Intercessions for Here and Now – Resources for Christian Theology

Monday
True Worship

What God promised to our fathers
He has fulfilled for us by raising up Jesus (Acts 13.32-33)

We crucified him
But God raised from the dead (Acts 4.10)

We were buried with him through baptism
So that just as Christ was raised from the dead we will be raised too (Romans 6.4)

The Christ who descended
Is the same Christ who ascended above all heavens to fill the entire universe (Eph 4.10)

There is no other name under heaven by which we can be saved
Thou only, O Christ, art most high in the glory of God the Father

2. Lord, let us join all your faithful people through all ages and make our home here in this place of your worship. Let us to be content to kneel before your cross and altar, to hear and join repeat the worship of heaven. Let us receive what all the apostles, saints and Christians of every generation have passed on to us. Bring us together with all the Christians who precede us, with whom we will come face to face. Allow us to acknowledge all the faithful people who have prayed and sung here before us, and who gave us these hymns and prayers, these buildings and all the practices of our Christian life.
O Lord let thy mercy lighten upon us
And grant us thy salvation
Bring us here into the blessed company of all faithful people and make us very members incorporate of the mystical body of your Son. Help us to receive what other generations have to teach us and help us to give a clear public account of our faith. Prevent our generation from promoting itself above all others. Let our worship be truthful and clear. May your gospel dispel misery and fanaticism from our nation and help us to live as one people in truth and peace.
Let your worship go out, Lord, from this and every church. Make your name known in our towns and villages. May your worship reach our neighbours here and in every place. Let them know that we pray here now just as Christians have always done and that your Church is faithful. Make your salvation known to them, O Lord.
O Lord let thy mercy lighten upon us
And grant us thy salvation
Lord let our neighbours see that this worship and gladness are open to them and permit them come to share in it. Let them know that we speak and intercede for them. All secrets are known by you and all desires may be made known to you. Let them know that all misdirection of love, all false adoration and idolisation come to an end here. All love comes from you to us, so that we may pass it on to one another. All love is made good again when we direct it back to you in our worship.
Let the rhythm of your worship become public and familiar to all. Let our hymns gladden their hearts, Lord, and let your song fill their hearts. Your gladness brings us together in the company of your assembly, that you take our burdens off us. You give us to another as servants and as brothers and sisters. Let every church hold out to its parish the welcome and blessing we have received from you.
O Lord let thy mercy lighten upon us
And grant us thy salvation
3. Let our people discover that the true worship offered by your Church is the cure for false worship of power. Your true praise is the antidote to the secular global liturgy. Your holy liturgy is the remedy for the destructive power of the authorities and institutions. The ordered speech and singing of the Christian community is the answer to the chaotic cries and claims of the anxious and disturbed people around us.
Let all the earth fear the Lord, stand in awe of him all ye that dwell in the world. For he spake and it was done, he commanded and it stood fast. The Lord bringeth the counsel of the heathen to naught and maketh the devices of the people to be of none effect and casteth out the counsels of princes (psalm 33.8-12)
Let all the earth fear the Lord
Stand in awe of him all ye that dwell in the world
Lord in our worship allow us to name the powers that dominate and control us. Help us to identify the many pressures that bear down on us, push us apart and set us against one another. Enable us to confront every institution that does not serve our good, and take away the concealment behind which each exerts its control. Protect us from every unrestrained and unaccountable power. Unmask the powers, Lord, and release us from the gods of our age.
O Lord let thy mercy lighten upon us
And grant us thy salvation
Give our neighbours back to us, Lord. Turn our people away from their screens and bring them face to face with one another. Draw our eyes away from the hysteria online. Lord, replace in us the unhappiness and mania of the global litany with your rational and joyful worship. Lord, take away the force of our compulsions. Remove from us whatever is addictive. Save us from that anxiety and relentless noise, and assist us in our frantic search for what we cannot identify, for our hearts are restless, Lord, until they find their rest in you.
Enable us to be truly available to our neighbours, and approachable to those around us. Give us a patient self-control so that we are not afraid to wait for, and to look forward to, what we don’t yet have. Help us to recover a true togetherness, in which the older serve the young, and young people have reason to love and respect the old. Give us the right words for one another. Keep us from craving the attention only of our own age-group. Let us commit ourselves to life together with all the ages and groups of our neighbourhood. Give us the self-control and maturity by which we can support one another and not make dependents of one another.
O Lord let thy mercy lighten upon us
And grant us thy salvation

