Local

This week we pray for everyone who is grieving the loss of a loved one, in particular we hold the family of Ranjini and Basil as well as the family of Pam and Frank in our prayers.

We pray for the teachers and students of NAVITAS as they continue to teach and learn in our building during the week.

We hold in our prayers everyone experiencing cancer at the moment, we pray for healing, we pray for peace, we pray for strength and we pray for hope. We hold their families in our prayers as they support and love them. We lift up their specialists, doctors, plastic surgeons, oncologists, nurses, social workers, chaplains and carers as they treat and care for their patients.

Regional

This week we join in prayer with the Canberra Region Presbytery as we pray for the Sapphire Coast Congregations – Merimbula and Wyndham

• We pray for Rahumah and her family. Rahumah is a 10-year old Ugandan girl, sponsored by Merimbula Uniting Church Op Shop. Rahumah always asks that we pray for her to have good health and a good performance in class. Her family are also heavily affected by Covid 19 restrictions and Rahumah misses her friends
• Please pray for the people in Europe affected by huge floods, for those who have lost loved ones and all those left homeless by the devastation.
• Please pray for Graeme and Meena Clugston at Lalgadh Leprosy hospital in Nepal. Merimbula Uniting Church supports this hospital.
• Please pray for Micah and Katie Van Zweeden working with Youth With A Mission in Perth. Merimbula Uniting Church supports this young couple and the work they do.
• Please pray for people world-wide who are affected by Covid. People losing businesses, work, homes, family members who have died. Pray for an end to Covid.
• Pray for our minister Jean Shannon as she ministers to us each week, pray for church family members whose health is failing.

National

This week we join in prayer with the National Assembly of the Uniting church in Australia as we pray for

• The people of Fiji and Indonesia as they grapple with COVID-19 outbreaks. For those who are sick or grieving loved ones, those plunged into poverty and those working to contain the spread. We pray particularly for our church partners who are working to provide for people’s needs, deliver messages of safety and provide pastoral care. 
• Those in Australia impacted by the latest COVID-19 outbreaks and lockdowns. May we find ways to look out for and support one another. 

World

This week we join in prayer with the World Council of Churches as we pray for Burundi, Democratic Republic of Congo, Rwanda

We are thankful for:

• the abundant natural resources in the DRC and the mountainous beauty of Rwanda 
• those who have worked for healing and reconciliation in Rwanda, especially after the genocide
• the tireless efforts of churches and community organizations, working with the support of humanitarian organizations, to improve the living conditions of the people

We pray for:

• an end to poverty and hunger, and improved access to health services, especially for the young, that they might have hope for their future
• an end to rebel movements across borders and the political instability this stirs up
• just economic development that does not exploit Creation and people
• democratic election of less corrupt governments that work for the sake of all.

Continue to pray with the WCC by joining their prayer cycle and using their prayer resources here

Local

This week as a congregation we hold in our prayers

• The leadership and membership of the Gungahlin Girl’s Brigade and Boy’s Brigade as they prepare to start another term of ministry with the young people who are a part of their companies. We especially hold Bruce and Elizabeth Warren in our prayers as they lead the companies through the year.
• Those who are grieving in this time, we give thanks for the lives of those we are grieving the loss of and for the way you have journeyed with them and ministered to us through them over the years.

Regional

We join in prayer with the Canberra Region Presbytery as we pray for the 16th Triennial Assembly of the Uniting Church in Australia – 17-18 July 2021

• We give thanks for all that God does through, in and for the Uniting Church all across Australia.
• We ask to be connected and formed by the theme of ‘Dwelling in Love’
• We pray for the new format of meeting online due to COVID-19 – and we give thanks for those who make this possible.
• We offer prayers for all the members of the assembly– particularly remembering the office bearers, staff and president, Dr Deidre Palmer.
• WeprayforGod’sguidanceastheAssemblyconsider unprecedented times, and what it means to be ‘a community of people following Jesus and God’s call to live with love, grace and hope in the world’.

National

We join in prayer with the National Assembly of the Uniting Church in Australia as we pray for…

• The 16th Assembly and all its members coming together for the first online Assembly meeting. May they dwell together in God’s love, as a fellowship of Christ, discerning the guidance of the Holy Spirit. 
• Rev Sharon Hollis as she is installed as the President of the UCA Assembly on Saturday. For strength and wisdom in her spiritual leadership over the next three years. 
• Dr Deidre Palmer. We give thanks for the gift of her leadership as President over this triennium, for her faithful service, her great encouragement of the whole Church and for her constant reminder of the abundant grace and liberating hope we have in Jesus. 

