Prayer of Confession

Haystack Prayer Meeting Worship Resources for September 24, 2006

Prayer of Confession

Still-speaking, more-light sharing God, hear our prayer.

Hear us, as we name and recall the ways our wider mission to the world has been full of pride and condescension. Even as we celebrate the Haystack Prayer Meeting and the courageous faith of our mission forebears, we acknowledge our complicity with Western Culture in destroying so many indigenous practices of those peoples we went to serve. When this has happened we have not shared Christ.

Open our hearts and our imaginations to new ways of partnership. Strengthen our resolve to receive your gospel from voices and perspectives far different from our own. Create in us the awareness that each of us – no matter the culture or the tongue – has the capacity to share the inbreaking glory of your realm. As we are guided by your Spirit so will we, like those at the Haystack Meeting, find ourselves in prayer and know the blessed joy of carrying your love to the ends of the earth.

Amen.

Assurance of Pardon

Our paths will stray, our intentions will falter. But God’s promise of presence is
unyielding and God’s purpose of love is everlasting. Thanks be to God.
Amen.