31st December 2022
“As long as the earth endures, seedtime and harvest, cold and heat, summer and winter, day and night will never cease.” Genesis 8:22
You Lord, are the source of all good things:
We praise you.
You call us to tend and care for your creation:
May we strive to do your will.
You have made us as brothers and sisters with all that lives:
May we live together in peace.
A reading – Ecclesiastes 3:1-4,8
For everything there is a season, and a time for every matter under heaven:
a time to be born, and a time to die;
a time to plant, and a time to pluck up what is planted;
a time to kill, and a time to heal;
a time to break down, and a time to build up;
a time to weep, and a time to laugh;
a time to mourn, and a time to dance;
a time to love, and a time to hate;
a time for war, and a time for peace.
Creator God,
As one year follows another,
open our hearts and minds
to hear your word and know your will.
There is a time wait and a time to act:
Give us patience when we must wait
and courage when we must act.
There is a time to buy and a time to make do:
Help us buy wisely thinking of the welfare of others,
and not be snared by the wiles of advertising.
There is a time to mend and a time to recycle:
Enable our hands to mend with care
and to recycle with equal care.
There is a time to invest and a time to divest:
May our money support renewable resources,
and not damage the environment.
There is a time to grow and time to leave fallow:
May our use of the land follow the seasons,
enabling regeneration and new growth.
There is a time renew and a time to replace:
Give us the humility to dismantle systems that are harmful,
and the wisdom to create anew those that are beneficial.
There is a time to restore and a time to rewild:
Help us to be generous in sharing both land and water,
making space for the natural world with whom we are as one.
There is a time for fighting and a time for making peace:
Strengthen us to be fight for justice
and equip us to be peace makers.
Creator God,
As one year follows another,
open our hearts and minds
to hear your word and know your will.
Amen.
And God said, ‘Let there be lights in the dome of the sky to separate the day from the night; and let them be for signs and for seasons and for days and years, and let them be lights in the dome of the sky to give light upon the earth.’ And it was so. Genesis 1:14-15
The Green Tau 