One: My friends we live in a broken world, aching from the wounds in our lives, communities, country, and the whole inhabited earth. 

We meet the abundance of your creation with exploitation and deprivation;

We meet the peace that passes all understanding with war and violence;

We meet the love that knows no borders with exclusion and hate;

We meet your boundless grace with judgment and revenge.

All :

In the presence of your peace,

in the confidence of your love,

we confess our failings and wrongs,

turning from that which harms ourselves,

our neighbours, and you. 

One: Meet us in our brokenness, loving God

All: And journey with us on the path to healing and hope.

Jennifer Henry

One: Creator God you loved us into being, blessing us with gifts of diversity and abundance, 

All: Draw us together as community, in gratitude and grace.

One: Christ Jesus you came among us, infusing the ordinary with holiness.

All: Open our hearts to your extravagant love.

One: Spirit Song you dance with and through us, inspiring possibility and hope.

All: Enliven our faith and embolden our justice.

One: Blessed Trinity, we come to worship you.

Jennifer Henry

Living God we come together, with words of commitment, and hymns of praise.  May this time renew our spirits, so that confident in you, and emboldened by one another, we might return to the world in strength and grace. Inspire us to be faithful friend, generous neighbour, bold disciple, and daring advocate, encouraged by this community and your abiding love.  In the name of the Holy One who came down.  Amen       

Gracious God, you come among us in abundant joy, unsettling truth, deep consolation, and powerful transformation.  Yours are winds of change, hastening us toward a kin-dom of inclusion and justice not yet known in this world.  Move and mold us.  Convert and transform us.  Through your many witnesses, show us your way, so that we may be a community that embodies your love, here and now.    Amen 

1. You hold us in your arms, our Mama,
Dreamed into being by holy love,
Placed in this world of awesome beauty,
With all below, beside, above.

2. Your blood runs azure in our rivers.
Your waters break in oceans green.
Your sweetness flows in crimson maple.
Your brilliance gleams in frosty sheen.

3. Instead of love we seek dominion
We build our empires without heed or care.
O rock us, Mama, back into tending,
With graciousness, in the home we share.

4. Restore the guardians of ancient wisdom.
Unsettle us with brave insight.
Come find us amid all precious creatures,
Together healing and making right.

Lyrics: Jennifer Henry (March 2026)
Tune options: “The Day Thou Gavest, Lord, Is Ended” (437 in Voices United)

When we journey with Jesus this week, let the humble one on a donkey remind us to reject the logic of empire and hold fast to the other way, making our witness public, living our lives as a prayer.

When we journey with Jesus this week, let the cross remind us that there is no brutality or repression, no betrayal or abandonment—nothing in the horrors of this world—that our God does not know, that our God does not feel. In the depths of our personal grief and pain, in breadth of the world’s sorrow, God has been, is and will be with us. We are never alone.

When we journey with Jesus this week, let the empty tomb remind us that neither hate nor cruelty, not violence, not even death, reign supreme. Those who wage terror are not king. The kin-dom of God, the beloved community rises in the midst of struggle. Because Christ is Risen, true transformation is always possible.

Words: Jennifer Henry
2026

Prayer for Ash Wednesday

We are dust–

cosmic remnant of stars,

soot glistening in the sunlight,

embers flickering warmth,

dark fertile soil.

We are stuff that matters,

one, with all our relations,

as common and extraordinary

as is the Earth.

Creator, we are dust,

and to You–our home–we shall return.

Amen.

Words: Jennifer Henry

2021

Pancake Grace

Ordinary blessings…milk and flour, an egg and a bit of butter.  The ingredients of joy are common things that with a little sweetness combine in humble celebration.  The sugary taste of maple, the comfort of a place at the table, tender hands in shared service, hearfelt memories, and the precious sound of children’s laughter.  In times of grief and pain, may we help one another feast on the joy of common grace.   May gratitude and compassion shape bold discipleship until ordinary blessings are shared by all. Amen

Words: Jennifer Henry
Image: Unsplash, Mae Mu

February 17, 2026

1. Christ, help us to believe
When hate murders the Good
And terror grips the streets
When cruelty is the latest fad
Christ, help us to believe.

2. When lawless is the norm
And force defies restraint  
When peace is trumped by raging war
Christ, help us to believe.

3. When fierce divisions rule
And enemy is all
When empathy translates as weak
Christ, help us to believe.

4. Christ help us to believe
Love triumphs over hate
That change rolls forth in mighty wave
And peace with justice reigns

5. We claim God’s grace in “we”
In hope that foils despair
By loving neighbour near and far
Acting til we believe.

Lyrics: Jennifer Henry (January 2026)
Tune options: Common Meter is  6686; Daman, Psalmes 1579 (607 Voices United)

Prayer for Minnesota

Holding the people of Minnesota in the light after another murder today as the terror of ICE continues to reign at the behest of the President.  In the midst of this grief and pain, may the light of truth, compassion, justice, solidarity and human dignity burn brighter and brighter.  I see it in the witnesses, protestors, and clergy on the streets.  I discern it in some leaders of integrity striving to protect the targeted and marginalized against tyranny. I hear it in the words sung by neighbours to other neighbours who are staying in their houses in real fear.  I feel it in the solidarity pouring in from farther and farther afield.  This light may flicker but it will persevere. We are with you.

Words and image: Jennifer Henry

 January 24, 2026