Greatest Commandment

Methodist Church

Description

Imagine the Church filled with a fresh outpouring of the Holy Spirit, and completely dependent on the sovereign work of God. Imagine the Church filled with people wholly focused on loving God, loving our neighbours and loving of ourselves. This year's Prayer Handbook contains prayers for the Methodist Church to be the Church that God desires, and that explore how we should live out Our Calling, as we respond to the gospel of God's love in Christ through discipleship, worship and mission.

Sujets

• Philosophie et théologie

Informations

• Publié par: Methodist Church of Great Britain
• Date de parution: 26 août 2022
• Nombre de lectures: 0
• EAN13: 9781858525099
• Langue: English
• Poids de l'ouvrage: 2 Mo

Extrait

Contents
Using the Methodist Prayer Handbook
The Greatest Commandment Prayer Handbook 2022/2023
Confession
The Presence of God
Justice
Prayers to live out Our Calling as the Methodist Church in Britain
Prayers to live out Our Calling with our global partners
Day 1 Praying with all Creation
Day 2 Praying with Christians in West Africa and Britain
Day 3 Praying with Christians in West Africa and Britain
Day 4 Praying with Christians in West Africa and Britain
Day 5 Praying with Christians in West Africa and Britain
Day 6 Praying with Christians in Southern Africa and Britain
Day 7 Praying with Christians in Southern Africa and Britain
Day 8 Praying with Christians in East Africa and Britain
Day 9 Praying with Christians in Latin America and Britain
Day 10 Praying with Christians in Latin America and Britain
Day 11 Praying with Christians in the Caribbean and the Americas and Britain
Day 12 Praying with Christians in the Caribbean and the Americas and Britain
Day 13 Praying with Christians in the Caribbean and the Americas and Britain
Day 14 Praying with Christians in North and Central America and Britain
Day 15 Praying with Christians in the Middle East and Britain
Day 16 Praying with Christians in Asia and Ireland
Day 17 Praying with Christians in India and Britain
Day 18 Praying with Christians in Asia and Britain
Day 19 Praying with Christians in Asia and Britain
Day 20 Praying with Christians in Asia and Britain
Day 21 Praying with Christians in Asia and Britain
Day 22 Praying with Christians in the Pacific and Britain
Day 23 Praying with Christians in the Pacific and Britain
Day 24 Praying with Christians in the Pacific and Britain
Day 25 Praying with Christians in Europe and Britain
Day 26 Praying with Christians in Europe and Britain
Day 27 Praying with Christians in Europe and Britain
Day 28 Praying with Christians in Europe and Britain
Day 29 Praying with Christians in Europe and Britain
Day 30 Praying with Christians in the Global United Methodist Church and Britain
Day 31 Praying with Christians Around the World
Lectionary Readings, Hymns, Psalms and A Methodist Way of Life
Additional Resources
The Presidency
Praying for the Presidency
Using the Methodist Prayer Handbook
The Prayer Handbook is arranged as a monthly cycle , starting with Day 1 of the month . You can use it as a daily devotional or just dip in. Whether you are leading a group or praying on your own, you might find it helpful to select only a few prayers for each day; and use different prayers on that day for another month – so that you are not praying the same each month.
Do add your own notes in the margins to remind you of things you would like to pray for on particular days. You may also want to add your own prayers for the people listed at the side of each page.
General prayers are on these pages , which you can use for corporate worship, in other settings, or privately. These include prayers specific to the activities of the Methodist Church in Britain.
The lectionary on these pages offers suggestions for a Scripture reading, hymn and psalm for each day of the year, alongside commitments from A Methodist Way of Life. For a daily commentary on each lectionary reading, please look at the Methodist Church online Bible study A Word in Time www.methodist.org.uk/a-word-in-time
Additional resources are listed here .
Information about the Presidency and specific prayer requests from the President and Vice-President are at the back.
However you use The Greatest Commandment , know that this is a resource shared by our Methodist fellowship across the world.

