PRAYER TIME FOR DAY 8 and 28  -  JUNE 12th and July 2nd 

Especially designed for zoom prayer times during the Sacred Season of Prayer and Fasting but can be used in individual or face to face prayer times as well.  Spontaneous prayer is offered in times of prayers of praise and confession from group members using if possible some of themes in the scripture reading.  The prayers for others can also be prayed spontaneously and can weave in thoughts from scripture reading, passage from Basis of Union and devotional reading. 

GRACE and HOPE in CHRIST through WORDS and VISIBLE ACTS

DR. KATHERINE ABETZ

Dr Katherine Abetz lives at Poatina a Christian village in Tasmania. Her role as lay preacher raised the question of

women’s leadership in the church. This led her on a theological journey resulting in a doctorate of theology. She

is an active member of the ACC and is an ACC School of Faith teacher.

OPENING PRAYER 

BIBLE READINGS:  Titus 3:5b-6

He saved us through the washing of rebirth

and renewal by the Holy Spirit

whom he poured out on us generously

through Jesus  Christ our Saviour.

PRAYERS OF PRAISE AND ADORATION  

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PRAYERS OF CONFESSION

BIBLE READINGS:  Titus 3:3-8

Reader 1

 At one time we too were foolish, disobedient, deceived and enslaved by all kinds of passions and pleasures. We lived in malice and envy, being hated and hating one another.

Reader 2

4 But when the kindness and love of God our Savior appeared, 5 he saved us, not because of righteous things we had done, but because of his mercy.

Reader 3

He saved us through the washing of rebirth and renewal by the Holy Spirit, 6 whom he poured out on us generously through Jesus Christ our Savior, 7 so that, having been justified by his grace, we might become heirs having the hope of eternal life.

Reader 4

8 This is a trustworthy saying. And I want you to stress these things, so that those who have trusted in God may be careful to devote themselves to doing what is good. These things are excellent and profitable for everyone

PARAGRAPH 6: BASIS OF UNION - SACRAMENTS 

Reader 1:

The Uniting Church acknowledges that Christ has commanded his

Church to proclaim the Gospel both in words and in the two visible

acts of Baptism and the Lord’s Supper.

Reader 2: 

Christ himself acts in and through everything that the Church does in obedience to his commandment: it is Christ who by the gift of the Spirit confers the forgiveness, the fellowship, the new life and the freedom which the proclamation and actions promise; and it is Christ who awakens, purifies and advances in people the faith and hope in which alone such benefits can be accepted.

REFLECTION

Reader 1: 

During my training as a religious education teacher in Victoria I was instructed about the different styles of learning. Some people learn primarily through what they see, some through what they hear and others through what they do. In spite of these emphases, most of us learn through a combination of all three avenues.

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Reader 2:

This paragraph from the Basis of Union has the heading ‘Sacraments’. But at the beginning of the Basis we find the disclaimer that the headings were not part of the text approved by the three uniting churches. The paragraph itself states that ‘Christ has commanded his Church to proclaim the Gospel both in words and in the two visible acts of Baptism and the Lord’s Supper’ (my italics). Long before I was taught about different styles of learning, the Church was commanded to employ them.

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Reader 3:

It is not through hearing alone but also through seeing and doing that we

receive the good news. 

But even the three avenues of learning are not enough on their own. Paragraph 6 is a link paragraph between paragraph 5 on the witness of the biblical writers in the worshipping and witnessing life of the Church and paragraphs 7 and 8 which deal more specifically with baptism and the Lord’s Supper. The link is Christ. Christ is in everything we hear and see and do. The Uniting Church’s logo is a teaching device in this respect.

Reader 4: 

We of the Uniting Church cannot miss the point. As Paul writes to Titus, the Holy Spirit is poured out on us generously through Jesus Christ our Saviour. There are echoes of the sacraments in this Scriptural passage: the washing of rebirth (baptism) and the activity of pouring out (the outpoured blood). We listen; we see; we act out the story. And Christ is always there.

PRAYER

Leader: 

Father, thank you so much for your kindness and love and for your generous pouring out of the Holy Spirit through Jesus Christ our Saviour. Thank you for the grace which justifies us and the liberating hope of eternal life. May these things be expounded and also demonstrated in the worshipping and witnessing life of our Uniting Church.

PRAYERS FOR OTHERS

CONFESSION FROM BASIS OF UNION

Leader:

Within this fellowship of the Uniting Church in Australia, and as part of the Christian church around the world, let us confess Christ in the following words from the Basis of Union.

Reader 1:  

Today we ‘confess Jesus as Lord over (our) own life’ and ‘Head over all  things, the beginning of a new creation, of a new humanity’.

Leader:        

We joyously proclaim that ‘in Jesus Christ "God was reconciling the  world to himself" (2 Corinthians 5:19 RSV)’,

Reader 2:    

and that ‘in love for the world, God gave the Son to take  away the world's sin.’

Leader:        

We confess that ‘Christ…is the Word of the God who acquits  the guilty,

Reader 3:    

who gives life to the dead and who brings into being what  otherwise  could not exist.’

Amen. 

FINAL PRAYER