A Prayer for the United Methodist Church

This prayer was offered during worship at Athens First UMC on January 5 in response to the recent news of legislation being proposed for this May’s General Conference for their to be a split in our denomination over issues related to same sex marriage and ordination. For information related to this legislation and our West Ohio Bishop Gregory Palmer’s letter regarding this news development, click here.

Lord, in your mercy, hear our prayer:

God of love, we thank you for the United Methodist Church and for our witness of the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ throughout the world. We are grateful for the wonderful ways that we are a connectional church and for the opportunities this offers us to shine your light of hope, peace, joy and love to people representing many different countries, cultures, beliefs, and backgrounds. You also know how difficult it has been over these past several years to be in disagreement over very important social issues that threaten to divide us. We acknowledge that within any church, there will be people who have different views.

As delegates from all around the world prepare for this May’s General Conference in Minnesota, we pray for your Holy Spirit to guide their decision-making in a way that would not only increase our witness of your love throughout the world, but also give us a way forward that would help us to agree to disagree in a spirit of mutual love and respect.

And lastly, and perhaps most importantly, I pray that Athens First UMC would continue to be the welcoming and inclusive church that we are know to be. And may all of your people regardless of gender, orientation, race, or any other identifying label we may use, know that this church will always be a haven of blessing and peace, because we have all been created in your image and there are NO loopholes, asterisks, or exceptions. In humility, we offer this prayer. Amen.