Sunday Service on Zoom, December 27, 2020

Joys, Sorrows, Prayers and Hopes in the Chat on Zoom – by the congregants

Pastoral Prayer for Year’s End  — by Rev. Dr. Roger Jones

Thank you to all of you who contributed your joys and sorrows and prayers, and thanks to everyone here for bearing witness to one another.  In a little bit the chat function will be disabled so everyone can experience the rest of the service undistracted.  Though our church office is closed, please feel free to reach out to Rev. Lucy or me this week if you need support.

Please join me now in a spirit of reflection and hope  for a time of prayer in word and silence.

First, let’s take in a deep inhale breath and hold it for a moment, and then after pausing, exhale.  Let’s do that again.  Let us notice our feet or body where it is resting at this moment.  Let us give thanks for the gift of this body, the gift of life, and the gift of this new day.

Let us give thanks for having made it this far through this hard year.  Let us give deep thanks for this congregational home and for all those in it who have kept us together.

May we continue to summon the gifts of patience and flexibility, kindness and generosity, care and creativity.  We hold in our hearts those we have lost this year, and those in our lives for whom we continue to care.

We hold in our hearts the people we know and the people across this nation of whom so much has been demanded.

We extend our deep thanks for the frontline health workers who are overworked, the families who feel overwhelmed, and the teachers and school staff members who have learned new ways to serve.  Thanks for all essential workers and the business owners who keep our communities going in so many ways.  Thanks for the firefighters and rescue workers, the poll workers and election officials, the journalists and committed civil servants.  Thanks for the peaceful protestors this year, who persist in demanding equity and insisting on social justice.  May they all be safe, in the coming days.  May they all be well, in the coming year.

With vaccinations now taking place, may our grief and worry be reduced by a sense of hope, day by day.  With a presidential transition a few weeks away, may we look beyond the climate of strife and mistrust in this country with a cautious hope. May we feel a renewed commitment to our deepest values: compassion, human dignity, respect for others, and care for the common good.

And finally, let us not forget the signs of hope and sources of joy we have experienced in this past year: examples of courage and kindness, the many creative alternatives to enjoy the arts (and support the arts) and new opportunities to find human fellowship; the new friendships we have made online or in the local neighborhood, the old connections we have renewed; and of course, the blessings of new children adopted or born in our families and the families we love.

Let us give thanks for having made it this far through this full year.

Let us be open to living this day, and every day, with gratitude, with courage, with care.

So may it be. Blessed be, and amen.

Now let us take a half minute of silence for our personal prayers and reflections, a time of breathing together in peace.   [Silence followed by music.]