer can be summed top in a series of verbs, of actions.

·       go

·       sell

·       give

·       come

·       follow

‘Jesus looked at him and loved him. ‘One thing you lack,’ he said. ‘Go, sell everything you have and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven. Then come, follow me.’  The issue is not so much about what the man possesses as what possesses him. He is a prisoner of his wealth and status and needs to see God’s plan for him in a different light.

Turning away is a rejection of God’s Kingdom and its promises: the rich, young, ruler had found the entry fee too demanding.

Traditionally wealth was seen as a sign of God’s blessing and, while the disciples had given up everything to follow Jesus, they were still shaken that their Rabbi would make such a shocking announcement: ‘Children, how hard it is to enter the kingdom of God!’ or, as in some manuscripts, how hard for those who trust in riches. 

It seems to me that this encounter is not about Jesus condemning wealth in itself, but Jesus putting his finger on the block for this man’s discipleship.

Then what shall we do? What must I do? How do I play my part in making the world better? We cannot friends change the world apart from praying and protesting but we can make a difference where we are. So while praying for leaders I remember my own responsibility - in the words of the prayer, let there be peace on earth and let it begin with me.

 

Why is it our human psyche needs an uplifting? We get excited about seeing the aurora or a sunrise or a sunset or the sea? Why is it we need times of celebration and festival? I’m doing the Harvest service at Wath chapel near Pateley Bridge on Sunday night  and the place will be packed. Why is it we become so depressed about the world? Because we’ve forgotten we need a bigger vision and maybe God sends auroras and sunrises and sunsets and the sea and festivals to remind us of that, but also maybe Amos warning and the sad turning away of the young rich man are a message for us to look outwards and do what we can do in our part of the world to make it better. Theresa May on Thursday talked about taking off a mantle of selfishness and devoting ourselves unashamedly to duty and the service of others. Maybe that’s the key to it.

The prophets, like Amos, call us to a new way of being and living precisely because God knows, without any doubt, that this other way is possible for us, despite our histories of failure. When Amos says, “Seek good and not evil… establish justice in the gate,” the prophet is saying, “Yes, this option is actually available to you, and it always will be.”

Maybe then we’ll see not another aurora but treasure in heaven.

Reflecting on being drawn to Southport

Gabby Hinsliff writing recently in the Guardian commented that about where things are around us: “the country still contains many more people quietly working to put things back together than it does nihilists trying to smash them apart.” 

I sat and received worship on my Sunday off yesterday at Ripon Cathedral. The Dean always looks very pleased when he sees me sitting in the congregation! He found me in the peace and beamed widely! He preached a belter yesterday about the Israelites complaining in the desert but more seriously after condemning all the violence of the last few days he asked the question what do these people hurling bricks and setting shops and more seriously hotels asylum seekers in them want? After the service I was joined at coffee by a lady up here on holiday in her caravan. She told me “these people have a point. We have people on benefits in our village.” How have we got to this? A situation where anyone not like us is a threat to us. Imagine being one of those asylum seekers in that hotel in Rotherham with people outside shouting “Yorkshire” at you. Very frightening. 

I’ve been wanting to get to Southport for many weeks to complete the marking of the 25th anniversary of my ordination in the town. Last night we managed to get there. It was good to find Leyland Road Methodist Church where my ordination service was and Southport Theatre on the promenade (back then the Floral Hall) where I was received into full connexion. Then to try and see the sea - which was out there somewhere - and yes - that is Blackpool Tower lit up blurred in the distance! 

More powerful than a pilgrimage to mark my anniversary and remember was a walk very late last night to the flowers and toys and teddies laid in memory of the three little girls who were killed at a dance class last Monday. What struck me was there were a lot of people there and everyone stood or walked round the flowers and other things there in silence. It was very powerful to be there even just ten minutes. 

 Marie-Anne, the Methodist Superintendent in Southport was interviewed the other day by the BBC. She said there was a "strong community feeling that we're bigger than all of this and we will build a better world for our young people as they grow up". She said she had seen "so many acts of kindness" take place since the attack and churches across the town were "committing ourselves to work for peace and reconciliation in our communities". "Southport has really pulled together," she said. "Every act of kindness is saying we are against this hate, these acts of violence." 

What has been heartening in every community that has been attacked by the violence of a minority has the next morning been flooded with people coming together to clean up and in days following has seen different faiths coming together to celebrate community and solidarity. It’s good to hear strong words from government but we also need all of us to condemn bigotry and narrowness and misinformation and speaking of people without knowing what it means to walk in their shoes. I’m sitting writing this in the market square. Two people VERY worse for wear are discussing the state of the world. He says “wtf is the world coming to? If you want to embrace it you can.” She says they are about to fall out and calls him a horrible person. I may move :) He’s going on about which people in the world he detests. How have we suddenly gone back to the dark ages? 