4. Lord, your gospel has brought us salvation. Your mercy has curbed our violence and atoned for our sin. Your true worship has created this civil society and allowed us to live together in peace. Without the revelation of the truth made known in your worship, our society is unable to sustain order or peace. Only your worship, Lord, stills the fury and irrationality of our age; only your words soothe the disturbed and bring reason and calm. We give you thanks that the peace of the world is owed to the generations of Christians who have been the conciliators and peace-makers, and that your mercy saves us from the ceaseless retaliation and cruelty of a pagan world. Save us from returning to violence and savagery, Lord, protect our culture of fairness and civility and punish those who threaten it.
O Lord let thy mercy lighten upon us
And grant us thy salvation
Lord give us grace to offer truth to the world, with all patience, gentleness and resolve. Lord, those who acknowledge no God are in thrall to many gods. They are under the sway of many powers they cannot name. Lord help us to name the principalities and powers, defend us from every ideology of human debasement, and save us from those who harm the common good.
O Lord let thy mercy lighten upon us
And grant us thy salvation
Lord, allow us to hold out against those who do not want you gospel to be heard, who hinder public speech and oppose the witness of your Church. Defend us from those who can tolerate no challenge or dissent, Lord, and enable us to stand firm against those who want to suppress the truth. Protect us, Lord, from those deride us and want to silence us. Let us affirm that contrary views must be expressed in public. Help us to defend that liberty and freedom of expression that has come through patient enduring by your people. Protect the freedom of conscience and of religion that are the basis of human dignity and our safeguard against totalitarianism.
Stand firm in one Spirit, contending as one man for the faith of the gospel.
For them this is the sign that that they will be defeated (Phil 1.27).
The weapons we fight with are not the weapons of the world
They have divine power to demolish strongholds
We demolish arguments and every pretension that sets itself up against the knowledge of God
And take captive every thought to make it obedient to Christ (2 Corinthians 10.4-6)
Defend us, Lord, from Christians who are ashamed of the truth, and want us to be silent, because they fear the disapproval of those in power. May we affirm the goodness of what we have received from that generations before us and not spurn what our own forebears and parents have given us. The gospel that was good news for them is also good news for us.
What I tell you in the dark
Proclaim in the daylight
What is whispered in your ear
Proclaim from the housetops (Matt 10.27)
I will bless the LORD at all times: his praise shall continually be in my mouth (Psalm 34.1)
Let the words of my mouth, and the meditation of my heart, be acceptable in thy sight, O LORD, my strength, and my redeemer (Psalm 19.14)

Tuesday
Discipleship and Cross
I will bless the LORD at all times: his praise shall continually be in my mouth (Psalm 34.1).
I will declare thy name unto my brethren; in the midst of the congregation will I praise thee (Psalm 22.22).
Let the word of Christ richly dwell within you as you teach and admonish one another with all wisdom, and as you sing psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs with gratitude in your hearts to God (Col 3.16)
Holy Lord, make us your disciples. Give us your holy power so we may obey and follow you. In your great mercy sanctify us and make us members of your holy people. Give us, Lord, the discipleship by which we can pass on to those around us all that we have received from you. Lord, let us stand firm in the faith, and remain faithful through all trials. Help us to encourage every Christian and commend them for their faithfulness.
We preach Christ crucified
A stumbling block to Jews and foolishness to gentiles
None of the rulers of this age comprehended the wisdom of God
If they had they would not have crucified the Lord of glory (1 Corinthians 1.23; 2.8)

1. Lord, help us to take up the cross that your Son has carried for us, and the passion which he suffered for us. Help us to carry it for all those around us, to bear their guilt and anguish with them, until they can turn to you and become free of it. Give us grace to hear and to say what is good and true without being afraid of the response of others. Give us the discipleship we need to withstand the force of their anger and opposition.
Give us the way of life handed down from Christian to Christian from the beginning. Give us the wisdom of the whole Church of all generations. Lead us deeper into the life of the whole Body of Christ. Enable us to attend to the apostles and saints and accept what Christians of every generation have agreed on. Help us to listen to their voices in Scripture and in your worship, and so become your holy and faithful witnesses.
O God, make clean our hearts within us
And take not thy Holy Spirit from us
Good Lord, make us worthy companions of the saints. Do not let us look down on the Christians who came before us. Make us ready for your discipline and glad to receive from them the teaching they have passed down to us.
O God, make clean our hearts within us
And take not thy Holy Spirit from us

