Dear *|FIRSTNAME|*,
This coming Sunday we will be focusing in our worship on those around our world who are seeking refuge, a safe place to live and contribute to life. We will be welcoming Marie-Christine Nibagwire, who is a refugee from Rwanda who will be sharing her story in our services, helping us to engage more deeply in the issues.
So our prayer this week gives thanks to God whose love knows no bounds nor boundaries, and who blesses us with friendships across cultures and difference.
God Beyond Borders
God beyond borders,
we bless you for strange places and different dreams,
for the demands and diversity of a wider world,
for the distance that lets us look back and re-evaluate,
for new ground where the broken stems can take root, grow and blossom.
We bless you for the friendship of strangers,
the richness of other cultures
and the painful gift of freedom.
Blessed are you, God beyond borders.
But if we have overlooked the exiles in our midst,
heightened their exclusion by our indifference,
given our permission for a climate of fear,
and tolerated a culture of violence,
Have mercy on us.
God who takes side with justice.
Confront our prejudice;
stretch our narrowness;
sift out our laws and our lives with the penetrating insight of your Spirit
until generosity is our only measure. Amen.
Source: “Refugee Evensong” by Woolman House Community, Liverpool, England. Published by KAIROS: Canadian Ecumenical
Justice Initiatives in Seeking Shelter: Advent 2012 Ecumenical Resource for Justice Seekers
Carolyn | 