I read this on a Church of Scotland website earlier: 

“At the moment we are a nation which is not at peace with itself and yes we need to listen and take note of those things which trouble people and yes that does include immigration and feelings of being excluded. And equally on all sides we will get nowhere if we demonise people whoever they are. I think there is a huge task of re-building community and healing to happen in many places across the land. At the heart of this task must be a hunger and thirst for righteousness and justice. 

Let’s be clear this is not an easy task and there will be no quick fix, but even in the darkness of the last few days there has been hope as people stand together and say enough, this is not the country we want to be.

For us who come to Jesus, for us who believe in Jesus, my prayer is that sustained by the Bread of Life we will be those who seek to bring light and love into our daily engagements and actions, and that when we can speak up, we speak in a way to build bridges and not walls – always hope rather than hate. We commit ourselves to work with everyone who hungers and thirsts for righteousness, for love and peace  – we join our voices with everyone who says enough, enough of hate and division. This is not who we are, this is not who we want to be.”

I couldn’t put it better myself. We need a commitment to community and we need to ask for forgiveness. It was rather poignant the service in the service in the cathedral yesterday was sung by the choir of Holy Trinity in Southport. The motet they sang asked God for a new beginning: O sweet, O merciful. O Jesus, Son of Mary, have mercy on me. Amen. 

The way forward it seems to me begins with mercy from above then a commitment this last week isn’t who we are. 

Genuine inclusive love: reflecting on Southport

“I don’t understand it, no one does. I don’t understand how Monday has flipped the town upside down. It’s scary.”

I shouldn’t be thinking on holiday, but this week in Southport and the aftermath there and elsewhere need careful reflection. The words of a mum trying to explain to her daughter why her friend won’t be at school with her in September is heart breaking. Three little girls enjoying themselves at a dance class full of Taylor Swift joy, well, we cannot imagine the pain of loss and tragedy. I know two Methodist presbyters in Southport, Marie Anne the Circuit Superintendent, who was on breakfast tv news the other morning, and Martin, Southport Hospital Chaplain, who spoke at the vigil and said 'To be known around the world for a defining incident has shook us all.' I was ordained in Southport. I’m planning a visit in my 25th anniversary year back there soon. It may have pockets of problems, but it comes over as a genteel seaside town. If you’ve ever shopped on Lord Street, you’ll know that. It hit me that this could have happened anywhere. What if I’d been the local Methodist minister. What would I have said? 

The death of three little girls and others injured including the dance class teacher is a tragedy but there is another. The rise of extremism and narrow views is deeply worrying. We are all made in the image of God, and who are we to say anyone is less than us if that is so. As one of the hymns in our book says “we have privatised God’s grace.” Enough is enough was the theme of the protest around Downing Street, we want our country back, stop the boats! It’s interesting isn’t it that the police in Merseyside have told us the suspect was born here. We’ve seen what happens when narrow extremism rises up in history. What motivates people to be so threatened by the other and believe certain rhetoric they read on social media? I think the Prime Minister had the right tone in his press conference earlier tonight. He condemned "violent disorder, clearly whipped up online", describing it as crime, "not protest.” 

What is also worrying is that people will believe anything! There’s two men who appear on market day here every Thursday. They spout narrow theology and offer a Jesus who is to my mind unattractive and dangerous. The man on the cheese stall opposite them told me today they are a “bloody nuisance”! I was horrified tonight to see a post on our local information site Blow Your Horn Ripon. It said “has anyone heard that they are building a mosque up Clotherholme Road?” To which there was a reply “we have one in Harrogate. I hope Ripon isn’t going to follow suit.” Lord, have mercy. 

Then there’s America! We are seeing slander there. She’s Indian and she’s black. Even Christians are putting stuff out there… “Just remember the same media that is telling you how great Kamala is is the same one telling you Joe was sharp as a tack.” How have we got so nasty? Thank God our political system has yes, weeks of each party leader taking lumps out of each other but after it’s done the defeated Prime Minister rings his successor to concede and then weeks later the two of them are seen laughing and joking as they walk from the Commons to the Lords to hear the King’s speech. 

I think tonight we are in a world where two narratives are fighting each other to be the dominant voice heard. We aren’t a country of violence and narrowness. There is a voice and a commitment that cleans up the streets of carnage and bricks in Southport and in Hartlepool and says the violence and hatred won’t have the last word. People work hard for compassion and cohesion and respect and peace. We need to shout louder that God would have us do justice - or pray for it when we can’t be physically at the place where peace needs to come. We can only make a difference where we are. 

