Led by Sonia Faulkner

Life giving God who showers blessings upon us
through warm sunshine and gentle rain;
who sends pristine streams
rushing down from mountain snow fields,
springing up from hidden aquifers,
pouring into swelling rivers flowing seaward.
We praise you for the gift of water.

We confess that we have poured pollutants into waterways,
turning life teaming places into foul smelling eyesores.
Forgive us, and help us change our polluting ways.

Life giving God who showers blessings upon us
through the sweet sound of bird song carried by gentle breeze;
who has created an interconnected ecology of plants and creatures
in and around the rivers of our land.
We praise you for the gift of living things,
for insects, fish and waterfowl.

Life giving God who showers blessings upon us
through the sweet sound of bird song carried by gentle breeze;
who has created an interconnected ecology of plants and creatures
in and around the rivers of our land.
We praise you for the gift of living things,
for insects, fish and waterfowl.

We confess that we have destroyed habitat
and threatened species
by damming rivers to feed our insatiable demand for energy,
and through draining rivers to water marginal land
to increase our pastoral production,
in order to earn more dollars to buy things
we often don’t need.
Forgive us, and help us to work in harmony with nature.

Life giving God, you gave us dominion over the fish of the sea,
over the birds of the air,
and over every living thing that moves on the earth.
That dominion was not licence to exploit and destroy
but responsibility to tend and protect.

We have failed miserably to care for your creation.
Transform us, O God,
through the power of your Spirit of Recreation,
so that our relationship with all the species of this planet,
including our own kind, may finally become
what you always intended it to be.

So be it.
Amen

Joy Kingsbury-Aitken (2019)
Prayers for Southern Seasons
Phillip Garside Publishing Ltd