World

This week we join with the World Council of Churches as we pray for Djibouti, Somalia

We are thankful for:

• the beauty of Creation and  resources from lands and sea
• the stable governance and economic development that Djibouti has experienced in recent years
• the many ways churches and humanitarian organizations have prayed for and responded to the needs in Somalia.

We pray for:

• protection of natural resources and coastal land
• an end to hunger, violence, crime and conflict in Somalia
• effective reconciliation and peace-building 
• stable governments that further the common good for all the people
• those who have fled this area that they may be welcomed in new homelands.

Continue praying for the world with the WCC by using their prayer resources

Local

This week we pray for

• Those in our community experiencing issues with their health.
  • For those of us still undergoing treatment for various types of Cancer, for those in remission, those of us undergoing chemotherapy and for those who are still working out treatment options for newly diagnosed cancer.
  • We pray for people in our community who are in hospital and for their family as they care for each other, for people who are caring for the carers in this time.
  • We pray for members in respite.
  • We pray for those in our community who are grieving

• We hold the executives, teachers and staff of our schools in our prayers, in particular those in the schools of Gungahlin. May this fortnight be refreshing, renewing and relaxing, may you be with them as they plan for the coming semester.
  • Gungahlin College
  • Burgmann Anglican School
  • Amaroo School
  • Gold Creek School
  • Good Shepherd School
  • Margaret Hendry School
  • Holy Spirit School
  • St John Paul II College
  • Palmerston District Primary School
  • Ngunnawal Primary School
  • Franklin School
  • Harrison Public School
  • Mother Teresa School
  • Taqwa Achool

• We pray for the ministry of the Gungahlin UCA Playgroup which comes together again this week after having a couple weeks off for school holidays. We pray for Cassandra and for all the parents and children who make up the playgroup community.

Regional

This week we join with the Canberra Region Presbytery as we pray for

National

This week we join in prayer with the Uniting Church in Australia as we pray

• Final preparations for the 16th Assembly of the Uniting Church in Australia and for the online gatherings taking place this weekend with Assembly agencies and groups as they report on the national life of the Church. 
• For healing of this land and her First Nations Peoples.
• The space that enables the gifts and leadership of emerging generations in the Uniting Church to flourish. 

World

This week we join with the World Council of Churches as we pray for Eritrea, Ethiopia

We are thankful for:

• the long centuries of Christian history in Ethiopia and Eritrea
• the current witness and work of Orthodox, Catholic and Evangelical churches amid difficult circumstances
• those who have provided humanitarian aid, especially during times of drought and hunger
• those who have worked for peaceful relations between Eritrea and Ethiopia.

We pray for:

• victims of human rights abuses
• greater understanding and respect among the many ethnic groups 
• lasting peace and reconciliation between Ethiopia and Eritrea
• the emergence of more democratic governance that respects human rights and furthers justice for all ethnic groups and minorities.

Continue praying with the World Council of Churches here

Local

• This week we continue to pray for people in hospital and for those caring for them, for their families, friends and support networks. We pray for healing, for strength, for hope, for energy, for things to occupy their minds. May they know God’s presence and that they are in the prayers of all of us this week.
• We pray for everyone travelling this week. We pray that they travel safely and return to their homes renewed and refreshed.
• We hold the executives, teachers and staff of our schools in our prayers, in particular those in the schools of Gungahlin. May this fortnight be refreshing, renewing and relaxing, may you be with them as they plan for the coming semester.
  • Gungahlin College
  • Burgmann Anglican School
  • Amaroo School
  • Gold Creek School
  • Good Shepherd School
  • Margaret Hendry School
  • Holy Spirit School
  • St John Paul II College
  • Palmerston District Primary School
  • Ngunnawal Primary School
  • Franklin School
  • Harrison Public School
  • Mother Teresa School
  • Taqwa Achool

