Creation liturgy #5: Eucharistic Prayer

 As an ecumenical partnership church, our eucharistic prayers vary between an Anglican structure, and a format more familiar to those from a United Reformed Church tradition. This year's Creation season liturgy is in the latter style.

Sharing

BRINGING BREAD AND WINE

P:         What do you bring to Christ’s table?

C:         We bring bread, earth-grown and fire-baked,
the work of human hands in an unjust world
where some have plenty and most go hungry.

P:         At this table, all are fed, and no one is turned away.

All:       Thanks be to God.

P:         What do you bring to Christ’s table?

C:         We bring wine, earth-grown and water-nourished,
the work of human hands in an unjust world
where some have leisure and most struggle to survive.

P:         At this table, all share the cup of pain and celebration,
and no one is denied.

All:       Thanks be to God.

P:         These gifts shall be for us the body and blood of Christ:

All:       Our witness against hunger,
our cry against injustice,
and our hope for a world
where God is fully known
where every child is fed
and where the earth breathes freely.
Thanks be to God.

[adapted from prayers in Janet Morley (ed), Bread of Tomorrow]

STORY OF THE LAST SUPPER

P:         Now let us hear the story of this meal.

C:         In the shadows of oppression,
            on the night of his betrayal,
            our brother Jesus had a meal with his friends,
            where he took bread, gave thanks to God, broke it, and said:
            ‘This is my body. Given for you all.’

            And he did the same with the wine, sharing it, saying:
            ‘This is my life-blood, the new covenant of God
            with all creation. Do this in remembrance of me.’

P:         So as Jesus gathered with his friends to thank God,
            let us too raise our voices in thanks and praise.

EUCHARISTIC PRAYER

P:         God is here!
God’s Spirit is with us!
Let down your hearts!
We root our hearts in God!
Let us give our thanks to God!
It is right to give God thanks and praise!

God our Maker,
we thank you for your creating:
for the swirling galaxies and our radiant sun;
for this planet Earth, our shared home;
for the air we breathe and the water that refreshes;
and for all your wonderful creatures:

The president names some of the creatures from our ‘Gathering’ conversation, concluding by saying…

With all of these creatures of your delight and joy,
we join to sing your praise:

We sing together words of praise to God (‘Holy, holy, holy’),
repeating line by line after the solo singer.

Our brother Jesus,
we thank you for taking flesh:
earth-creature like us,
you blazed with the wild-fire of the prophets
as you called your kinfolk to repent,
and return to your way of love.

You spoke of the wild, untameable wind
and offered us living, overflowing water,
and the forces of death had you nailed you to a cross
and buried in a stone-cold tomb.

Yet God’s wild life can never be contained,
and in the garden of resurrection you walked anew,
and came to us through our locked doors,
breathing God’s forgiveness.

Great is the mystery of faith:
Christ has died.
Christ is risen.
Christ will come again.

Holy Spirit,
we thank you for your re-creating:
renewer of our fire-scorched soil,
re-planter of our barren wastelands,
living water quenching parched earth,
mighty wind breathing life into dry bones.

Come to us afresh, we pray:
bring these gifts of bread and wine alive with your presence;
kindle us your children aflame with your passion;
bless our creature-kin and all creation anew with your power;
that we may see your goodness,
and know your healing,
and share in your joy,
in your good and gracious time,
and in the urgency of now.
Amen?
Amen!
Amen?
Amen!
Amen?
Amen!