Thread by @DisabilityJ

1) Welcome

2) In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, AMEN

3) Reveal to us the incarnation of your grace as celebrate your birth.

Enable us to stand in solidarity with all who suffer disability, pain and injustice, so that the world will see in us the good news of Emmanuel, God-with-us, Amen.

4)
You have shone your new light upon us.

Grant that this light, kindles in our hearts and shines as a beacon to others.

5) We gather in the afterglow of Christmas and on the last Sunday of the year. We want to praise You for Your faithfulness at Christmas
That what You promised came true.
That a Child was born, a Son given
And His name is Emmanuel, God with us

6) God with us
Walk with us in to this season
Share with us our pilgrim road
As we prepare for
the coming of the Christ child.
Grant us a new hope.

7) Thank you for joining us at our weekly live Twitter service loosely based around The Ordinary Office.

We pray that you feel at home here and comfortable in the company of the many who gather in this virtual sacred space.
Join us as we pilgrimage.

8) Thank You for Your faithfulness over this last year That You have been with us in good times and bad, through ordinary days and special occasions, giving us good moments, memories we can return to and reasons to be thankful.

9) Open our hearts Lord to the warmth of your love.

10) Lift the darkness and cold of winter.

Lift these feelings of isolation and loneliness.

Lift the chillness that seeps deep into our bones, hearts and spirits making us frost hardened, binding our very souls from the cold but also blocking your love.

11) Open those souls Lord to the warmth of your coming, to the news of your birth.

Melt the hardness that separates us from you and one another.

12) Please join us each day, morning, mid day, evening and night as we pray together at anordinaryoffice.org.uk.

13) We thank you for the gap you have created
in the firmament and the
glimpse of heaven that begins
to shine through.

14) We dedicate this space this evening to those who maybe feel they have little or nothing to look forward to.

Father take this place and those gathered here and make this a place of hope and encouragement.

15) We come before you, each of us, Alone!
So many churches do not meet our needs
We cannot climb the stairs
We cannot hear the celebrant
The language is too complex
We cannot read the literature
 We’ve been so hurt by bad Bible teaching we simply cannot face it again.

16) Father, thank you that so many of us are finding this place each Sunday, we thank you that more and more people are finding their way here. We pray that the wider church will embrace this initiative and support us.

17) Though we are far apart
Let us feel a closeness
Let us reach out across the ether
United across time and space

18) This is your temple Lord
Although there are no walls.
The web is where we gather
As real to us as any church
Computers, phones and tablets are our prayer books.

19) These strangers are my friends
Mark this as holy ground
A virtual sacred space.

20)
Staggering, stumbling
Lurching, limping
Whatever the way

21) Crawling, walking
Falling and then rising
Whatever the way

22) On stretchers
In wheelchairs
With canes
And with guide dogs
Whatever the way

23) With crutches and sticks
Arm in arm
Hand in hand
Whatever the way

24) I’ll carry you
If you’ll carry me
We’ll carry each other
Forward together
Whatever the way.

25) Lord brand us with your Logo
Write it on our hearts Lord
In letters bright and bold
A logo that says made in heaven
Copyright Jesus the Lord

26) Write it in ink that will not fade
Write it in braille and symbols too
Write it for everyone
Leave no one out

27) Let ALL Your people know
Tell them they are precious
Tell them they are yours
One family, equal and true
One people, one body
Made in the image of You

28) Those who cannot see he walks with as guide.
He whispers softly to those who cannot hear.
He soothes those whose minds are troubled.
He rides with those who cannot walk.
He sees the pain of those whose pain cannot be seen & brings insight to those who appear not to understand

29) So many of us are damaged and broken.

Tonight we celebrate this online space, may it become a home to us and all who are in some way broken.

30) Forgive us
If over this Christmas season
We have lost the spirit of Christmas

31) Forgive us
If stress or financial pressure or over-indulgence
Have meant that we have not always shown love and good will to all

32)
God of hope, bring us love
that dwells between us.
God of hope, who brought peace into this world,
be the peace that dwells between us.
God of hope, who brought joy into this world,
be the joy that dwells between us.

33) So we begin our prayer of welcome, teach us to be an inclusive community, leave no one behind.