Keep us from conformity to the world and make us your holy people
Save us from turning back of those weak and miserable principles
We do not wish to be enslaved by them all over again (Gal 4.9)
Those who want to make a good impression outwardly are trying to compel you to be circumcised
The only reason they are doing this is to avoid being persecuted for the cross of Christ (Galatians 6.12)
They hated me, so they will hate you. Anyone who does not take up his cross and follow me
Is not worthy of me (Matt 10.34)
I press on to take hold of that for which Christ Jesus took hold of me,
I leave what is behind and push forward toward what is ahead,
I push on toward the goal to win the prize
For which God has called me heavenwards in Christ Jesus (Phil 3.12-13)
2. Help us, Lord, to take up our cross, to find your power within it and withstand the powers pushing against us. From confusion and weakness deliver us, Lord. Make us ready for intimidation and temptation. Make us strong against threats and confrontation. Prepare us for the hostility ahead and help us to receive all that happens as the passion that will make us holy.
O God, make clean our hearts within us
And take not thy Holy Spirit from us

Since we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses, let us throw off everything that holds us back, and the sin that entangles us
And let us run with perseverance the course that has been set before us.
Let us fix our eyes on Jesus, the origin and completion of our faith
Who for the joy set before him endured the cross scorning its shame and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God
Consider him who endure such opposition from sinful men
So that we will not grow weary and lose heart (Hebrews 12)

Lord, restore to us our proper dignity. Help us to take one another seriously and to challenge one another to live up to our calling. Enable us to see one another as responsible, and to hold one another accountable. Help our clergy to take us seriously as disciples. Do not let them conceal from us the cost of this discipleship. Protect us from those who want of soften the shock of the cross. Allow us our hopes of growing up into a mature faith, and of being transformed in holiness and glory. Permit us to risk everything to follow you. Commission us and send us out, and make pilgrims of us. Give us back our yearning. Let us seek your face, and to find the truth of our identity with you.
O God, make clean our hearts within us
And take not thy Holy Spirit from us

Be strong in the Lord and in his mighty power.
Put on the full armour of God
So that when the day of evil comes you may be able to stand your ground
And when you have endured everything, remain standing at the end (Eph 6.10-13)
See to it that no one takes you captive through hollow and deceptive philosophy
Which depends on human tradition and the basic principles of this world rather than on Christ (Col 2.8)
Do not put up with anyone who enslaves you or exploits you or takes advantage of you or pushes himself forward… (2 Corinthians 11.20)
Such men are false apostles, deceitful workmen, masquerading as apostles of Christ
Satan himself masquerades as an angel of light. It is not surprising if his servants masquerade as servants of righteousness.
Their end will be what their actions deserve (2 Corinthians 11.13-15)
Be sober, be vigilant, because your adversary the devil prowls around like a roaring lion seeking whom he may devour.
Resist him, standing firm in the faith, because you know that your brothers throughout the world are undergoing the same kind of sufferings (1 Peter 5.8-9)
For the sake of the world to which you have sent us

O God, make clean our hearts within us
And take not thy Holy Spirit from us

I will bless the LORD at all times: his praise shall continually be in my mouth (Psalm 34.1).
Let the words of my mouth, and the meditation of my heart, be acceptable in thy sight, O LORD, my strength, and my redeemer (Psalm 19.14)

Wednesday
Men and Women
I will bless the LORD at all times: his praise shall continually be in my mouth (Psalm 34.1).
I will declare thy name unto my brethren; in the midst of the congregation will I praise thee (Psalm 22.22).
Let the word of Christ richly dwell within you as you teach and admonish one another with all wisdom, and as you sing psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs with gratitude in your hearts to God (Col 3.16).
Lord, you have poured out your love on us through your only Son. Give us grace to grasp the depth of your love and the vastness of the life you set before us. You supply what we lack and replenish us without limit, so we can love one another and endure when love lapses. You give us the dignity to wait and persevere when our love is not reciprocated. Because you sustain us, we can sustain our relationships with others.
Lord, save your people
And mercifully hear us when we call upon thee

1. Reveal Lord the truth and glory of man. Restore to each of us our dignity. Help us to be proud of our men, to encourage and support them. Give to every man honour, courage and self-control. Give us men who will be true leaders and true followers. Allow men to become responsible, to find their role and self-respect. Enable us to love and cherish our women. Give to every man the honour with which he can honour his wife and commit himself to her. Let each man discover how to protect, work and to provide for those he loves. Give to every woman the honour with which to honour her husband, and not to listen to the voices that denigrate them. May his talents be recognised, and may he learn to make the decisions which support his own family and serve the common good. Let men and women look up to one another and defer to one another.
Lord, save your people
And bless your inheritance
Lord, give us self-control. Make us masters of our own bodies. Give us the self-discipline to restrain our appetites and control our cravings. Let us not treat our bodies as disposable or give them away to whoever desires them in that moment. Let us be glad of the celibacy and of marriage by which we can give ourselves to one another soul-and-body. And let us reserve ourselves for that one person who alone can receive us, soul and body, life for life.
Submit to one another out of obedience for Christ. Husbands love your wives, just as Christ loves the Church. As the Church defers to Christ, so wives should defer to their husbands (Ephesians 5). Let there be no debt except the continuing debt to love one another (Romans 13.8)
Lord, save your people
And bless your inheritance

