St. Andrew's welcomes you to this New Years Eve Prayer Gathering. The entire service has been video recorded and all the text is on the screen (power point) so you may follow along. Watch the video by clicking here.

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Gathering
At the eve of the dawning of a new year, we come to welcome hope for a new world.

 

All:  We come eager to see this year end.  We are tired and weary.  The days have felt long and difficult.  We long to be freed from the burden of COVID, the loneliness of isolation, and the challenges and difficulties on every level.

 

We pray that the darkness would lift, and we seek to welcome a dawn of renewal, with good news for all, and blessings given to a people ready to share.

 

All: We come eager to let go of the struggle.  We come to seek protection for the vulnerable, strength for the weary, and a new joy that will make all of us feel young at heart.

 

So we pray O God:  Let the light shine, open a path to safety for all who are seeking a new way and longing for renewed life.

 

All:  We come trusting in the words of Jesus who said,  “Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest.  Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls.”

 

 

 

Prayer of Confession

God of Love, we have known your love and your care, even in this year that is passing.
You have been with us in every transition and change., every challenge and victory.
Yet we confess that we enter into this new era with excitement and yet also some anxiety.
We remember your deep compassion, presence, and abounding love yet we confess that we have often had our eyes firmly planted on the images that come from the news.  Rising infection rates, rising death toll, a deep unhappiness that permeates even our prayers.
Yet this pandemic is not the first through which you have shepherded your people.  Now, as then, you have proven your love, and deepened your care.  You have borne our pain and our fears.

We remember the words of Jesus, “Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest.  Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls.”  Amen.

 

*A Reading from Ecclesiastes

3 There is a time for everything,
and a season for every activity under the heavens:

2     a time to be born and a time to die,
a time to plant and a time to uproot,
3     a time to kill and a time to heal,
a time to tear down and a time to build,
4     a time to weep and a time to laugh,
a time to mourn and a time to dance,
5     a time to scatter stones and a time to gather them,
a time to embrace and a time to refrain from embracing,
6     a time to search and a time to give up,
a time to keep and a time to throw away,
7     a time to tear and a time to mend,
a time to be silent and a time to speak,
8     a time to love and a time to hate,
a time for war and a time for peace.

9 What do workers gain from their toil? 10 I have seen the burden God has laid on the human race. 11 He has made everything beautiful in its time. He has also set eternity in the human heart; yet[a] no one can fathom what God has done from beginning to end. 12 I know that there is nothing better for people than to be happy and to do good while they live. 13 That each of them may eat and drink, and find satisfaction in all their toil—this is the gift of God. 14 I know that everything God does will endure forever; nothing can be added to it and nothing taken from it. God does it so that people will fear him.

15 Whatever is has already been,
and what will be has been before;
and God will call the past to account

 

Prayer of Acceptance

 

We hear your word, and we trust in your presence.   Whatever is has already been and what will be has been before, and you O God will call the past to account.

 

So we surrender to you this year that it past and we remember your grace.

Where life has been good to us, we give you our eternal thanksgiving and our unending praise.

 

Where we have followed as you have led, we bask in the glow of your praise, as you say, “well done good and faithful servant.”

 

Where we have touched this world with your grace, we pause in thankfulness that you have shown mercy to us and through us.

 

Where we have known your perfect peace, we sigh in contentment, for we know that you have walked with us.

 

All:  Holy God, Holy and Wise, as we stand before you, with the way before us unknown we ask you to cleanse by your mercy, guide us with your love, and lead us ever forward in hope, through the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, who calls to us and beckons us onward.  Amen

 

 

 

*A reading from Isaiah 62
62 For Zion’s sake I will not keep silent,
for Jerusalem’s sake I will not remain quiet,
till her vindication shines out like the dawn,
her salvation like a blazing torch.
2 The nations will see your vindication,
and all kings your glory;
you will be called by a new name
that the mouth of the Lord will bestow.
3 You will be a crown of splendor in the Lord’s hand,
a royal diadem in the hand of your God.
4 No longer will they call you Deserted,
or name your land Desolate.
But you will be called Hephzibah,[a]
and your land Beulah[b];
for the Lord will take delight in you,
and your land will be married.
5 As a young man marries a young woman,
so will your Builder marry you;
as a bridegroom rejoices over his bride,
so will your God rejoice over you.

11 The Lord has made proclamation
to the ends of the earth:
“Say to Daughter Zion,
‘See, your Savior comes!
See, his reward is with him,
and his recompense accompanies him.’”
12 They will be called the Holy People,
the Redeemed of the Lord;
and you will be called Sought After,
the City No Longer Deserted.

 

 

Litany:  Behold I make all things new

Hear O People the Lord God is our hope, and it is he who calls us into the splendour of his new life.

All:  We hear his promise, and we rejoice.  He has not deserted us, he has not left us in desolation.

He calls us forth into the promised land, a land where we will serve him, and he will love us.

All:  And we will be called the apple of his eye.  We will rejoice in the abundance of his blessing.

Come hear the promise, God rejoices over us, he leads us into the promise of his eternal reward.

