Place for All

Methodist Church

Description

No one was excluded from Jesus' table and eating with him was a sign of the kingdom of heaven and an invitation to meet God and to be transformed. We recognise that we do not always offer such generous welcome or listen to the voices on the margins. As the Church strives to be God's people in a world changed by a global pandemic, we invite prayers of thanksgiving and intercession, penitence and resolve that, with God's help, we may recognise and repent of our exclusivity, and that then we may be reconciling, open to all and ready to listen to all voices equally. Together, we pray to become a more inclusive and diverse Church, creating communities of greater respect and compassion.

Sujets

• Philosophie et théologie
• Christianity

Informations

• Publié par: Methodist Church of Great Britain
• Date de parution: 31 août 2021
• Nombre de lectures: 0
• EAN13: 9781858525013
• Langue: English
• Poids de l'ouvrage: 1 Mo

Extrait

How to use this book
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. You could add your own notes in the margins to remind you of things you would like to pray for on particular days. Whether you are leading a group or praying on your own, you might find it helpful to select just a few of the prayers for the day. You may also want to add prayers for the people listed at the side of the page. There are some general prayers on the first few pages, which you can pick according to your needs.
At the end of the book there is a lectionary with suggestions for a reading, hymn and psalm for each day of the year. This ties in with the online resource A Word in Time (see www.methodist.org.uk/a-word-in-time ). The lectionary can be detached and used as a bookmark to avoid flipping between the day of the month and the lectionary pages.
Later pages offer prayers for specific programmes of the Methodist Church in Britain, which all grow out of Our Calling. At the back there are suggestions of additional resources you may find useful.
However you use it, you know that this is a resource shared by our Methodist fellowship all around the world.
How to submit material for the next edition
The theme for the 2022/2023 Prayer Handbook will be announced in autumn 2021. Please look out for announcements in e-newsletters and on social media.
Please email contributions by 10 January 2022 to: [e-mail] giving your name, postal address and how you would like to be described. Prayers must be no longer than 120 words and should be relevant for use from September 2022 to August 2023. Please also email photographs that will help bring our theme to life. Photographs with people in are particularly welcome. Photographs should be sent in their original size along with a brief description including where they were taken.
If you do not have internet access please post prayers to: Prayer Handbook Editor, Methodist Church House, 25 Marylebone Road, London NW1 5JR. Please do not post photographs.
Before sending contributions, please read the full submission guidelines at: www.methodist.org.uk/prayerhandbook

With thanks to the Prayer Handbook Committee
I wish to take this opportunity to thank members of the Prayer Handboo k Committee, past and present, for all that they have contributed to the faithful discipleship of countless Methodists. Many have found their role in responding to Our Calling enriched and strengthened through the Prayer Handbook , and that will continue but this is a time of change. From 2022/2023, the Prayer Handboo k will be commissioned directly by the Connexional Team’s Publishing Board, with advice from the Faith and Order Committee and supported by the Revd Norman Wallwork on the lectionary, for which, again, we are very grateful.
Jonathan Hustler, Secretary, British Methodist Conference
A P LACE FOR A LL
P RAYER H ANDBOOK 2021/2022

Sonia Hicks, President, (left) and Barbara Easton, Vice-President, British Methodist Conference 2021/2022 Photos: Robin Prime
One of the most heart-tugging songs must be There’s a Place for Us from West Side Story . A couple, whose lives have been turned upside down by love, long to find a place free from the prejudices, limitations and divisions of the world in which they live. Their song expresses a desire not just to escape, but to belong someplace better.
Loneliness, displacement and alienation are chilling words and scourges of our local and world community. In contrast, to be somewhere you are known by name, welcomed just as you are, where a place is made ready just for you – this is heart-warming language that describes a place where people can flourish, finding joy and affirmation. It is truly belonging; echoed in A Methodist Way of Life’s commitments to practise hospitality, help people and speak of the love of God.
The Bible similarly speaks about God’s call to each of us: “I have called you by name, you are mine” (Isaiah 43:1); “you are my friends” (John 15:14); “In my Father’s house there are many dwelling-places” (John 14:2). God’s wide-open arms welcome us into a new belonging within God’s own family. This is a rich and diverse place to be, restored in community with all those who are made in God’s image (that’s everybody!), in a right relationship with the whole of the created universe and crossing between time and eternity. In fact, Ephesians tells us that this is God’s great plan since the beginning of time.
The theme for this year’s Prayer Handbook is ‘A Place for All’ and both of us are delighted to warmly recommend it to the Methodist family. As we pray together, may we be more deeply committed to a world where there is a place for each one of us.
Sonia Hicks, President, and Barbara Easton, Vice-President, British Methodist Conference 2021/2022
P RAYER H ANDBOOK C OMMITTEE
Norman Wallwork (Chair)
Inderjit Bhogal
Conrad Hicks
Rebecca Law
Howard Mellor
Jennifer Potter
Editor Rebecca Law
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. Extract on day 1 from the Book of Common Prayer, 1979, Episcopal Church, USA, used with permission.
Extract on day 26 from the Book of Common Prayer, the rights in which are vested in the Crown, are reproduced by permission of the Crown’s patentee, Cambridge University Press.
The prayers in this book are © 2021 Trustees for Methodist Church Purposes (TMCP), unles 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.

