These prompts are provided for worship leaders as they prepare the prayers of intercession for weekly worship. The prompts are prepared by several leaders in the ELCA and reflect current world and national events. You are encouraged to adapt and add other concerns for your local context, including staying informed of events and concerns in your synod.
Intercession prompts:
For those grieving, injured, and displaced after the earthquake in Afghanistan, and for all relief and aid efforts…
For the people of Ethiopia, as their nation is torn apart by civil war…
For those whose lives have been upended by the war in Ukraine, including civilians trapped in their homes, prisoners of war held behind enemy lines, and those grieving loved ones who’ve been killed…
For those organizing and attending Pride celebrations…
For LGBTQIA+ siblings who cannot yet feel safe coming out…
In thanksgiving for the life and work of Clela Rorex, the first county clerk in the U.S. to issue a marriage license to a same-sex couple, in Boulder in 1975…
Other notable events and observances:
Pride Month (month of June)
African-American Music Appreciation Month (month of June)
Commemoration of Cyril (June 27)
Commemoration of Irenaeus (June 28)
Commemoration of Peter and Paul (June 29)
Commemoration of Catherine Winkworth & John Mason Neale (July 1)
Canada Day (July 1)
Suggested prayers:
A prayer celebrating gender diversity (ACS p. 51)
O God, your divinity transcends distinctions of gender, and through the generations you widen our awareness of human diversity. We gather here before you in our various expressions of gender identity, all of us one in Christ Jesus. Bring our society to peacefulness concerning a wider understanding of gender. Give courage and healing to those who express outwardly the gender they testify as gift from you. Open the church to their witness. We ask that with your creative Spirit you cultivate new relationships, mend old wounds, and nurture communities of respect, for the sake of the one who embraces all persons in love, Jesus Christ, our Savior. Amen.
ELW = Evangelical Lutheran Worship
ACS = All Creation Sings: Evangelical Lutheran Worship Supplement
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Additional topical prayers are found in Evangelical Lutheran Worship (pp. 72–87) and All Creation Sings (pp. 46–55), as well as in other resources provided in print and online at sundaysandseasons.com.
Follow this link to access resources to assist worshiping communities as they respond to the crisis in Eastern Europe. Several prayers are provided that could be used during the prayers of intercession or at other times, in public worship or for devotional use at home or in other settings.
All Creation Sings includes several resources for lament including “Lamenting Gun Violence” (Leaders Edition, p. 107) and “Service after a Violent Event” (Pew Edition p. 64-66, Leaders p. 110-113) as well as several collect prayers. This content is also available on SundaysandSeasons.com in the Library.
Further assistance for composing prayers of intercession can be found here: Resources for Crafting Prayers of Intercession
Crafted intercessions for every Sunday and festival are provided in the Sundays and Seasons worship planning guide published in-print and online by Augsburg Fortress.
Prayer Ventures, a daily prayer resource, is a guide to prayer for the global, social and outreach ministries of the ELCA, as well as for the needs and circumstances of our neighbors, communities and world.
