Prayers we shared yesterday at our World Communion service.
Today is world communion Sunday. On this first Sunday of October, we celebrate with churches all around the world our family of faith in all it’s rich diversity. We celebrate our oneness – our communion – in Christ, in the midst of a world still in need of the reconciling unity of Christ. We will share in communion now as we present breads from different parts of the world.
These breads are symbols of the many different peoples within the family of God.
Presentation of Breads:
Presenter 1 places banana bread on table
I offer this banana bread in honor of the men and women of Africa. We pray for the work of your spirit to bring strength to leaders who are just and fair, give them vision and authority. We pray for those who take advantage of curruption, poverty, slavery and child trafficking in Africa to be saved and transformed. We thankyou for your church in Africa. Where your church grows rapidly, battling with the tide of consumerism from the West. Where faith is exuberant. Where a bright mosaic of culture shows the world the vibrancy of your love.
Presenter 2 places pita bread on table
I offer this Pita bread in honor of the people of the Middle East. We remember those who are at war, who are displaced, who suffer persecution. We pray for the work of your spirit to bring peace to bring healing. We pray that you would destroy the work and influence of Islamic State. We pray that you would strengthen those who work to provide protection for the residents, refugees and asylum seekers of these nations. We thankyou for your church in the Middle East, the cradle of Christianity, in their amazing courage and faithfulness.
Presenter 3 places damper on the table
I offer this damper in honor of the people of Australia. We pray for the work of your spirit to bring reconciliation, compassion, respect and peace to this land and all it’s peoples. A nation of ancient wisdom and new hope that are yet to find true voice. We pray that amidst the political changes you would strengthen the leaders who inspire unity, justice and care. We thankyou for your church in Australia, working to bring community into a nation so busy and divided, may we be free of fear and striving.
Presenter 4 places naan bread on the table
I offer this Naan bread in honor of the people of the vast and diverse continent of Asia. We pray for the work of your spirit to strengthen the traditions that bring peace and bring light to systemic issues that increase despair and poverty. We pray that you would strengthen the responsible stewards of the lands, waters and people in times of great environmental and political upheaval. We pray for our neighbours in Indonesia as they suffer from the ash of the volcanos in their lungs. Please bring rain to settle the ash. We thankyou for your church in Asia, small and deepening.
Presenter 5 places a crusty loaf on the table
I offer this bread loaf in honor of other Western Continents of Europe and America. We pray for the work of your Spirit to bring peace, unity, compassion, renewed faith and justice where there is much bounty and much poverty, where faith is falling away. We pray that you would strengthen the leaders and visionaries of these nations, give them wisdom and authority in the face of the Asylum seeker crisis, long wars, environmental disasters and the elections in America. We thankyou for your church in it’s magnificent heritage finding fresh voice in times of great challenge.
Communion
Host:
I invite you to come and take a piece of bread and some juice and return to your seat where we will eat and drink together.
We take the bread, a staple of the world and the symbol of Christ’s life on earth, given for everyone. We remember that just as yeast makes the bread rise, so God’s kingdom is growing in this world. Stories that may not make the news, but stories of life that are changing the world day by day.
Let us eat, feasting with Christians throughout time and space to the abundant life Jesus offers us.
We take the cup, a symbol of God’s love poured out for this world. We remember that this is a cup that we are called to share.. We drink this cup as an act of faith, believing that brokenness is not the end of the story, but that forgiveness is real and that the healing power of life reconciles and re-creates all things anew.
Let us drink, taking in with the world around us, the love Jesus first offers us.
Prayer after communion: With these gifts of bread and wine you sustain and strengthen us on our journey of faith. We remember that your promise of abundant life is not a promise that we will live sheltered lives, free from all harm, but the promise that we will live intricate, rich and full lives. We give you thanks. Amen
Benediction:
And the Table Will Be Wide
A Blessing for World Communion Sunday
Jan L Richardson.
And the table
will be wide.
And the welcome
will be wide.
And the arms
will open wide
to gather us in.
And our hearts
will open wide
to receive.
And we will come
as children who trust
there is enough.
And we will come
unhindered and free.
And our aching
will be met
with bread.
And our sorrow
will be met
with wine.
And we will open our hands
to the feast
without shame.
And we will turn
toward each other
without fear.
And we will give up
our appetite
for despair.
And we will taste
and know
of delight.
And we will become bread
for a hungering world.
And we will become drink
for those who thirst.
And the blessed
will become the blessing.
And everywhere
will be the feast.
This resource is inspired by and compiled from a variety of sources long forgotten.
Em Morgan.
