On this day, Living God, we celebrate that you are not distant from us,
not trapped in a temple or secluded in the heavens,
but right here with us, in every time and place.

Ever living and ever loving God,
We praise you for your loving presence with us.

Triune God, we pray to you:
take and transform our societies—
that broken people find healing;
that lonely people find love;
that bitter people find peace;
that fearful people find hope.

Triune God, we pray to you:
take our world’s leaders and governments and bring renewal—
that communication can be open;
that relationships between hostile people and hostile nations will be reconciled;
that a hunger for justice will exceed all other desires.

Triune God, we pray to you:
fill your church with life;
that our worship will be ever more pleasing to you;
that in our prayers we will be open to what you want
not just what we want;
that our lives will make a real difference to real people in the real world.

Triune God, we pray to you:
who intercedes with sighs too deep for words.
Hear the prayers of our hearts,
for those we love who hurt or grieve or celebrate this day,
and the prayers we cannot form into words, yet are real nonetheless. 

[prayers of the congregation may be spoken here]

Triune God, we pray to you:
fill our lives with your presence—
so that more and more every day,
all that we do and say and hope
will be an act of worship to you and an expression of love to others,
to the glory of your name.  

And now, as your disciples have done since before the church began, let us pray as Jesus taught us, 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.