34) To those who feel unwelcome

All respond by
Tweeting the reply
WELCOME

35) To those who feel unwelcome

All respond by
Tweeting the reply
WELCOME

36) To those who feel shut out

All respond by
Tweeting the reply
WELCOME

37) To those who feel estranged
from church

All respond by
Tweeting the reply
WELCOME

38) To those who feel abandoned
or adrift

All respond by
Tweeting the reply
WELCOME

39) To those who simply want to be here

All respond by Tweeting the reply
WELCOME

40) To those who join us from church
communities to show us your support.

All respond by Tweeting the reply
WELCOME

41) To those who read this
at a later date or time.

All respond by Tweeting the reply
WELCOME

42) To anyone who feels they have been
overlooked by us, please believe us
when we say, you are welcome!

All respond by Tweeting the reply
WELCOME

43) To those who feel shut in by dark nights and winter weather

All respond by Tweeting the reply
WELCOME

45) And we ask you to teach us a new type of churchmanship, not high church, not evangelical, not charismatic, not pentecostal but a churchmanship accessible to all, a churchmanship prepared to compromise our preferred forms of worship to be open to all

46) Take this scattered, rag, tag and bobtail band of pilgrims, each making our own way.
Unite us in this online place, draw us close as we gather here, alone and yet somehow together.

47) Let us take a moment, to compose our thoughts, to shake off the tensions of the week and the emotion that this day has stirred in us and welcome you in to this virtual space, to be right here in the midst of us.

48) In this time of togetherness we are still somehow alone. Draw us close to you.
Help us grieve our loneliness knowing You look on us with tenderness.

49) We come in our loneliness, our brokenness, our feelings of being cut off, cast adrift and yet we find much comfort in this place as we build this online community, an expression of your eternal love.

50) We offer all this back to you God as our gift to your wider church, that out of our broken lives we say to your Sunday church, come, see where we live, share our pilgrim journey, travel with us, share this road.

You can lean on us as we in turn lean on you.

51) This Sunday we pray for your whole church, the seen and the invisible, those who are gathered and those who are scattered.
Unite us all in a spirit of community
Bring your broken body back together, not cured but broken yet healed.

52) Even if the only company we’ve had today has been that of those we’ve shared prayer with online, we thank you for bringing us through this day and join with all the others of this community, alone yet together.

53) We praise You,  Lord,  because we’re ALL fearfully & wonderfully made.
In your house there is room for all, there are no rejects.
There are no able-bodied, no disabled, there are only His beloved children, all made in His image. Beautiful in His eyes.

54) For the times we have turned
away in anger.

All respond by Tweeting the reply
LORD HAVE MERCY.

55) For the times we have blamed you

All respond by Tweeting the reply
LORD HAVE MERCY

56) For the times we have blamed you

All respond by Tweeting the reply
LORD HAVE MERCY

57) For the times we have blamed you

All respond by Tweeting the reply
LORD HAVE MERCY

58) For the times we have closed our
hearts and minds

All respond by Tweeting the reply
CHRIST HAVE MERCY

59) For the times we have allowed ourselves to be overcome with self pity.

All respond by Tweeting the reply
CHRIST HAVE MERCY

60) Even in the dark of night,
You leave a light on for me,
and are always watching over me.
 
Lamplighter! lover, friend,
You are the keeper of my dreams.
 be ours this night.

61) When our feeble faith deserts us
and fear runs amuck, lend us yours.

We know that will be enough
As it has been so many times before

62) Add your name as a reply here
so we can keep you in our prayers this week.

63) We put our trust in you Lord as we grapple with the paradox of being on a journey with no known destination, where the future is intentionally hidden from us and the only known is not knowing.

64) In the midst of our brokenness you give us life and call on us to reflect that life back to your church. Stay close to us, teach us to be satisfied only with your presence. Grant that we may bring healing and light to the broken places we encounter on this journey.

65) Father we thank you for this time together tonight, be with us as we learn to live with each other, with all our brokenness and pain, with our loneliness and isolation and bring us comfort in being alone together.

66) A BLESSING

May he watch over you this night
Be a nightlight by your bed
May his love be your bedtime story
And wake you gently in the morning
With the hope of a new day

67) GO IN PEACE

In the name of the Father
and of the Son
and of the Holy Spirit.

All respond by Tweeting the reply AMEN

68) Please could you now go to
anordinaryoffice.org.uk/index.php/nigh…
and click the
AMEN
button to let others know you have
been praying with them tonight.

And now could you go to the news page at anordinaryoffice.org.uk and download the Sheepfold document and I'd be very grateful if you'd give it some thoughts over the coming days and feedback any thoughts to me.