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 relief and recovery efforts following Hurricane Ian and Typhoon Noru…
For communities grieving and rebuilding after flooding in Pakistan…
For all areas of the world who have suffered recent natural disasters…
For the health of creation…
For peace amidst leadership and regime transitions across the world…
For those whose mental and physical health is affected by changing seasons…
For blessings upon our Jewish siblings marking Yom Kippur this week…
In thanksgiving for LGBTQIA+ siblings…
Other notable events and observances:
Sept 1-Oct 4: Season of Creation
Sept 15-Oct 15: Hispanic/Latinx Heritage Month
Month of October: LGBTQIA+ Heritage Month
Oct 1: Durga Puja (Hindu festival)
Oct 4: Francis of Assisi, renewer of the church
Oct 4: Theodor Fliedner, renewer of the church
Oct 4/5: Yom Kippur (Jewish holy day)
Oct 6: William Tyndale, translator
Oct 7: Henry Melchior Muhlenberg, pastor
Suggested hymns & prayers:
A prayer attributed to St. Francis of Assisi (ELW p. 87)
Lord, make us instruments of your peace. Where there is hatred, let us sow love; where there is injury, pardon; where there is discord, union; where there is doubt, faith; where there is despair, hope; where there is darkness, light; where there is sadness, joy. Grant that we may not so much seek to be consoled as to console; to be understood as to understand; to be loved as to love. For it is in giving that we receive; it is in pardoning that we are pardoned; and it is in dying that we are born to eternal life. Amen.
A prayer for those affected by natural disasters (ACS p. 49)
Everlasting God, you have wonderfully established the ministries of angels and mortals. Mercifully grant that as Michael and the angels contend against the cosmic forces of evil, so by your direction they may help and defend us here on earth, through your Son, Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God whom we worship and praise with angels and archangels and all the company of heaven, now and forever. Amen.
Hymns for complicated times
All Creatures Worship God Most High (ELW 835)
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.
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.
