The Lord is my light and my Salvation

Alleluia to the Risen Christ!

Welcome to the quiet side of the day,
when the wind subsides,
when the birds depart to the trees,
when we prepare for darkness and refreshing sleep.

Join with me in the Evening Responses:

The world belongs to God:
the earth and all its people.

How good and how lovely it is:
to live together in unity.

Love and faith come together:
justice and peace join hands.

If the Lord’s disciples keep silent:
the stones would shout aloud!

Lord open our lips:
and our mouth shall proclaim your praise.

Lord of all life, we come to you in prayer for ourselves, our community and our hurting world.

We pray for our Cornerstone, the Living Stones:

Strengthen our bonds of fellowship,
support us in our unified hope
and keep our hearts faithful to your Word.

Lord of Light, we trust in you.

Grant our clergy insight, energy and a peaceful heart.
Bless the people who manage our worship and communications
with perseverance and joy in the gifts they freely offer.
Support the Ecumenical Council leadership
as they administer church life in this time of lockdown.
We look forward to the time when we can meet together again as one people.

Lord of Light, we trust in you

Psalm 121 – a Psalm of Trust

If I lift up my eyes to the hills,
  where shall I find help?
My help comes only from the Lord,
  Maker of heaven and earth.

He will not let your foot stumble;
  he who guards you will not sleep.

The Lord is your guardian,
  your protector at your right hand;
the sun will not strike you by day
  nor the moon by night.

The Lord will guard you against all harm;
  he will guard your life.
The Lord will guard you as you come and go,
  now and for evermore.

We pray for our Milton Keynes Community:

We hold up to the Lord all the people who use our Chapel as a place of refuge and relief,
the people who come to Cornerstone in poverty asking for food,
the people who have no home, no place to rest.
Renew their hope and give them your peace.

Lord of Salvation, we trust in you.

We pray for the people whose priority is the welfare of others:

Milton Keynes YMCA,
Milton Keynes Hospital and Community Care,
Mental Health services,
Extra Care Villages and smaller care homes,
Community Action,
the Food Bank
and all the hundreds of active volunteers.

Lord of Salvation, we trust in you.

We pray for people in authority:

Grant wisdom to our elected official
and discernment to those who administer the law and justice.

Lord of Salvation, we trust in you.

Strengthen all those who work for our welfare:

People who deliver our post and remove our waste;
park keepers and till keepers,
shelf-fillers and warehouse workers.

Lord of Salvation, we trust in you.

A reading of life made new

Listen! I will unfold a mystery: we shall not all die, but we shall all be changed – in a flash, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet-call. For the trumpet will sound and the dead will rise imperishable and we shall be changed. This perishable body must be clothed with the imperishable, and what is mortal with immortality. And when this perishable body has been clothed with the imperishable and our mortality has been clothed with immortality, then the saying of scripture will come true: ‘Death is swallowed up; victory is won!

O Death, where is your victory?
O Death, where is your sting?

But thanks be to God! He gives us victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.

Therefore, my dear friends, stand firm and immovable and work for the Lord always, work without limit, since you know that in the Lord your labour cannot be lost.

1 Corinthians 15:51–57

We pray for our world:

As countries stricken by the pandemic focus ever more closely on themselves,
raise their eyes to those around them.
Give them a spirit of co-operation,
a will to share ideas and their experience to the benefit of even their enemies.

Lord of Resurrection, we trust in you.

Turn the rhetoric of leaders from antagonism and blame
to words of peace and overtures of help.
Strengthen the sway of global organisations to strive for a world renewed
where the welfare of the weak becomes the priority of the powerful.

Lord of Resurrection, we trust in you.

A reading of Life

Jesus said, ‘I am the resurrection and the life. Whoever has faith in me shall live, even though he dies; and no one who lives and has faith in me shall ever die. Do you believe this?’

Martha answered, ‘I do, Lord; I believe that you are the Messiah, the Son of God who was to come into the world.’

John 11: 25–27

Lord, we believe in your eternal care and daily blessing.
We thank you for the beauty of the day
and the velvet softness of the night,
the moon and stars in the vast expanse of space.
We place our bodies and souls into your safekeeping
and we look forward to refreshing sleep.
With confidence we will greet the new day
because you are there beside us.

Lord of Resurrection, of the darkness and the light, we trust in you.

Let us conclude our prayers as Jesus taught us:

Our Father in heaven,
hallowed be your name.
Your kingdom come.
Your will be done
on earth as it is in heaven.
Give us today our daily bread and
forgive us our sins
as we forgive those who sin against us.
Save us from the time of trial
and deliver us from evil.
For the kingdom, the power,
and the glory are yours
now and for ever.

Amen

And now my friends in Christ:
May the risen Lord Jesus bless us.
May he watch over us and renew us as he renews the whole of creation.
May our hearts and lives echo his love.

Amen