PRAYERS FOR CLIMATE JUSTICE AND COP26

Lord, we worship you

Creator of the world

Sustainer of the Universe

The Lagan Towpath, kingfishers and seals

Creator of the Antrim coast

The beaches and ocean

The headlands and forests

The 40 shades of green

Creator of the Mournes

The vistas of mountain peaks

The views from there.

God, thank you for the beauty of your art.

 

Lord we ask for your forgiveness

For how careless we have been with our Father’s art

For how reckless we have been

For how we have turned our stewardship vocation

Into a miss-use and abuse of creation for our own ends

For the greed that thinks only of self and more

For the comforts we hold too dear at the cost of the ripping up of your art

For working against you rather than with you for climate justice

For the state in which your art now lies

Lord we ask for your forgiveness

 

And Lord, John tells us that “If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness”

 

So do more than forgive us Lord

Purify us from all unrighteousness

This particular week 

Show us our unrighteousness in relation to creation

Help us see

What has been done

What is being done

And what we can do to repent and transform and change

Lord set us free from our greed

From our diminished theology

From our violence to the earth

Set us free to be those who care for the world of our father’s hand

Who care for a creation that also groans for its full salvation

Set us free to make decisions 

In our lives

In our homes

In our places of work

In our cities to halt the environmental catastrophe

Set us free to allow political leaders meeting in Glasgow

To make decisions that might make our lives less comfortable

Less wealthy

That they might save our planet

 

Lord, start with us not the leaders

May we be the custodians of your art that you created us to be

And Jesus redeemed us to be,

 

Amen.