Please Pray

Please hold in your prayers those around the world who continue to suffer as a result of wildfires, especially those evacuating from Yellowknife and other communities in the north, and now also from Kelowna, BC. The Rev. Dr. Larry Kochendorfer of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Canada (full communion partners with the ACC) is the Bishop of the Synod of Alberta and the Territories. He offers the following to guide our prayers. 

Almighty God, who is our strength and our refuge, be with those who are besieged by fire, guide those who evacuate so that they may find care and comfort in a safe place:  protect their homes and their pets, their neighbours and their friends, so that they may return home to a loving community.  We ask this in the name of Jesus your son, who abides with you and with the Holy Spirit. 
Amen.  (Episcopal Relief and Development) 

O God, whose love encircles us, sustain those who respond when wildfires roar,
keep them safe from harm and hold them in your sheltering embrace 
so that they may complete these burdensome tasks, return home to their families, and keep the lives and homes of all they protect safe from harm, in the loving name of Jesus, who gave his life for all. 
Amen.  (Episcopal Relief and Development) 

We pray to you Almighty God, in this time of raging wildfires.  You are our refuge and our strength, a very present help in time of trouble.  Do not let us fail in the face of these events.  Uphold us with your love, and give us the strength we need.  Help us in our confusion, and guide our actions.  Heal the hurt, console the bereaved and afflicted, protect the innocent and helpless, and deliver any who are still in peril; for the sake of your great mercy in Jesus Christ our Lord. 
Amen.  (ELW Pastoral Care, page 386-7) 

O God, where hearts are fearful and constricted, grant courage and hope. 
Where anxiety is infectious and widening, grant peace and reassurance.  Where impossibilities close every door and window, grant imagination and resistance.  Where spirits are daunted and weakened, grant soaring wings and strengthened dreams.  All these things we ask in the name of Jesus Christ, our Saviour and Lord. 
Amen.  (ELW, pg. 77)

A prayer of Thomas à Kempis
Write your blessed name, O Lord, upon my heart, there to remain so indelibly graven that no prosperity, no adversity, shall ever move me from your love.   Be to me a strong tower of defense, a comforter in tribulation, a deliverer in distress, a very present help in trouble, and a guide to heaven through the many temptations and dangers of this life.  (ELW Pastoral Car, pg. 362)