A P LACE FOR A LL
A place for all there is to rest,
where each may be an equal guest;
where all may find a healing space
within the Trinity’s embrace.
A place for all who waited long
to find themselves in Mary’s song;
with freedom now to magnify
the God who lifts the humble high.
A place for all where last is first,
where none need hunger, none need thirst;
where hearing found and sight restored
are kingdom gifts of Christ the Lord.
A place for all with table spread,
where Christ the Vine, the Living Bread
prepares for all the gift divine –
the feast of grace in bread and wine.
A place for all, where faith can see
a king enthroned on Zion’s tree;
where love is heard in sacrifice,
“Be sure this day of paradise”.*
Norman Wallwork, Chair, Prayer Handbook Committee * Suggested tunes: Song 34 (Angels’ Song), Singing the Faith 550, Herongate, Singing the Faith 415 or 659, Rimington , Singing the Faith 328 ii

God of all, if only we could see other people with your eyes!
Not strange, incomprehensible, alien or threatening but part of our family.
Not to be kept behind a barrier, treated with caution or held at arm’s length,
but to be invited in, welcomed and truly listened to,
because this is our family, and you are our Father. Amen.
Penny Worth, supernumerary presbyter, Ryedale Circuit
Vast, O Lord are our differences
but one is our unity in Christ.
Many are our faces and languages
but one is the power of your grace.
Great is our sorrow and pain
but one is the hope in our hearts.
Deep is our need of forgiveness,
but one is the source of your love.
Heavy are the chains that enfold us
but one is the justice of your kingdom.
Based on a prayer by the Women of Guatemala, World Day of Prayer 1993

“This is our family.”

A P LACE FOR A LL
Hospitable God, you spread a table in the wilderness and invite all to come and share your goodness. May we always make your world a place for all: whoever they are, whatever they look like, whoever they love, whatever they have done or been. May all find welcome, acceptance and grace through our service and witness in your world, in the name of the one who opened his arms in love for the whole world, Jesus, our Saviour and friend. Amen.
John Simms, supernumerary presbyter, Sheffield Circuit
“You bid us welcome to the table you have prepared for all.”"/>
“You bid us welcome to the table you have prepared for all.”
Hospitable God, when we have made the Church a closed place,
where only those who know the unwritten rules are welcome:
forgive us and enlarge our hearts.
When we have made our minds a closed place,
where only those who think as we do are welcome:
forgive us and enlarge our hearts.
When we have made our hearts a closed place,
where only those who love as we do are welcome:
forgive us and enlarge our hearts.
Thank you for loving us as we are
and for calling us to grow into the image of your Son,
in whose name we pray. Amen.
Michaela Youngson, Assistant Secretary, British Methodist Conference and Connexional Ecumenical Officer
O Love most holy and most gracious, you bid us welcome to the table you have prepared for all.
That no pride might prevent us taking the place you have given us, grant us humility.
That no shame might prevent us responding to your welcome, grant us forgiveness.
That no unworthiness might prevent us joining with your saints, grant us faith.
That no selfishness might prevent us ministering to those in need, grant us compassion.
Then, humbled and pardoned, confident and caring,
O Love most holy and most gracious, let us sit and eat. Amen.*
Jonathan Hustler, Secretary, British Methodist Conference
* Inspired by George Herbert’s poem, Love III , 1633
T HE C OMFORTING P RESENCE OF G OD
It was a time of spaces. Spaces measured out in two metres; s