I have few answers to what’s going on in the world tonight but I do know God stands in the mess and I do know on the cross Jesus takes on the sins of the world and gives us a new beginning. We were at Ampleforth Abbey today. I spotted this display board in the new visitors centre. Compare these words with the words of those who would make God’s love too narrow by false limits of our own… 

Tonight I pray for peace and a commitment to radical and joy filled inclusiveness and where’s that’s scary, Lord, come and reassure people and remind them of your grace which is huge and unlimited. And sometimes when there’s a large news story happening just keep me alert with coffee… 

I end these rambling thoughts then like this: Thomas Merton wrote that any person who is made to feel as though he or she doesn’t belong, who is marginalized and rejected by power, is another Christ. He was rejected, remember. 

And maybe I also end this with these words of Jeremy Corbyn, who a lot of us still have time for…

This morning I’m thinking of the grieving families of Bebe, Elsie & Alice. We will not let acts of hatred tarnish their memory.

The mob in Southport may have gone home, but the threat of the far right remains.

This is a wake-up call for those who have emboldened them by parroting their rhetoric and pandering to their ideas.

The only antidote to hatred is hope. The vast majority of people in Southport, and across the country, respond to horror the only way they know how: with compassion, unity and solidarity.

They should inspire us that, if we come together, we can bring about a kinder and safer society for all.

Writing this I shudder at the narrowness and the arrogance that says “I am threatened by you. Go away.” Instead, well, there is a different way which has a God who enfolds everyone and yearns for them to flourish… may that world come… soon. 

Prayers on the eve of a General Election

So I organised two prayer times on the eve of the General Election and not only advertised them in the church they were being held in but ecumenically and in my Circuit. Sadly only one person came this morning and but I had five  tonight. 

 I’m putting the prayers here because I really believe we should be praying together for our nation as we prepare for an election day and a new government of whatever form that will take.

1 Timothy 2 has these words:

I urge, then, first of all, that petitions, prayers, intercession and thanksgiving be made for all people— for kings and all those in authority, that we may live peaceful and quiet lives in all godliness and holiness. This is good, and pleases God our Saviour, who wants all people to be saved and to come to a knowledge of the truth. 

So here are some prayers I found which speak to me and prepare me to cast my vote in the morning. 

 

A collect:

Almighty God,
to whom each of us must give an account for all our powers and privileges:
Guide the people of the United Kingdom in the election of their members of Parliament;
that by wise laws and just administration,
peace may be fostered,
godliness encouraged,
and the true profession of the gospel enabled,
for the sake of Jesus our saviour and King,
to the glory of your holy name,
Amen.

 

A prayer for voters:

God of grace and truth, inJesus you embody your choice of us.

Bless all who make choices in this general election. Clothe your people with gratitude for the right to choose our government, and turn that gratitude into clear choices.

Give those who vote your spirit of wisdom and understanding. Uphold all who stand for election: preserve their dignity, and guide them in the path of integrity.

Renew this nation in honour for the stranger,respect for the different, and cherishing of diversity.

When all the votes are counted, show us ways to foster the flourishing of all and be a blessing to our neighbours. In the name of Christ and the power of your Spirit. Amen.

A prayer of intercession for our nation:

God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ,
Maker of heaven and earth
And of all things visible and invisible.
We turn to you in search of wisdom for our times
And the assurance that, in all things,
You remain sovereign and ruler over all.
Lord, in your mercy,
Hear our prayer.

You are sovereign and ruler over all
And so, in the discerning of who might best govern our nation,
We turn to you once more.
Grant to us, and to all who seek your will,
A desire to see good governance established
In the interests of all who inhabit these lands.
Lord, in your mercy,
Hear our prayer.

You are concerned for the interests of all
And you deny to no one the dignity and integrity
That belong to all who are made in your image.
Grant to us a concern for all who stand on the margins of society
And the courage to affirm their dignity and integrity
And so to stand in solidarity with them.
Lord, in your mercy,
Hear our prayer.

You stand in solidarity with us,
Even through Jesus Christ
Your Word made flesh who lived amongst us.
Grant to us the ongoing commitment to pray for, and to engage with,
Those who are elected to govern in our name
That we might see our society better reflect the Kingdom that is to come.
Lord, in your mercy,
Hear our prayer.

 

A prayer for a new government:

God of all nations, we lift up to You our soon to beelected leaders and government officials. Grant them wisdom, integrity, and a spirit of service as they undertake their duties. May they be guided by a commitment to the common good, justice, and the welfare of all citizens.

May they govern with compassion, humility, and a deep sense of responsibility towards the most vulnerable and marginalised in our society. 

In Jesus’ name, Amen

And finally, a reminder from Wesley:

“Act as if the whole election depended on your single vote, and as if the whole Parliament (and therein the whole nation) on that single person whom you now choose to be a member of it.” John Wesley from A word to a Freeholder, 1748.

And here’s his manifesto:

I’m a bit of an ejection enthusiast so I’ll be up all night watching the results so please don’t disturb me on Friday! But seriously let us pray whether we have faith or not for leadership with integrity and humility where everyone matters. That’s not party political it’s just decency!