Welcome to the FWW Prayer Guide for April. We hope it will be useful for personal prayer, but also for those who lead intercessions in services. Do pass it on to those in your church. Any feedback from use of the Guide would be most welcome. We also use the Guide at our quarterly online prayer meeting. The next such meeting will be on April 11th from 1.00 – 1.30 p.m. For the Zoom link for that, and any feedback, please email Dick Johnson.
This Easter Season we celebrate resurrection, revealed on Easter morning, and experienced through the continuing presence of the risen Christ in the world. Easter Life comes after the horror of Good Friday, and so, in our prayers, we reach for the hope of resurrection even as we acknowledge the injustice, suffering and despair around us. This is apparent in the Ukraine, Sudan, Israel/Palestine, and other less newsworthy conflicts. But also is seen and experienced in work and the economy. We pray for those whose work is hard, unrewarding or uncertain. For those who struggle to make ends meet through low pay. For those who cannot work through caring for others, their own ill-health or vulnerability. That new life, new beginnings and new hope are known in all things, and by all people.
Almighty God, whose Son is the Resurrection and the Life,
help us to pray for those most disadvantaged and damaged by the way our economy is ordered.
May the Resurrection be revealed to those most in need of new life and new beginnings.
And may our prayers, and your Love,
lead us to work for justice, hope and life for all,
which is the mark of your Kingdom that we see in the risen Jesus Christ,
in whose name we pray.
Amen
Especially we give thanks for:
- Good work, that serves the common good, and uses God given skills and talents (be specific, giving thanks for the work of those you know, or whose work brings life to you and your community)
- Opportunities to be creative in work – paid or unpaid – and in serving others.
- Times when you have been fulfilled in your work.
And we pray for:
- Fairness in wages and working conditions, and a just use of power in our economy.
- Refugees from war, conflict and poverty risking all for a better life for their families.
- Those unable to participate in the economy through prejudice, illness or exclusion.
- Those we know – families, friends, neighbours and in our churches – for whom work is difficult, stressful, and undervalued.
- For FWW workplace chaplains, in their ministry of presence and listening, that they may be beacons of hope, and sharers of God’s life and love with those they meet.
- New opportunities for chaplaincy in workplaces and sectors of the economy where there are no FWW chaplains as yet.
- For volunteers to help with the running of FWW, supporting the ministry of workplace chaplaincy.
- In our cycle of prayer for chaplains and trustees, this month we pray for:
- Chaplains: In Pershore – Team leader Stuart Sandys, Angela Gerrard, John Podd, Cathy Cooper, Alma Organ, David Oldham, Emily Miller, Carol Sandys, and Christine Dodd.
- Trustees/Staff: Alison Sandham, as she retires after more than 5 years as Communications and Administrative Officer, giving thanks for all that she has contributed to FWW.