Prayer: O God, it is your will to hold both heaven and earth in a single peace. Let the design of your great love shine on the waste of our sorrows, and give peace to your church, peace among nations, peace in our homes, and peace in our hearts; through your Son, Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.
(from worship resources for World Communion Sunday)
Prayer is at the heart of worship. In prayer, through the Holy Spirit, people seek after and are found by the one true God who has been revealed in Jesus Christ.
They listen and wait upon God, call God by name, remember God's gracious acts, and offer themselves to God.
Prayer may be
spoken,
sung,
offered in silence,
or enacted.
Prayer grows out of the center of a person's life in response to the Spirit. Prayer is shaped by the Word of God in Scripture and by the life of the community of faith.
Book of Order W-2.1001
In prayer we respond to God in many ways.
- In adoration we praise God for who God is.
- In thanksgiving we express gratitude for what God has done.
- In confession we acknowledge repentance for what we as individuals and as a people have done or left undone.
- In supplication we plead for ourselves and the gathered community.
- In intercession we plead for others, on behalf of others, and for the whole world.
- In self-dedication we offer ourselves to the purpose and glory of God.
Book of Order W-2.1002
Rejoice always, pray without ceasing,
give thanks in all circumstances;
for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you.
1 Thessalonians 5:16-18
Prayer of Adoration and Praise: Praise God!!
Prayer of Confession: A time to admit to God our shortcomings, what we have done wrong and what we failed to do (sins of commission and omission).
Prayer of Illumination: “In this prayer we ask the Holy Spirit to help us understand God’s Word in the Bible ‘Illumination’ means ‘turning the light on.’ When we understand something from the Bible for the very first time, it can feel like somebody turned the light on for us!” A Children’s Guide to Worship by Ruth Boling
Bidding Prayer: This is an interactive prayer done in a group. The leader begins the prayer and lifts up to God a general area of prayer and the participants offer specific prayers out loud or silently.
Pastoral Prayer: A prayer in a worship service that thanks God (thanksgiving), asks God for help (supplication, petition) and asks God for help for others (intercession).
Prayer of Dedication: Dedication of an offering to God’s purpose.
Lord’s Prayer: When asked how to pray, Jesus told his disciples to pray like this - Our Father who art in heaven, hallowed by thy name. They kingdom come, Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread; forgive us our debts, as we forgive our debtors. Lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil, For Thine is the kingdom and the power and the glory, forever. Amen.