NAIDOC Week Prayer

HEAL COUNTRY
By Alison Overeem, Palawa Woman and UAICC National Executive Member

We praise Country
As we give praise to the Creator
May we all stop
Breath in this day
Breath in this moment
This privelage to stand on the
Lands of the Muwinina people
May we all pause
May we all sit within a moment
Within our moment
With all the moments that we give praise for
For creation
For all that is
And all that will be
All that is our faith
All that is our discerning and reflecting
For the creator
Forever present on these Lands
We praise the Creator
For the gift of First Peoples
For the resilience, we praise the Creator
For the rich stories that sit on and with country, we give praise
For the gift from the Creator of the Palawa Pakana people of Lutrawita, we give praise
We seek that justice from within self to speak to the praise the creator is calling us to
Calling us to praise the lands and people and cultural practices of sovereignty never ceded
Praise through our hearts of justice as people of the Uniting Church to give thanks through a lens of justice
To praise the creator for justice , for our own discerning , learning and unlearning, truth telling
We praise the justice narrative
We praise the truth narrative
Heal Country is the theme this year for NAIDOC
May we speak this praise together
Heal Country
Heal all that is the truths and untruths of this country, of these lands
To heal Country
For Country to heal
Praising the survival of the oldest living culture on Earth
And the healing of that spiritual and continual connection
Creator you have gifted us First Peoples wisdom , history and knowledge for over 60 000 years
We praise elders, past and present
We provide our shared justice with the sounds of of the didg, the sounds of First Peoples – the celebrating in the knowing, that we are peoples of justice
May we praise you for that
May we know in that praise for you, that Mother Earth calling us to justice and truth telling
Calling is to be immersed in the stories of injustice that heal Country
We praise you for the gift of a call to justice
Of a call to see the land holds the healing for First Peoples and for us all
In the creation
Every tree
Every branch
Every waterway
Every part of Country
And the deep and rich connection of First Peoples to place
We praise you for the stories
For all that is the healing
Country heals
And we all together heal Country
Through the knowing
Through the showing
Through the being
Through the praise to the Creator
For Country
For First Peoples connection to Land, seas, skies and waterways
We praise you creator for these gifts – that we too may be part of the healing and the stories of First Peoples abounding and surrounding us
We praise you for the challenge
For the call to walk a justice pathway
To be present with us
As we all seek the call to praise the justice within
We praise all that you have given us Creator
To be and see and feel and see and feel
The call to all to see and be and heal Country
May the sounds of the clap sticks, of song lines and story lines ,
And the crackle, warmth and invitation of the campfires of generations, be the resounding voices of praise we give today and every day

Regional

• We join with the Canberra Region Presbytery as we pray for the Uniting Aboriginal and Islander Christian Congress
• As we approach NAIDOC week 2021 (4-11 July), we connect to the theme of ‘Heal Country, Heal our Nation’
• We reaffirm in our prayers the commitment of our denomination in the statement: “The Uniting Church hopes for a nation that acknowledges the rights of Indigenous Australians as the first people of this land, respects the land on which we live, and is committed to empowering Indigenous people to take control of their own lives and destinies.”
• We pray for justice and truth telling in our nation, our congregations, and our communities.
• We share in the words of Brooke Prentis, CEO of Common Grace: “Country is all lands, waters, sky, trees, plants, animals, birds, fish, rocks, mountains, and all peoples.” Country is all of God’s wondrous creation. It is a sense of identity, belonging, groundedness and home. We live on wounded, blood-stained country. Jesus understands, having shared our suffering and pain. Jesus provides hope for country to be healed, restored, loved and set free. Jesus calls us as his hands and feet to take an active role in healing country by protecting and restoring God’s beautiful earth. We pray and call for Treaty and Truth Telling for healing Country.”

National

We join in prayer with the UCA National Assembly as we pray for…

• A deepening of relationships as First and Second Peoples in this land and in our Church.
• The members of the 16th Assembly as they prepare for the meeting and gather online in community groups for the first time this Sunday.
• Those working to contain the spread of COVID-19, those who are sick with the virus, people who cannot work and all those feeling afraid, anxious and alone.

World

This week we join with the World Council of Churches as we pray for Sudan, South Sudan, Uganda

We are thankful for:

• how the churches in Sudan and in South Sudan, as well as Ecumenical Network Sudan, have consistently pursued peace processes, healing and reconciliation in these war-ravaged countries
• those who work to bring justice for the victims of genocide and war crimes, including the International Criminal Court
• the many who carry out humanitarian work in these countries and who settle those who are displaced 
• the economic progress and peacebuilding that has occurred in Uganda, and for effective measures to curb the spread of HIV and AIDS.

We pray for:

• a cessation of ethnic animosities and violence, and increased understanding between ethnic and religious groups
• an end to the rape and practices of genital mutilation of girls and women
• governments  to respect the will and best interests of their people and the human rights of all
• natural resources to be preserved and the land saved from further desertification.

Continue praying with the World Council of Churches in their weekly prayer cycle here