Indigenous Prayers of the People

 Prayers of the People                       adapted from Church of the Four Winds, Portland, Oregon

Presider      Creator and Redeemer, as we approach YOU in prayer: 

make us walk in beauty and balance, 

     make us open our hearts and minds, 

          make us speak the truth. 

We pray first for your Community, 

     the Church, the Body of Christ. 

We pray for all our relatives 

     and the circle of life throughout all creation; 

for those chosen to be our leaders and teachers; 

All              Creator, teach us and show us the way.

Leader        In peace, we pray to YOU, Lord God.

              We call upon the Earth, our Mother and Home, 

     with its beautiful depths, soaring heights, and deep waters; 

          its vitality and abundance of life; 

and together we ask that it

All              teach us and show us the way.

Leader        We call upon the mountains and tundra, 

     the high green valleys and prairies filled with wild flowers, 

          the snows, the summits of intense silence, 

and we ask that they

All              teach us and show us the way.

Leader        We call upon the land which grows our food, the nurturing soil,     

     the fertile fields, 

          the abundant gardens and orchards, 

and we ask that they

All              teach us and show us the way.

Leader        We call upon the forests, 

the great trees reaching strongly to the sky 

with earth in their roots and the heavens and their branches, 

     the Fir and the Pine, 

          the Cedar and the Maple, 

and we ask them to

All              teach us and show us the way.

Leader        We call upon the creatures 

of the fields and forests and the waters, 

our kindred the wolves and deer, 

     the eagle and bear, 

          the great whales and the fish. 

We ask them to

All              teach us and show us the way.

Leader        In intercession, we pray for the sick and the infirm; especially

X

Leader reads names of those on our prayer list: plus

 for the hundreds of missing and murdered Indigenous women all across this hemisphere; 

(Please add your own concerns)

X

Silence

Leader        Creator, we are surrounded by our ancestor saints, 

especially Martin of Tours, Molly Brant, Onongwatgo, Helen Peterson, Noah Brokenleg, Hehaka Sapa, Enmegabowh, David Oakerhater, Kateri Tekakwitha, Tipi Sapa, Kamehameha and Emma, and countless others. 

On this Feast of All Saints and All Souls, we remember now before YOU all whom we love, but see no longer, 

especially those in our columbarium, and those we now name:

X

(Please say the names of those departed you wish to remember.

You are invited to write them on a card and place them on our Altar of Remembrance)

X

Silence

All              Creator, YOU made the world and declared it to be good: 

the beauty of the trees, 

          the softness of the air, 

                    the fragrance of the grass speaks to us; 

the summit of the mountains, 

          the Thunder of the sky, 

                    the rhythm of the waters speak to us; 

the faintness of the stars, 

          the freshness of the morning, 

                    the dew drops on the flowers speak to us. 

But above all, 

     our heart soars,

          for you speak to us in Jesus Christ, 

                    in whose name we offer these prayers. Amen.

--From the Church of the Four Winds, Portland Oregon, found in National Indigenous People's Day of Prayer from the Anglican Church of Canada, https://www.anglican.ca/wp-content/uploads/nidp-liturgy.pdf