January

2    Aberdeen URC
Lord we look forward to a new journey for our Church and have faith and hope that we will grow to be your presence where we work and worship.  The Carmelite Hotel has become our new home and we give thanks for the fellowship and friendship extended to us by the staff and we look forward to our time with them, so please keep them in our prayers.

We pray that you may also be with the refugees from the conflict in Afghanistan, who have been accommodated here in Aberdeen by the Carmelite Hotel, and we pray that as they become integrated into our community that the people of Aberdeen will help and support them as they adjust to a new life in a new place.

We thank you for the purpose and hope you give us today, and for the future.

9    Airdrie Park
We ask that you pray for the congregation of The Park Church, Airdrie, who still have not been able to meet together for worship due to the unavailability of suitable premises on a Sunday morning. The congregation are very good at keeping in touch with each other on a regular basis, but spirits are flagging in a congregation which enjoys the social interaction of shared worship and hasn’t been able to do so in the last 21 months.
 
Loving and Caring God, we pray for strength of spirit and stamina in the congregation’s determination to continue sharing support. We thank you for the outstanding work of the church secretary, in making sure that during the various lockdowns people were kept in touch, and challenged by puzzles and quizzes.
 
May those who are struggling with mental and physical health problems know the spoken and unspoken support of their fellows.
 
May your Holy Spirit move among everyone that all may have hearts and minds open to alternative options for gathered worship, at times and in places perhaps previously not considered. We are filled with praise for our God whose love is constant and whose spirits never flag. As we walk with Jesus in our daily lives we pray for ourselves and for our sister congregations, and it is in his name we pray. Amen.

16   Week of Prayer (18-25)
The material for this coming Week of Prayer for Christian Unity has been prepared by churches in the Middle East, and looks to the story of the Magi in Matthew chapter 2 for its main theme: “We saw his star in the East”.
In this story, people of differing faiths and cultures, representing the world outwith the familiar Biblical landscape of Palestine, come to worship Christ. But differing faiths and cultures are so often the cause of, or rather the excuse for, conflict. That has certainly been the story of the Middle East down the centuries.
And violence is also part of the story of the Magi: Herod seeks the Christ-child, not with peaceful intention but in order to rid his kingdom of anyone who, in his eyes, would be a threat.
Today, the poor, the weak and the marginalised continue to be threatened by the powerful; and the churches are called to live in ways which bear witness to the Light of Christ and challenge the power structures of the world. Christians are called to seek a just and honest world, in which true peace may be experienced by all.     
 
Let us pray:
Lord God, through your Son Jesus Christ you have called us out of darkness into a new hope; may the light of Christ shine upon those living in darkness and despair. By your Spirit, unite us all in a commitment to live in the light of your love, justice and peace; and grant that we may all live in ways which glorify you.
For we ask it in the name of him who came to bring light to the whole world: your Son Jesus Christ. Amen

23   URC Youth Assembly (28-30)