2. Defend us from those who dishonour us. Defend us from every elite that does not want to be accountable, that does not believe it has to listen to us, which becomes when we tell them what they don’t want to hear. Save us from those self-appointed moralisers who want to take responsibility away from us, who do not acknowledge our dignity, and want to push onto others the costs and consequences of their own way of life.
Save us from those who despair of human relationships, who deprecate the hope of faithful love, and have come to fear and hate men. Save us from the despairing ideology of gender and from every other divisive classification. Save us from those who look down on our men, demean them and concede no role to them. Whoever humiliates men diminishes every woman’s hope of a man who will love and serve her, whom she can love and admire.
Lord, save your people
And mercifully hear us when we call upon thee
Save us, Lord, from those who refuse the hope of equality and whose culture subordinates women. Protect us from those who want to remove equality of sexes by force. Save us from those who despise the culture that has given us equality and who teach that women must be subordinate. Save us from those who demean the women of their own family, who prevent them taking their part in civil life, who concede them no political participation, who intimidate, beat, mutilate, kidnap and force them into marriage.
Lord, save your people
And mercifully hear us when we call upon thee
Lord, give us grace to defend ourselves from those who replace consent with coercion, responsibility with obedience and fear. Save our young women from coercion, duress and compulsion. Save them from that slavery and subjection. Save who must fear the members of their own family. Save us from all who regard all this as normal. Save us from those who know this is happening but do not act to prevent it. Save us from such savages, from their patriarchy and the violence they want to inflict.
Lord, save your people
And mercifully hear us when we call upon thee

3. Lord, you made man in your own image, male and female you made them. Protect our families and defend the covenant of marriage that secures them. Give us men who will love and cherish our women. Give us women who are proud of our men, who will love, support and affirm them. Give us men who will protect them and defy those who want to do them harm.
Lord, save your people
And mercifully hear us when we call upon thee
Do not let our children distrust their parents, or become isolated from their families, or become vulnerable to gangs and violent men. Lord, take away our shame, let us come to their aid and face their attackers. Protect us from those who want us to be humbled and powerless and silent. Lord, let us take all our humiliation as your kindness and the pains of our salvation and let us withstand the long campaign for our abasement.
Lord, save your people
And mercifully hear us when we call upon thee
Lord, you are our righteous judge. Save us from those who want to take away the dignity of our men. Those who have promoted themselves over us have attempted to turn us into clients of the state and into their dependents. Lord, keep us from the idolatry of the collectivists and centralisers and abusers of power.
God stands in the assembly of rulers. He is a judge among gods
How long will accept wrong judgement and accept the persons of the ungodly?
Defend the poor and the fatherless; see that such as are in need and necessity have right
Deliver the out-cast and poor, save them from the hand of the ungodly (Psalm 82)

I will bless the LORD at all times. His praise shall continually be in my mouth (Psalm 34.1). Let the words of my mouth, and the meditation of my heart, be acceptable in thy sight, O LORD, my strength, and my redeemer (Psalm 19.14)

