Kirk calls church members to prayer in response to the pandemic

This Sunday (15 August), Christians across the country – and further afield – will join together in prayer and reflection at 7pm in response to the pandemic.

As with previous weeks during lockdown, 15 Christian churches and organisations across the country, including the Church of Scotland, have co-signed the letter calling for prayer.

Scottish Christians have been continuing to answer the call to pray at the same time each week, and the Moderator of the General Assembly of the Church of Scotland, Lord Wallace, is taking part alongside them.

"We should always be mindful for the wisdom handed down to us from past generations; much of it learned the hard way, from mistakes made and consequences suffered," Lord Wallace said.

"So, too, we are grateful for the richness that comes to us from living alongside people of other traditions. In our day and generation we must surely allow our minds and hearts to be open so that we can risk getting to know them and learning from them.

"In this pandemic, our responsibility is to come together and offer our prayers for all the many diverse expressions of our Christian faith that enrich life, as we have done for many months now.

"As the statistics appear to move in a hopeful direction, let us not forget that behind each death there will be grieving family and friends; behind each hospitalisation there will be a suffering patient, an anxious family and a caring and skilled medical team.

"And behind each vaccination, let us recognise, with thanks, the skill of the scientists' research and those who make distribution and vaccination possible. Let us remember, too, those in countries who still wait anxiously for vaccines to arrive. May our leaders respond imaginatively and generously to that challenge.

"A pattern has been set for us, lived out in Jesus Christ, made possible by the Spirit. May we follow in His way, and be guided by the one over-riding rule of love in all that we say and do."

This week's letter accompanying the prayer, which is also available in Gaelic, states:

"As we journey from where we have been in past months to where we will be in times to come, we are beginning to recover some of the parts of our shared life that had been lost to us for a time.

"Within shared communal settings and within the community of God's people, one of the things that we are recovering is the experience of song and the bonding that the shared experience of singing brings to us.

"Within the community of God's people, we are gradually beginning to recover the shared expression of worship through the singing of ‘psalms, hymns and spiritual songs'. (Ephesians 5: 20)

"In recovering that which had been lost, we rediscover a dimension of our shared experience that is integral to our worship of God. As the Spirit inspires us, we renew our thanksgiving ‘to God the Father at all times and for everything in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ'. As we do so, we share more fully in the life that God gifts to us through Christ and by the Spirit."

We pray:

God our Father,
As we journey from where we have been
To where we will be,
Fill us with Your Spirit
That we might truly worship You
And praise Your holy name.
Lord, in Your mercy,
Hear our prayer.

God our Father,
As we journey from where we have been
To where we will be,
Inspire us within the community of God's people
To lift up our hearts
And to renew our praise.
Lord, in Your mercy,
Hear our prayer.

God our Father,
As we journey from where we have been
To where we will be,
Renew us as we renew our praise
With Psalms and hymns
And all the songs of God's people.
Lord, in Your mercy,
Hear our prayer.

God our Father,
As we journey from where we have been
To where we will be,
Help us to recover that which has been lost
And to rediscover all that unites us
As those who are made in Your image.
Lord, in Your mercy,
Hear our prayer.

God our Father,
As we journey from where we have been
To where we will be,
We give thanks to You
For all your gifts to us
Through Christ and by Your Spirit.
Lord, in Your mercy,
Hear our prayer.

Signed by:

• Lord Wallace, Moderator of the General Assembly, Church of Scotland
• Most Rev. Leo Cushley, Archbishop of St. Andrews and Edinburgh, Roman Catholic Church
• Most Rev. Mark Strange, Primus, on behalf of the College of Bishops, Scottish Episcopal Church
• Rev. Dr David Miller, Moderator, United Free Church of Scotland
• Rev. Neil MacMillan, Moderator, Free Church of Scotland
• Rev. Paul Whittle, Moderator, United Reformed Church (Scotland)
• Rev. Martin Hodson, General Director, Baptist Union of Scotland
• Rev. Mark Slaney, District Chair, Methodist Church (Scotland)
• Rev. Thomas R. Wilson, Chair, Congregational Federation in Scotland
• Lt. Col. Carol Bailey, Secretary for Scotland, Salvation Army
• Adwoa Bittle, Religious Society of Friends (Quakers)
• Rev. Ruth Turner, District Superintendent, British Isles North District, Church of the Nazarene
• Pastor Chris Gbenle, Provincial Pastor, Province of Scotland, Redeemed Christian Church of God
• Bishop Francis Alao, Church of God (Scotland)/Minority Ethnic Churches Together in Scotland (MECTIS)