St. John the Evangelist, Smiths Falls, OntarioA #heartbeatprayer from the Diocese of Ottawa
We pray that our Church can be a beacon of light, love, hope and inclusiveness to all persons through Christ—that we love our neighbours as ourselves, accepting and including each other no matter who we are.
We pray that we can move in the right directions around reconciliation in light of our legacy of residential schools, and that we can, through God’s grace, admit our mistakes as a church, to seek forgiveness when we are in error and correct ourselves.
We pray that we can present the Gospel as Jesus presented it and use both the traditions and the diversity of our worship in ways that can attract new people into the body of Christ, so that our mission to be the hands and feet of God here on earth can be sustained, and we can bring about God’s kingdom to those on the margins and those who are oppressed in our local community and throughout the world. Amen.