Thread by @DisabilityJ

1. Welcome

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

All: AMEN

3. Good evening and welcome to
our simple online
Sunday evening service.

We hope you find fellowship here
in this virtual space and pray you
will return again and make use of our other
liturgies at

anordinaryoffice.org.uk

4. This is Holy Ground.
A virtual space as real to us as any
church building, it is our home, a place of welcome to all.
Many of us are unable to access physical church but here we are made welcome
Come on in and make yourself comfortable.

5. We dedicate this space this evening to those who maybe feel they have little or nothing to look forward to, to those who maybe feel they have nothing to contribute, to those made to feel unworthy.
Father take this place and those gathered here and make this a place of hope

6. 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.
This is our gift to them.

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

8. 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. Our prayers float in the ether like incense across the sanctuary.

9. So we begin our prayer of welcome, teach us to be an inclusive community, leave no one behind, to be open to all, even to those who make us feel most uncomfortable.

10. To those who feel unwelcome

All respond by
Tweeting the reply
WELCOME

11. To those who feel shut out

All respond by
Tweeting the reply
WELCOME

12. To those who feel estranged
from church

All respond by
Tweeting the reply
WELCOME

13. To those who feel abandoned
or adrift

All respond by
Tweeting the reply
WELCOME

14. To those who simply want to be here

All respond by Tweeting the reply
WELCOME

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

All respond by Tweeting the reply
WELCOME

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

All respond by Tweeting the reply
WELCOME

17. 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

18. To those who feel shut in by dark nights and winter weather

All respond by Tweeting the reply
WELCOME

19. Above all Jesus, we welcome you in to our presence.

WELCOME

20. Let us take a few moments to consider
How we have failed this week.

21. For the times we have turned
away in anger.

All respond by Tweeting the reply
LORD HAVE MERCY.

22. For the times we have blamed you

All respond by Tweeting the reply
LORD HAVE MERCY

23. For the times we have closed our
hearts and minds

All respond by Tweeting the reply
CHRIST HAVE MERCY

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

All respond by Tweeting the reply
CHRIST HAVE MERCY

25. In this week of Christian unity let us unite with all your people who have no spiritual home.

All: Unite us with them Lord

26. Unite us with those who stare through the window longing to be allowed in.

All: Unite us with them Lord

27. Unite us with those sat at the foot of the steps unable to get up to the door.

All: Unite us with them Lord

28. Unite us with those who find the liturgy we use too complex.

All: Unite us with them Lord

29. Unite us with those who have been so damaged by bad theology they feel unable to return.

All: Unite us with them Lord

30. God with us
Walk with us in to this week of unity
Share with us our pilgrim road
As we continue to celebrate
the coming of the Christ child.
Grant us a new hope.

All: Grant us hope

31. Thank You for faithfulness, 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.

32. Open our hearts Lord to the warmth of your love.

33. 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.

34. 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.

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

36. 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.

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

38. Staggering, stumbling
Lurching, limping
Whatever the way

All:
Lord we come.

39. Crawling, walking
Falling and then rising
Whatever the way

All:
Lord we come.

40. On stretchers
In wheelchairs
With canes
And with guide dogs
Whatever the way

All:
Lord we come.

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

All:
Lord we come.

42. 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

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

44. 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

45. 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

46. 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.

47. 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.

All: Be our joy Lord

48. 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, understood by all

49. 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.

All:
Here we are not alone.

50. 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.

All:
Here we are not alone.

51. 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.

All:
Here we are not alone.

52. 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.

All:
Come see where we live.

53. 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.

54. 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.

All:
Thank you.

55. 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.

56. 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.

57. 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

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

59. 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.

60. 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.

61. 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.

62. 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

63. 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

64. 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.