Prayers of the People

Prayers of the People2021-05-01T07:12:46-05:00

At Kenilworth Union Church the Pastoral Prayer’s title is *Prayers of the People and is authored and delivered by the liturgist every Sunday at divine worship. The prayer contains thanksgivings, supplications, and intersessions that are current spiritual needs of the church, the community, the nation, and globally. This popular prayer is posted weekly to pray sincerely in hopes to offer comfort to the people being prayed for as well as the person praying.

The Great Prayer August 6, 2023

The Reverend Christine V. Hides God of the trailhead, God of the wilderness, God who makes a camp among us, God of the threshold who greets us with open arms as we make our way home, we delight in the joys of this week: your presence in the moonlit sky and the shimmering meteors. You whisper through the tree branches, accompanying the melody of hope sung by morning birds, These summer days are alive with opportunities [...]

The Great Prayer August 6, 2023

Prayers of the People July 30, 2023

Squire Prince Lord God we rejoice this day for your grace and your mercy. For your love and your presence we lift our voices. For the love gift of your Spirit that is being poured out on all flesh we say hallelujah God! We come before your presence with thanksgiving and we enter your courts with praise. Hallelujah to the King of Kings, hallelujah to the Lamb, hallelujah to the Lord of [...]

Prayers of the People July 23, 2023

The Reverend Christine V. Hides God of inescapable wonder and delight, Creator of this enchanted summer In which we welcome ripe raspberries, The first taste of heirloom tomatoes, And the soothing evening breeze across the balcony. Keep us awake to the new life arriving in our midst: A family moving in down the street, The person we have not met sitting near us this morning, A new minister to serve here, And of [...]

Prayers of the People July 16, 2023

The Reverend Dr. Katie Snipes Lancaster God, you know our hearts. You know our inmost thoughts. You know us and you trust us, and so we can trust you. We can, with vulnerability, hand over to you the worries of our lives, the worries and the deepest joys, so that in conversation with you, we might know again in a new way that you treasure us, that you hold us, that [...]

Prayers of the People July 9, 2023

The Reverend Dr. Katie Snipes Lancaster Lord of Lords, Very God of Very God, Spirit of Embodied Love, the glow of morning tugs us awake, and your presence stretches out across the shimmering day. Sunlight glitters off the windowsill as sparrows flock and goldfinch forage. This day is set in motion by the spark of your presence, launched by your grace, drenched in the mystery of this life in which you bend and tend [...]

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Joy Anyway, I: Praying with Joy

July 30, 2023

And so we get this letter from Paul to his friends that begins with this tender, effusive salutation I thank my God for every remembrance of you, always in every one of my prayers for all of you, praying with joy for your partnership in the gospel from the first day until now. I sense that you feel this way about one another from time to time. I thank my God for every remembrance of you. For one, these words “I thank my God for every remembrance” are written across the front of this Church’s 100th anniversary book published in 1996 by our friend Sally Campbell.

Two Minority Reports from the Hebrew Bible, IX: The Inescapable Love of God

July 23, 2023

“I knew it,” he says. “I just knew this was going to happen. That’s just the way you are, God—you old softy with the bleeding heart.” Jonah describes God as “gracious, merciful, and abounding in steadfast love.” Over the generations it had become the terse précis of Israel’s understanding of God: “gracious, merciful, and abounding in steadfast love.” And Jonah doesn’t like it. Jonah would rather die than live in a world where such people as the Ninevites get a second chance.

Two Minority Reports in the Hebrew Bible, VIII: Inescapable Tasks of God

July 16, 2023

Haven’t we all been in a situation where speaking up could make us look foolish, or worse? Colleagues hesitate to question a doctor’s prescription error. Engineers are pushed to meet deadlines even when there’s a faulty part. Students do social calculus before deciding to stand up for someone being bullied at the next lunch table. In The "Out-Laws" movie that’s popular on Netflix, Owen, played by Adam DeVine, weighs the risk of losing his fiancée if he tells her “Your parents are bank robbers.” Harvard Business School Professor Amy Edmondson names this the voice-silence calculation. It turns out that remaining silent is often easier, because the almost certain and immediate benefit provides safety from retaliation and being wrong. On the other hand, speaking up benefits the group, often at some unknown and less likely point in the future. Can you blame Jonah for choosing to run away rather than speak up? The Ninevites get the benefit of God’s mercy, while Jonah’s doomsday prediction makes him look less reliable than a soapbox preacher yelling on the corner.

Prayers of the People

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