25th Sunday of Ordinary Time

Original prayers, Rev. Waiora Te Moni – ‘He Rau Pōhiri’, hīmene Mihingare – ‘Piko Nei te Matenga’, Ps 1, Proverbs 30:8, Mark 9:30-37

An approach

Whāia, whāia te ara Matua,
Whāia, whāia te ara Atua

Seek and you shall find the path of the Lord
Seek and you shall find God

Hei tangi mō rātou kua wehe 

Piko nei te matenga
Tau mai ko te pouri nui
E te Tama a te Atua
Tenei arohaina mai.

For those who have passed on,
And for us who are weighed down with grief,
Jesus, sorrow with us.

Let us pray for the the world 

E te Atua, loving God
We give you thanks for our world,
Its beauty, its power and fragility.
Grant us the creativity, the wisdom and the vigour
To care for your creation;
We pray for the places of darkness;
Places where greed and lies
Seek to swallow up what is good.
Lord, in those places, may your hope rise.

Bidding: Lord, hear our prayer
Response: and let our cry come to you.

Let us pray for the Church.

E te Ariki [Lord Jesus],
Help us to be Your body in this place;
Help us choose to love those we don’t understand -
Because You understand them.
Help us to use your Word in love with true humility.

We pray for our church communities throughout Aotearoa New Zealand,
We pray especially for our decision-makers:
our vestries, our ordained and lay leaders, our committees, our boards.
Be always at the centre of our decisions, e te Atua.
We pray for your spirit to guide our ministries.
We pray also for Your spirit to move in those who seek you out,
that we might reach out in love.
That we might seek to be the very last, and the servant of all.

Bidding: Lord, hear our prayer
Response: and let our cry come to you.

Let us pray for our communities.

E te Wairua Tapu [Holy Spirit]
We thank you for our communities;
Move in us that our communities might be,
Like trees planted by streams of water,
    which yields its fruit in season.
May they not be as chaff lost easily to winds of change.
We ask today for blessings of renewal
upon our towns, papa kāinga, suburbs and cities;
hit by closures, redundancies and loss.

 These prayers we lift to you,
In the name of Jesus, our saviour.  

Amen.