Carol Penner

Prayer for our So Smart World

November 17, 2018

Thank you God for giving us
minds that think and ideas that soar.
Thank you for giving us language and writing,
and prosperity that enables education for many.
Thank you for brilliant inventors who created
technological marvels; radio waves radiating,
microscopes magnifying, computers computing.
Thank you that we have even created artificial intelligence
and robots that do work for us and with us.
Today we pray for good things gone bad;
for social media tools that isolate us from our neighbour,
for algorithms that misinform us about our world,

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White Settler Peace Prayer

November 17, 2018

Creator God
thank you for Indigenous and Inuit communities,
strong after centuries of persecution.
Families with deep bonds of love,
wise with elders, rich in culture, lovers of the land,
speaking with powerful voices that cannot be silenced.

God of justice, God of love,
hear our prayer of lament for crimes committed:
for land taken, for children stolen.
for laws that hobbled culture,
for languages legislated out of existence,
for racist policies of every kind
that produced a wicked harvest of poverty.
You know how this toxic power dynamic

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Earthy Congregational Prayer

November 17, 2018

God of sea and sky,
God of this great earth laid out under the sun,
we come with thanks on our lips and praise in our hearts.
Thank you for life and breath,
and senses to experience the beauty all around us.
Thank you for the dear ones we love, those around us, those far away,
and those who we will only see again in heaven, by your mercy.
We ask for your comfort for those who grieve
and those who are sick, especially…
Today, we come with prayers for this earth,
and help for humankind as we live upon it.
Show us the way to live responsibly, not wastefully.
Open a curiosity in us to learn about the fish in streams and lakes nearest to us,
curiosity about the birds that fly over us,

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Longing for Peace Call to Worship

October 27, 2018

Welcome to worship
at this turn of the season.
As the temperatures dip
we gather in the warmth
of God’s presence,
as the darkness grows
we seek Gods light,
as the earth rests from its labours
we long for God’s peace.
Come, let us worship God together!

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Coming Coldness Congregational Prayer

October 27, 2018

Creator God,
thank you that you order the change of the seasons.
Thank you for the great upheaval that is fall.
Billions of trees dropping every leaf.
Birds heaving themselves across oceans to warmer continents.
Animals burrowing, amphibians tunnelling, everyone going deep
to escape the coming coldness.
All of this orchestrated by you.
Be with us in these changing times.
We pray for people without shelter,
or who have to choose between being warm and being fed.
Give workers in social service agencies patience and compassion.
Give politicians in government the will to help.
Open our hearts to help our neighbours.

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Dark Imaginings

October 27, 2018

ight time brings with it
a host of fearful thoughts crowding;
sickness striking and life changing forever,
debts looming and bills that can’t get paid,
governments floundering and security teetering,
nature hurling storms and earthquakes everywhere,
humankind falling, evil actions blighting all that’s good.
Scrolling the news in my cozy bed,
I rehearse this night time litany too many times to count,
adding it all up, building a tower of catastrophe,
and I pace its floors obsessively.
But then the moonlight touches my cheek,
recalling me to life

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A Prayer for Muddlers

June 27, 2018

Hear our prayer for muddlers everywhere.
People with good intentions doing the wrong thing, diligently.
Seekers heading in the wrong direction, energetically.
Helpers choosing the wrong methods, heartily.
Do-gooders rushing in to make a difference,
not realizing that the difference they are making
is not in a positive direction.
It’s so easy to see this in others;
give us insight into our own missteps,
our own misguided blunderings.
We aren’t setting out to do harm,
and we truly want to help,
help our unhelpfulness.
Give us ears to hear the voices of victims,

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Constant Calling Congregational Prayer

April 4, 2018

Great God:
Thank you for the constant call we hear from you every day.
The wind whispering around our ears,
the birds singing to us from the trees,
rain pinging on the window,
the good earth inviting our steps.
We hear that call again and again,
through kind hands and warm hearts around us.
Open our ears to your call, 
which is as expansive as the world,
and as particular as a poor man walking a dusty road
to a cross on Calvary.
Like him, help us to love, not just in word, but in deed:
love for our neighbours who are hard to love,

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Watching Divorce Happen

April 2, 2018

What God has joined together now lies in pieces.
What began with delight and tenderness,
reeks now with bitterness and festering pain.
What began with soft words of love,
grates now with harsh words of blaming.
Jesus, we look for you
as we stand near this relationship’s slow crucifixion.
Each says to the other, “Why have you forsaken me?”
As we stand on this barren Golgotha
we are desperate to repair this relationship,
which is not in our power to fix.
We urgently want to end this bleeding,

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About Carol Penner

I am a Mennonite pastor currently teaching theology at Conrad Grebel University College in Waterloo, Ontario. I’ve served congregations in Ontario and most recently, Alberta.

I love to write and to lead worship! If you are finding my writing helpful, I would love to hear from you! Feel free to use or adapt the material here, it is all written by me. If printing material, please credit “Copyright Carol Penner www.leadinginworship.com” (and say whether you modified it). If publishing, please contact me for permission. Contact me at carol@leadinginworship.com

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