Please find below the notes from the Elder's Prayer this past Sunday.

Almighty God and Merciful Father,

It is right to give thanks to you. We come before you, raising our hearts and our voices with the angels and all the company of heaven, in praise and in thanksgiving to you who are great and mighty and worthy of all praise.

We give you hearty thanks for all your goodness and lovingkindness to us and to all people. We bless you for our creation and our preservation and for all the blessings of this life.

We thank you also, Father, for those disappointments, failures, and painful circumstances that leave us gasping, wounded, and helpless and which lead us to acknowledge our dependence on you alone.

We thank you that throughout this week you have been pleased to comfort the sorrowing, the weary, and the afflicted, and that you have restored those in ill health.

We thank you for your grace and mercy in triumphs over sin, for steadfast faith in temptation, and for milestones achieved and relationships strengthened in our personal lives. All these things come from your hand, and we are grateful for them. On this day we thank you for our mothers, and how you have used them in many ways to shape us in your wise providence.

Far above all else, we thank you for your love in redeeming the world—for bringing your sheep from all cultures, nations, and stations of life—into your fold through our Lord Jesus Christ. We thank you for the hope of glory.

Give us the fullest sense and deepest recognition of your mercy that our hearts might be thankful, and that we may praise you throughout this service, not only with our lips but with our lives. May we give ourselves to your service of praise by walking before you in holiness and righteousness all our days through Jesus Christ our Lord.

All this we pray in Christ’s name,

Amen