All:  And we will be called his holy people, a royal priesthood, the people of his heart.  In boldness we come, in eagerness we pray, for we know that the Lord God is with us and hears our prayers. 

 

Prayer of hope for the year to come

The year before us is like a blank calendar.  The days are spread before us, and they will be what we, working together with God will make of them.   Let us pray:

 

*We pray for those who are grieving this night, and we ask O Lord that you will come alongside them, assure them of your love and guide them with the comfort and assurance of eternal life, lived in your presence.

 

We lay our world at your feet O Lord
God's mercies are new every morning

 

 

*We pray for those who have been unable to be with their families this past year, and we ask that you will clear the highways, make a way in the desert and restore relationships so that we all may glory together in your presence.

 

We lay our world at your feet O Lord
God's mercies are new every morning

 

 

 

We pray for this congregation, thanking you for those gifts of grace that you have called forth from us.  We pray that as we embrace the year you will give us, that we will work in your will, and serve with your purpose that the whole world may know that we love Jesus and serve you.

 

We lay our world at your feet O Lord
God's mercies are new every morning

 

 

 

*We pray for your Church throughout the world.  May your people be bold in all circumstances.   May we live as people who overcome adversity and grow strong in difficulty.  May each congregation of your church be like a beacon on a hill, shining in the darkness and proclaiming that your best is always found among us. May we all find in our congregations a new power and a new faith.  May we fulfill your mission to live in faith, share in love and look forward with hope..

 

We lay our world at your feet O Lord
God's mercies are new every morning

 

 

 

*We pray for the community in which we live, asking that you bring growth to the businesses, and help those who have been closed this year to reopen.  Restore the prosperity in our community.  Draw us together in love for one another, and make us eager to help as you give us compassion, and power and wisdom and understanding.

 

We lay our world at your feet O Lord
God's mercies are new every morning

 

 

 

We pray for our government.  Local, provincial and federal.  Fill the hearts of all those whom we have elected that they may be servants of us all.  Guide their actions with compassion, fill their days with a desire to make things better for all citizens and endow all of the leaders with the Wisdom of your Spirit, that our path forward may be filled with your wells of grace, your oasis of peace and your power of mercy.  And may these gifts extend from our leaders to ourselves; from us and into the community and from the community into the nation and the whole world.

 

We lay our world at your feet O Lord
God's mercies are new every morning

 

 

 

*May your glory be revealed throughout the whole world.  Where the earth has been ravaged by fire, bring renewing rain.  Where your earth has been washed away in the storms and the floods, bring healing and drying winds and restore the foliage now as in creation.  Where the pain of the earth is felt in earthquakes and tremors, bring the peace of your Spirit to heal, to restore and to make all things new in you.

 

We lay our world at your feet O Lord
God's mercies are new every morning

 

 

 

*Where the earth has suffered with sickness, bring new hope.  Guide the governments and the experts to show us how to live carefully but also to live well and with confidence.  We pray for all those who are developing a vaccine, that it may be strong and safe and effective, and that it will be available to all, the wealthy nations and the developing nations as soon as possible.

 

We lay our world at your feet O Lord
God's mercies are new every morning  Amen

 

Hear the promise of God from the Book of the Revelation

21 Then I saw “a new heaven and a new earth,”[a] for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away, and there was no longer any sea. 2 I saw the Holy City, the new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride beautifully dressed for her husband. 3 And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, “Look! God’s dwelling place is now among the people, and he will dwell with them. They will be his people, and God himself will be with them and be their God. 4 ‘He will wipe every tear from their eyes. There will be no more death’[b] or mourning or crying or pain, for the old order of things has passed away.”

5 He who was seated on the throne said, “I am making everything new!” Then he said, “Write this down, for these words are trustworthy and true.”

 

Affirmation of Faith

All:  At the dawn of a new year,
we come to welcome hope for a new world.

 

Let the darkness lift,
to welcome a dawn of plenty,
with enough for everyone
and people ready to share.

All:  At the dawn of a new year,
we come to welcome hope for a new world.

 

*Let the day begin,
with new energy for the struggle
to protect our children
and to care for the vulnerable.

All:  At the dawn of a new year,
we come to welcome hope for a new world.

 

*Let the light shine,
to open a path to safety
for all who are seeking home
and longing for life.

All:  At the dawn of a new year,
we come to welcome hope for a new world.

 

Let the sun rise
on new talks and new resolve
to end the bombing and the terror
and to find solutions for peace that will last.

 

All:  At the dawn of a new year
we come to declare our hope
and to welcome a new world. 

 

Benediction:

This is the hope and opportunity set before us now:

to press on, each according to our different capacities and abilities,

to work for this new world because of, not despite the circumstances of the new global reality.

*We do so as we affirm in our living that God who makes all things new, also makes this New Year for us, with it’s blank slate.

*We embrace this new year and the days that wait to be filled as we enjoy God’s presence.

Let this be a year in which the church is marked by a wild trust in God who promises us a new day, a new year and a new world.  May he be glorified now and forever.  Glory be to God.

All:   Amen

Benediction Song:

This Promise

Used with Permission of Emu Music