Thursday
Young People and the Future of our Nation

I will bless the LORD at all times: his praise shall continually be in my mouth (Psalm 34.1).
I will declare thy name unto my brethren; in the midst of the congregation will I praise thee (Psalm 22.22).
Let the word of Christ richly dwell within you as you teach and admonish one another with all wisdom, and as you sing psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs with gratitude in your hearts to God (Col 3.16).
Lord, you are our God and the source of our life. By your great mercy give us your salvation and our society your blessing. Help us to serve one another and make our contribution to our people’s future. Help us to work for the next generation and do not let our failures hurt them. Help us to take responsibility for ourselves and for one another. Save us from becoming dependent and obliging others to do for us what we could do for ourselves. Help us to pass on to those who come after us all the cultural and political freedoms and opportunities that we received.
Lord, save your people
And bless your inheritance
1. Lord, may we pass on to our children the same culture of mutual respect and commitment to our shared civic life that we have enjoyed. Let us not approve any way of life that does not allow our generation to serve the next, or that does not acknowledge that we must love and work for those we love. Lord, do not let those we love be pushed out and replaced by those who do not love us. Let those who live with us respect the way of life we have inherited and work with us to pass it on. Make us ready to serve one another, and defend us from all coercion. Lord, save us from our enemies and protect us from those who despise us.
Lord, save your people
And bless your inheritance
Give our young people back their strength and confidence in their own powers. Give them the nourishment and the work that their bodies need, and give them the will to overcome their cravings. Take them off their medication, release them from drugs and addiction. Empower them to endure and enjoy the ups and downs of daily life. Enable them to discover responsibility, to think and to speak for themselves, and develop in dignity.
Lord, save your people
And bless your inheritance
Give strength to young adults so that are able to handle the affronts of daily life. Give our young adults the self-control to master their feelings, to persevere through all difficulties, and not to refuse any opportunity. Give them the determination to struggle and to overcome. Guard them from teachers who indulge their resentments and keep them infantile or dependent. Give to our young people the courage to withstand the forces of conformity. Save them from the torrent of desires that encourages them to believe that they are excluded and on their own and keep them from turning against our civil society in resentment or despair.
Lord, save your people
And bless your inheritance
2. Lord, restore respect to all workers and their work. Give us back our productive industry. Let us honour those who those who learn skills and practise them. Restore to us the industry that requires labour, ingenuity and patience. Restore to us a pride in the work of our own hands. Let us give thanks for all those who struggled to create the technology and the infrastructure we rely on. Give us grace to work with their same commitment to the public good.
Preserve us from the economy in which growth depends on the expansion of debt. Do not let us shore up our living standards by consuming what should be available to the next generation. Do not let us rely on excessive rent-taking or subsidies. Save us from those who load us with tax burdens. Save us from those conjurors who apportion credit to themselves and debt to us. Lord, forgive us our debts.
Let us learn to make a better and more sparing use of the resources we consume. Lord, let us preserve the soil, water, fuel and ores that our successors will need. Do not let us our demand for cheap energy distort our decisions and save us, Lord, from those who are plundering our productive economic enterprises.
Lord, save thy people
And bless thine inheritance
3. Lord, heal the estrangement between our generations. Restore our love for one another. Do not let young and old regard each other as strangers. Give our children back to us. Let us give them the same chance of life as our parents gave us. Let us promote the prosperity of our neighbourhood and nation. Let us not spend and waste what others have saved and accumulated. Let us not despise what others have worked for, or disregard what they have given us.
Lord, save thy people
And bless thine inheritance

Hear my law my people, incline your ears unto the words of my mouth. I will open my mouth in a parable, I will declare hard sentences of old; which we have heard and known and such as our fathers have taught us; that we should not hide them from the children of the generations to come, but to shew the honour of the Lord, his mighty and wonderful works that he hath done. He made a covenant with Jacob and gave Israel a law, which he commanded our forefathers to teach their children, so that their posterity might know it and the children which were yet unborn (Psalm 78)
The Lord made a covenant with Jacob. He gave Israel a law. He commanded our forefathers to teach their children
So it would be known by their posterity and generations not yet born
Lord, allow us to admit to our children what we owe them and give them what we have wrongly withheld from them. Take from them the fears and constraints that we have placed on them. Extract them from the burden our generation has placed on them. Free them from debt and release them from the financial trap we have set for them. Release them from the neuroses and addictions that rob them of their freedom. Allow them to desire independence and to reject the dependency that media and corporations offer them. Release those whom we have taken captive, reinstate those whom we have denied. Free those whom we have enslaved, and call back those we have rejected. Save them, Lord, from us.
The Lord made a covenant with Jacob. He gave Israel a law. He commanded our forefathers to teach their children
So it would be known by their posterity and generations not yet born

Take from us, Lord, the disrespect and mutual alienation that sever the ties between us and those younger or older than ourselves. Take away from us those leaders have taught scepticism and mistrust and encouraged women to look down on men, and to disdain them, who have taught children to look down on their parents and despise them. Defend us from those policy-makers who want to change our character, give us a different identity, or replace our way of life with another. Give us leaders with courage to speak for us and express our gratitude to the generations before us.
The Lord made a covenant with Jacob. He gave Israel a law. He commanded our forefathers to teach their children
So it would be known by their posterity and generations not yet born
Lord, save your people
And bless your inheritance
4. Lord, remember your covenant with your people. Do not let leave us without your protection. Do not let us give away our hope of freedom and dignity, or defer to powers and authorities that have no mandate from you. Curb the institutions that have no loyalty to us. Lord, save us from the all-controlling interventions and totalitarian assumptions of our administrators. Do not let us acknowledge those powers that wrongly take authority away from us and release us from the grip of centralising powers. Lord, return our decisions to us, so we may take responsibility and love one another again.
He made a covenant with Jacob. He gave Israel a law. He commanded our forefathers to teach their children
So it would be known by their posterity and generations not yet born
Protect us, Lord, from those who want to take our decisions away from us. Save us from the centralisers and their all-powerful state. Lord, give us a true self-reliance. Save us from resentment and a sense of entitlement. Protect us from those who want to load us with undue costs and burdens. Do not let us pass our costs on to others, or load them with whatever we do not want to bear.
He made a covenant with Jacob. He gave Israel a law. He commanded our forefathers to teach their children
So it would be known by their posterity and generations yet to be born
Give us a proper confidence in our own abilities and in the produce of our country. Allow us to take risks, to commit ourselves to our own projects and invest in our own neighbourhoods. Restore the economic life of our towns and country. Let us support one another’s businesses and preserve the prosperity of our communities. Let us find jobs for one another’s children, and give young people respect that comes with work. Let us give them our encouragement to set their businesses and to start families of their own.
He made a covenant with Jacob. He gave Israel a law. He commanded our forefathers to teach their children
So it would be known by their posterity and generations yet to be born

