Kirk Moderator encourages Christians to continue joining in Sunday prayer

This Sunday (4 July), as over 16 million people plan to join the first national Thank You Day, Christians across the country – and further afield – will join together in prayer and reflection at 7pm in response to the pandemic.

As with previous weeks during lockdown, 15 Christian churches and organisations across the country, including the Church of Scotland, have co-signed the letter calling for prayer.

Scottish Christians have been continuing to answer the call to pray at the same time each week, and the Moderator of the General Assembly of the Church of Scotland, Lord Wallace, is taking part alongside them.

"We should always be mindful for the wisdom handed down to us from past generations; much of it learned the hard way, from mistakes made and consequences suffered," Lord Wallace said.

"So, too, we are grateful for the richness that comes to us from living alongside people of other traditions. In our day and generation we must surely allow our minds and hearts to be open so that we can risk getting to know them and learning from them.

"In this pandemic, our responsibility is to come together and offer our prayers for all the many diverse expressions of our Christian faith that enrich life, as we have done for many months now.

"A pattern has been set for us, lived out in Jesus Christ, made possible by the Spirit. May we follow in His way, and be guided by the one over-riding rule of love in all that we say and do."

This week's letter accompanying the prayer, which is also available in Gaelic, states:

"At certain times in our experience we are especially conscious of our strengths and, at other times, of our weaknesses.

"In our times of perceived strength, we are confident of our capacities and abilities. In our times of perceived weakness, it is often otherwise. We might easily imagine that it is in the former situation that God is especially close to us. However, the experience of faith and of the grace of God suggests otherwise.

"The Apostle Paul discovered this in the course of his own spiritual experience and came to realise the sufficiency of the grace of God in his life. This discovery is made in the times when he senses that he is at his weakest and not in his times of perceived strength. (2 Corinthians 12: 9)

"In the spiritual journey that each one of us makes, the sufficiency of God is often known when we come to the end of our own strength and discover the ever-renewed grace of God."

We pray:

God, whose grace is revealed,
In the One who embraces the Cross,
May we know the sufficiency of Your grace
In the times of our deepest need.
Lord, in Your mercy,
Hear our prayer.

God, whose grace is revealed,
In the One who embraces the Cross,
May we walk in the company of those who suffer
And so share in the grace that You provide.
Lord, in Your mercy,
Hear our prayer.

God, whose grace is revealed,
In the One who embraces the Cross,
May we experience the strength You provide
In the times of our greatest weakness.
Lord, in Your mercy,
Hear our prayer.

God, whose grace is revealed,
In the One who embraces the Cross,
May our lives be renewed as we live out our response to Your grace
And so share in the community of grace.
Lord, in Your mercy,
Hear our prayer.

God, whose grace is revealed,
In the One who embraces the Cross,
May Your grace, sufficient in days past,
Be sufficient in all the days that are to come.
Lord, in Your mercy,
Hear our prayer.

Signed by:

• Lord Wallace, Moderator of the General Assembly, Church of Scotland
• Most Rev. Leo Cushley, Archbishop of St. Andrews and Edinburgh, Roman Catholic Church
• Most Rev. Mark Strange, Primus, on behalf of the College of Bishops, Scottish Episcopal Church
• Rev. Dr David Miller, Moderator, United Free Church of Scotland
• Rev. Neil MacMillan, Moderator, Free Church of Scotland
• Rev. Paul Whittle, Moderator, United Reformed Church (Scotland)
• Rev. Martin Hodson, General Director, Baptist Union of Scotland
• Rev. Mark Slaney, District Chair, Methodist Church (Scotland)
• Rev. Thomas R. Wilson, Chair, Congregational Federation in Scotland
• Lt. Col. Carol Bailey, Secretary for Scotland, Salvation Army
• Adwoa Bittle, Religious Society of Friends (Quakers)
• Rev. Ruth Turner, District Superintendent, British Isles North District, Church of the Nazarene
• Pastor Chris Gbenle, Provincial Pastor, Province of Scotland, Redeemed Christian Church of God
• Bishop Francis Alao, Church of God (Scotland)/Minority Ethnic Churches Together in Scotland (MECTIS)
• Rev Fred Drummond, Director, Evangelical Alliance (Scotland)