7.23.23 prayers of church and community - Westminster Presbyterian Church, Pasadena, CA

 Prayers of Church & Community, July 23, 2023

Westminster Presbyterian Church

Holy God, creator of the heavens and the earth, we give thanks for the glories of creation, the sky above, the earth beneath … all of your creatures, O God … the pulse and power of life … 

We pray this day for scientists hard at work to understand climate change, what’s happening to our environment, the stress and strain of warming oceans, the onset of savage winters, and then unbearable heat. 

We pray this day for the policy makers of our world … sometimes, LORD, I wonder just how many of them are listening to the earth, to the cries of the seals and the polar bears, to the fish of the sea, and the creatures that crawl upon the face of the earth.

Help us all, we pray, to listen to the earth as it speaks, as it cries out in pain and distress, for the harm we’ve done, the hurt we’ve inflicted with mindless extraction, proving ourselves to be more wanton than wise.

Save our nation, O LORD, save our world, from those who see life only in terms of dollars and dimes … who forfeit the future for present gain.

We pray for our immediate friends and family in the film industry, for the writers and actors on strike, for all the ancillary workers dependent upon production … we pray that a just settlement will be found … a good balance achieved.

Bless us here at Westminster, we pray, as we begin the search for a new minister … remind us, O LORD, that your hand is upon us, your love all around us, your purpose unfolding.

Bless our loved ones, O God - help them along the way of life … give them what’s needed for good living …

All of this, in the name of our LORD Jesus Christ who taught us to pray, saying:

Our Father who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name. Thy Kingdom come, thy will be done, on earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread; and forgive us our debts as we forgive our debtors; and lead us not into temptation but deliver us from evil. For thine is the kingdom and the power and the glory, forever. Amen.