Comfort us now after the time that thou hast plagued us, and for the years wherein we have suffered adversity. Shew thy servants thy work and their children thy glory (Psalm 90.15)
Give peace in our time, O Lord
Because there is none other that fighteth for us, but only thou, O God
I will bless the LORD at all times: his praise shall continually be in my mouth (Psalm 34.1).
Let the words of my mouth, and the meditation of my heart, be acceptable in thy sight, O LORD, my strength, and my redeemer (Psalm 19.14)

Friday
Under One Law

Give peace in our time, O Lord
Because there is none other that fighteth for us, but only thou, O God
1. Lord, make us confident of our law and help is to uphold and defend it. Let our nation respect its laws, and cherish the freedom upheld by them. Give us confidence in our own people and way of life. Restore our confidence in our legal system, and in all the officers and public servants who maintain and uphold the law. Defend them, Lord, and deliver them from temptation.
Give peace in our time, O Lord
Because there is none other that fighteth for us, but only thou, O God

Protect us from those who want to act without our consent. Defend us from all who oppose our laws and attempt to impose other laws on us. Our law upholds an open and optimistic society. Under the law there is justice and equality. Restore our confidence in our law and our sovereignty. Give us a surer sense of the law that safeguards that liberty. Do not let us exchange what is better for what is worse.
Give peace in our time, O Lord
Because there is none other that fighteth for us, but only thou, O God
Let us defend the society in which each person is of unsurpassed value. Save us, Lord, from all that takes away individual responsibility, and defend us from any culture or regime that have no respect for the individual. Give us grace to acknowledge that the law that has built this land and made it prosperous is better than the laws and customs that keep other lands in poverty and violence.
Give peace in our time, O Lord
Because there is none other that fighteth for us, but only thou, O God
2. Defend our civil society from its uncivil enemies. Take from us all fear of freedom. Preserve us from all that makes a society fearful. Defend us from the habits and attitudes that spread fear, mob rule and any primitive tyranny. Preserve here the freedom our nation fought for and looked forward to.
O God, make speed to save us
O Lord make haste to help us
Defend us from those who despise our way of life and want to replace us. Save us from the ideologies of repression, violence and poverty. Defend us from those who bring superstition, fear and brutality. Protect us from deceitfulness, fraud and corruption.
O God, make speed to save us
O Lord make haste to help us

Lord, give us gratitude for the culture we have inherited, and restore to us our cheerful national character. Give us leaders who assert the goodness of the political life we have inherited, who are not ashamed of their country or countrymen.
Lord, save your people
And bless your inheritance
Lord you alone are our benefactor. Protect us from any government that demands too much obedience from us. Let us turn from the welfare of the state toward love of our neighbour, and replaced it with welfare provided by the state. We have placed the burdens of some on all, whether or not they were strong enough to carry it. We have given ourselves to governments as to a father, and our own fathers we have pushed away. We have given ourselves to governments as to a husband, and pushed our own husbands away. Lord, forgive us and have mercy.
Lord, save your people
And bless your inheritance
We have employed strangers to care for those we have not loved. We have entrusted our own responsibilities to others, who do not listen to us and delegated our decisions to administrators, who protect each other against us. Lord, forgive us and have mercy.
Lord, save your people
And bless your inheritance

3. Lift up your people, Lord. Redeem the nation that you have blessed through so many generations. Teach us how precious the inheritance you have given us is. Defend us from those who tell us that it is no longer of value to us, or that we are no longer worthy of it. Protect us from those who tell us we are guilty, that this country is responsible for vague crimes, and who teach our children to be ashamed of our history. Restore our morale, Lord, and save us from their deceit and from the guilt that is not ours. Lord, protect us from those who despise us and pervert what is good. Lord, deliver us from those who want to put us down, and rescue us from those who hate us.

