Taking the next step

Prayers

God, we have talked and prayed together,
Questioned and reflected together,
Hoped and dreamed together.

Give us vision and confidence now
To find our way forward
As your people
Following your vision and walking in your way.
Amen

We are your people:
Living by your word,
Struggling to understand,
Listening to your voice,
And delighting in your way.
Transforming God,
Fill us with life and hope.

We are your people:
Meeting you in prayer,
Reaching out in praise to grasp your mystery,
Bringing our pain for a vulnerable world,
Confessing and knowing ourselves forgiven.
Transforming God,
Fill us with life and hope.

We are your people:
Travelling with you,
Sharing our journeys,
Telling our stories of love and longing,
Reaching out in loving welcome.
Transforming God,
Fill us with life and hope.

We are your people:
Living, praying, sharing,
In the vision you have given us.
Transforming God,
Fill us with life and hope.
Amen.

Hymn

Tune: R & S 603
God of the church, where new ways are emerging,
In all our searching out what we might be,
Help us to listen to the Gospel’s urging
That we may hear the Word that sets us free.

God of the earth, where everything declares you,
Your holiness in all we see and feel,
Help us to see that each encounter bears you,
A sacrament that makes our vision real.

God of our hopes, when all seems crushed and broken,
Gather the fragments of our scattered days,
In every yearning, every word that’s spoken,
Bring transformation that shouts out with praise.

God of all life, whose story shapes and shakes us,
Calling your church to live out what is true,
Be in our choosing, and in all that makes us,
Til in our searching, we discover you.

Ideas for hymns and songs

Rejoice and Sing
530  Living God, your joyful Spirit
547  Moses, I know you’re the man, the Lord said,
549  One more step along the world I go
558  Will you come and follow me
Common Ground
4   Let us build a house
8  As a fire is meant for burning
21 Christ, be our light

Ideas for prayer

Provide a bowl or basket of stones, or scatter them on a cloth.  Invite each person to take a stone and place it on a cairn or at the foot of a cross as a sign of their willingness to take the next step on their journey.