How to submit material for the next Prayer Handbook
The theme for the 2023/2024 Prayer Handbook will be announced during autumn 2022. Please look out for this on the Church website, in e-newsletters and on social media.
Please email only one prayer per contributor, by 9 January 2023 to: [e-mail] giving your name, postal address and how you would like to be described, as well as your circuit if relevant to your prayer.
Prayers must be no longer than 120 words and should be appropriate for use from September 2023 to August 2024, either in the Handbook or online. Please also email photographs that will help bring our theme to life, especially images with people. Photographs should be in their original size with a brief description of where taken.
If you do not have internet access please post prayers to: Prayer Handbook Editor, Methodist Church House, 25 Tavistock Place, London WC1H 9SF. Please do not post photographs.
Before sending contributions, please read the full submission guidelines at: www.methodist.org.uk/prayerhandbook
The Greatest Commandment Prayer Handbook 2022/2023

Graham Thompson, President, (left) and Anthony Boateng, Vice-President Photos: Robin Prime
A word from the President and Vice-President of the British Methodist Conference 2022/2023
Love is a consistent theme in songs, hymns and Scripture. Many contemporary songs are about love found, celebrated or lost. Love can overwhelm us in unexpected ways.
This year’s theme, The Greatest Commandment, encourages us to focus on God’s self-giving love and the teaching of Jesus in Matthew 22:37-39. Jesus reminds us of the words of Moses to God’s people in Deuteronomy 6:4-5, which echo throughout the pages of the Bible and, supremely, in the birth, life, death and resurrection of Jesus.
We respond to God’s eternal love by loving God and our neighbours. As we do this, we seek a fresh outpouring of the Holy Spirit and so place ourselves in the hands of God, as did the apostles in Acts 2. In every era the Church needs revival: a quickening divine visitation – in order to bring about spiritual empowerment and growth. We need this now more than ever. Through this revival, all things are possible as we surrender to God and the power and presence of the Holy Spirit.
John Wesley often spoke of the activity of God’s Spirit, teaching that the presence of the third person of the Trinity can be transformational for every aspect of our existence. The key is to so love God that God is granted unrestricted access to our living and loving. This leads us to worship God, learn all we can, tell others of our experience and to love as God loves us. Such desire is summed up in Our Calling and we have A Methodist Way of Life to help us work this out.
Love of God unlocks everything. May God’s love be something you want to sing about forever!

He said to him, “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind.” This is the greatest and first commandment. And a second is like it: “You shall love your neighbour as yourself.” Matthew 22:37–39 (NRSV)
Unless otherwise stated, Scripture quotations are from the New Revised Standard Version Bible: Anglicised Edition, copyright © 1989, 1995 the Division of Christian Education of the National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights reserved; and from the Revised Standard Version of the Bible, copyright © 1946, 1952, and 1971 the Division of Christian Education of the National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
The prayers in this book are © 2022 Trustees for Methodist Church Purposes (TMCP), unless otherwise indicated. Churches may use them in public worship and reproduce up to ten prayers in magazines or newsletters during the year, providing acknowledgement is given.
The Greatest Commandment
Saviour, we respond to the gospel of your love and we come in prayer
As we live out our calling.
Inspire us to offer all that we are in worship to you
As we live out our calling.
Make us a joyful community, deepening our love for you and each other
As we live out our calling.
Send us as a blessing to our neighbour, opening our eyes to the needs of others
As we live out our calling.
Loosen our tongues to proclaim the good news with confidence
As we live out our calling.
And accept, we pray, all that we think or speak or do in response to your love
As we live out our calling. Amen.
Jonathan Hustler, Secretary of the Methodist Conference
Loving mother and father God, you are constant and unchanging and you love us as we are. We thank you for all those who show compassion and for all who reach out in your name to offer love and care. Our calling is to love and to share with all who are made in your image. Pour your love into our hearts, that with open minds we may serve our neighbours. Give us a heart for justice, and help us to make time to listen to the voices of the abused, the refugees and the oppressed; to show the love that makes all strangers our guests. Amen. Ruth Parrott, President of Methodist Women in Britain

Photo: Getty images
The Greatest Commandment
“In the last days it will be, God declares, that I will pour out my Spirit upon all flesh, and your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, and your young men shall see visions, and your old men shall dream dreams. Even upon my slaves, both men and women, in those days I will pour out my Spirit; and they shall prophesy. And I will show portents in the heaven above and signs on the earth below, blood, and fire, and smoky mist. The sun shall be turned to darkness and the moon to blood, before the coming of the Lord’s great and glorious day. Then everyone who calls on the name of the Lord shall be saved.” Acts 2:17-21
LORD, I have heard of your eminence; I stand in awe of your deeds. Repeat them in our day, in our time make them known; in wrath remember mercy. Then we will not turn back from you; revive us, so we can experience the fullness of your divine power. Anthony Boateng, Vice-President of the Methodist Conference, 2022/2023

Give to us, O God, a heart truly resolved to love you, whom we have not seen; a soul truly com