O Lord God of hosts, how long wilt thou be angry with thy people that prayeth? Thou feedest them with the bread of tears and give them plenteous tears to drink. Thou hast made us a very strife unto our neighbours and our enemies laugh us to scorn. Turn us again O God: shew the light of thy countenance and we shall be whole (Psalm 80)
Turn us again O God
Shew the light of thy countenance and we shall be whole

Protect us, Good Lord, from those who replace consent with coercion, responsibility with fear and obedience. Send us leaders who can tell the difference between the good and the bad. Give us the courage to challenge those who take decisions away from us and do not wish to be accountable to us.
Turn us again O God
Shew the light of thy countenance and we shall be whole

Defend us Lord from those who have no interest in our well-being, who pillage our institutions, and consume wealth they did not create. Save us Lord from the plunderers, who use up what previous generations gathered, and consume the wealth they did not earn. Keep us from envy, Lord, and defend us from the envious.
4. Lord, let us worship you in spirit and in truth and stand firm against those who want to turn our worship towards themselves. Let us refuse them the obedience they demand. Give us strength to resist the distraction they offer us and not to hear the clamour of the media that promotes them. Shield us from their accusations. Keep us impervious to their appeals and immune to the devices they use to draw us into their power.
Turn us again O God
Shew the light of thy countenance and we shall be whole

Let the images they transmit become repugnant to us, Lord; let us not be transfixed by them. Give us courage to defy our accusers, Lord; in the powers of this age, make us nonbelievers. Let us fix our eyes on you and glad to be counted among your people.
Turn us again O God
Shew the light of thy countenance and we shall be whole

They said, Come let us root them out, that they no longer be a people, so that the name of Israel no longer be remembered. They put their heads together and have worked against thee… Make them ashamed Lord so that they may seek thy Name. Let them be confounded and vexed ever more and more, let them be put to shame (Psalm 83)
Make them ashamed, Lord
Let them be confounded
Protect us from all who want to take decision-making away from us. Save us from the coercion of the centralisers. Give us courage to withstand their menaces. Lord, defend us from those who make themselves our moral guardians. Deliver us from those who hate us and save us from their venom. Defend us from those who want to seize power. Save us from those who want to see our society to be replaced by another. Give us the courage to act for one another and to reject the interventions of those who do not intend us any good. Give us strength to confront them, reject them and protect what is good and right.
Make them ashamed, Lord
Let them be confounded

I am sending you out like sheep into the wolves; be wise as serpents and innocent as doves.
Beware of them for they will hand you over to councils and flog you in the synagogues
You will be dragged before governors and kings because of me, as testimony to them and to the gentiles
But the one who endures to the end will be saved
O God, make speed to save us
O Lord make haste to help us

Saturday and Sunday

Lord, we are the people you have blessed through so many centuries. Do not let us lose what you have given us. Do not let us lose the freedom and dignity we had. Do not let us give up the high account of our life as citizens and public persons established by the public witness of Christians. Do not let us betray those who have given us this inheritance or break the link between the generations past and those to come. Do not let go of us, Lord.
One thing I desire of the Lord
That I may dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of my life

2. Lord, let your gospel be proclaimed in our towns and cities, and let the worship of your people be heard in our public places. Lord release our people from the powers to which they are captive and give them back their gladness. Let us stand firm on the gospel we have received. Lord, give us these same blessings so that we may grow up into our full stature as confident and responsible persons, glad to give an account of the hope that is in us. Give us clear minds and let us speak the truth. May we listen to all your witnesses and honour those have made their contribution to our way of life. Lord, save us from looking down on our own people, from scorn of our own history, and from the suspicion of our culture taught by those who want to replace it.
One thing I desire of the Lord
That I may dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of my life

Lord, give us all the riches of the generations who have preceded us. Let us admire their endurance, insight and creativity. May we love the scientific achievement and beauty that has come to us through their contemplation of your glory. Let us value whatever is particular, outstanding and excellent. Give us good judgement and reasoning and an ability to take correction.
One thing I desire of the Lord
That I may dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of my life
Do not let look down on what these generations have given us. Let us not discount the suffering they went through to remain faithful, through all opposition, in order to pass this gospel on to us. Take away from us the pride that would prevent us from receiving their witness and giving thanks for their sacrifice. Let us be their good and true sons in the faith, and Lord, give us a place with them in the communion of the saints.
One thing I desire of the Lord
That I may dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of my life
3. Lord, save your people. Open them to all the riches of your gospel. Do not let anyone confine the truth or restrict the reach of your gospel. Let the announcement of their release reach all those whom we have held in ignorance and servitude.
Endue thy ministers with righteousness
And make thy chosen people joyful
Let the people of our parishes give each other the respect and affection that makes us good neighbours. Give to each town and village its own distinctive and proper identity. Let all the people of our parishes and hear and know that they are known and loved by God. Lift up those who have become invisible to us and let us greet one another as neighbours.
Endue thy ministers with righteousness
And make thy chosen people joyful
Let your Church speak truthfully, in repentance, confessing to our nation that we have been bound up by our own fear. We have muted and suppressed your gospel, and put ourselves in the way of those who want to hear it. We have not acknowledged that the gospel is powerful enough for them, and that they are capable and worthy of receiving it. Forgive us Lord, and release those bound by our sins
Endue thy ministers with righteousness
And make thy chosen people joyful
I will bless the LORD at all times: his praise shall continually be in my mouth (Psalm 34.1).
Let the words of my mouth, and the meditation of my heart, be acceptable in thy sight, O LORD, my strength, and my redeemer (Psalm 19.14)

