Liturgy: Communion Prayer based on the Song of Faith (United Church of Canada, 2007)

(Please feel free to use this liturgy.  Credits:  Song of Faith (2007), adapted by Rev. Murray Speer.)

(Portions of the liturgy in square brackets are to be filled in from other resources.)

Introduction
In the sacrament of communion the ordinary things of life
—water, bread, wine—
point beyond themselves to God and God’s love,
teaching us to be alert
to the sacred in the midst of life.

[Sursum Corda]

Preface
Let us pray,
Blessed are you, gracious God,
Creative and self-giving,
generously moving
in all the near and distant corners of the universe.
Nothing exists that does not find its source in you.
From the beginning your Spirit has swept
over the face of creation,
animating all energy and matter
and moving in the human heart.

Creator, Christ, and Spirit,
we praise you for your love expressed to us through Jesus,
a Jew,
born to a woman in poverty
in a time of social upheaval
and political oppression.
He knew human joy and sorrow.
So filled with the Holy Spirit was he
that in him people experienced the presence of God among them.
Jesus announced the coming of God’s reign—
a commonwealth not of domination
but of peace, justice, and reconciliation.
He tended to the sick and fed the hungry.
He forgave sins and freed those held captive
by all manner of demonic powers.
He crossed barriers of race, class, culture, and gender.
He preached and practised unconditional love—
love of God, love of neighbour,
love of friend, love of enemy—
and he commanded his followers to love one another
as he had loved them.

[Sanctus-Benedictus]
[Words of Institution]
[Anamnesis-Oblation]
[Memorial Acclamation]
[Epiclesis]

Intercessions
We pray that we will know your purpose for us,
that faith will be nurtured,
suffering hearts will be comforted,
gifts will be shared for the good of all,
forces that exploit and marginalize will come to an end,
fierce love will be known even in the face of violence,
human dignity will be defended,
and that we will remember the price that Jesus paid
for who he was,
for what he did and said,
and for the brokenness of the world.
Make us, who through this wine and bread
are renewed in faith and hope,
witnesses to your divine mission,
feeding as we have been fed,
forgiving as we have been forgiven,
and loving as we have been loved.

Doxology
Divine creation does not cease
until all things have found wholeness, union, and integration
with the common ground of all being.
As children of the Timeless One,
our time-bound lives will find completion
in the all-embracing Creator.
In the meantime, we embrace the present,
embodying hope, loving our enemies,
caring for the earth,
choosing life.

[Prayer of Jesus]
[Amen]

Prayer after Communion
Eternal and gracious God, we place our hope in you.
     We look to a life beyond life
     and a future good beyond imagining:
a new heaven and a new earth,
     the end of sorrow, pain, and tears,
Christ’s return and life with you,
     the making new of all things.
We yearn for the coming of that future,
     even while participating in your eternal life now.
     Amen.