God of community, you call us to be in community just as you are in community to love, support and care for our neighbours.

Help us to see that our neighbours are both those whom we meet every day, the members of our family, church, school and work communities, those people who we are called to walk with in their journey through life, but remind us that as part of your global community you call us to care for people whom we will never meet in distant lands, please help us as we engage with them in their trials and tribulations.

Forgive us, God of grace, when we fail our neighbours, ignoring their pleas for help and failing to help them to live out their life as people loved by you. Help us to listen more carefully to our neighbour’s cries for help and stir us into action so that we might engage with them in ways that bring about a return to health and wholeness.

Strengthen us by your Spirit-loving God that we might continue to go forward with renewed energy to be your community of neighbours who reach out with your love and care so that all people might have life in all its fullness.

Amen

Rev. Andrew Gunton, Moderator