Litany
In the seasons of Advent and Lent those who have sinned are given the opportunity for public penance, so that they can turn from their sin, and so that others are not tempted to follow them into that sin.
So on our own behalf, and for the sake of our country, we now say, Lord have mercy upon us, for You Lord, shall judge us. Let us say together, God shall judge – God shall judge.
The Lord our God is the only Lord. Those who serve other gods – God shall judge
Idolaters and all who exalt themselves – God shall judge.
Blasphemers and all who misuse the name of God – God shall judge
The Lord’s Day is holy. Those who profane it – God shall judge
Anyone who does not honour his father, mother, and all the generations before them – God shall judge
Murderers, and all who are malicious or cruel – God shall judge
Adulterers and fornicators – God shall judge
Robbers and thieves and those who defraud – God shall judge
False witnesses and all evil speakers, liars and slanderers – God shall judge
The envious, extortioners and those who grind the face of the poor – God shall judge
Amen. Lord have mercy on us, and save us from sin.

Lord, do not remember our offences, or the offences of our parents, grandparents or any generation before us. Lord, deliver our young people from all that threatens them. Lord, spare your people, whom you have redeemed with your most precious blood. Lord, lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil.
Let us say together – Lord deliver us – Lord deliver us.

From sin and evil and all assaults of the devil – Lord deliver us.
From all blindness and hardness of heart – Lord deliver us
From the arrogance of power and wealth – Lord deliver us
From pride and self-deception – Lord deliver us
From envy, fear and malice – Lord deliver us
From trouble within our families, and from loss of father or mother – Lord deliver us
From debt and poverty – Lord deliver us
From isolation, loneliness and neglect – Lord deliver us
From depression, illness and excessive medication – Lord deliver us
From alcohol, addiction and drugs – Lord deliver us
From fear and from despair – Lord deliver us
From disrespect and mistreatment of our young woman – Lord deliver us
From gangs, law-breaking and intimidation on the street – Lord deliver us
From pornography, prostitution and sexual exploitation – Lord deliver us
From assault, rape and murder – Lord deliver us
From every attempt to reduce the protection of the law – Lord deliver us
From contempt for our culture and law – Lord deliver us
From every attempt to remove our liberty – Lord deliver us
From distortion of history and loss of identity – Lord deliver us
From all attempts to take away our responsibility or increase our dependence – Lord deliver us
From concealment of our full dignity under the law – Lord deliver us
From attempts on our equality under one Law – Lord deliver us
From attempts to deny our sovereignty or citizenship – Lord deliver us
From attempts to impose foreign law – Lord deliver us
From entrapment by any cult – Lord deliver us
From every failure of honesty or public spiritedness

From our sins, and from all the deceits of the world, the flesh, and the devil – Lord deliver us
By your Cross and Passion – Lord deliver us
By your precious Death and Burial – Lord deliver us
By your glorious Resurrection and Ascension – Lord deliver us
and by the coming of your Holy Spirit – Lord deliver us

Bring to account, Lord all who exercise power in government. Give them confidence in their authority to act for the common good. Restore dignity to Parliament and to every institution that holds authority to account.

Do not let them promise what they cannot give, and do not let us demand more from them than they are rightly able to give. Keep us from ideology, from all vexatious laws and the destruction of our traditions. Release those in debt and give redemption to those in prison. Give our people confidence to marry and start families, to every family give the strength to hold together, and let every class and community serve the common good.

Lord, bring all who have erred and been deceived into the way of truth. Lord, forgive our enemies, persecutors, and slanderers, and turn their hearts. Give us, with them, true repentance; forgive us our negligence and sin, and give us grace, by your Holy Spirit, to live our lives according to your holy Word. Strengthen those who stand; comfort and help the weak-hearted; raise up them that fall and, in your mercy, finally beat down Satan under our feet.

Grant, we beseech thee, merciful Lord, to thy faithful people pardon and peace, that they may be cleansed from all their sin and serve thee with a quiet mind, through Jesus Christ our Lord.
Amen