This site will contain the Prayer of the Church for each Sunday during the time I served at Redeemer and New Stockholm Lutheran churches, at least all that I have.  I was trying to think of a way that I could make them more easily accessible for checking back, and for getting ideas for what to do next, and decided that putting them on a website would be the easiest.  At this time the prayers begin with the church year 1999, and I will be adding earlier years as I can find them, and the prayers for this year as the Sundays come about.

In placing these prayers on the web, I hope that they may also be of use to someone else, as good examples (I hope) or bad examples.  If you find them of use, feel free to use them as is or to modify them, as I have done in some cases, or to share them with others if you think they will be of help.  Any thanks for them should go to the one God who inspires us all as we struggle to express to our God, and to our congregations, and to ourselves, the needs and the meanings of daily living in service to our Lord. 

During my first couple of years here, as I was a bit unsure of things, I stuck pretty closely to using a series of prayers published by the ELCIC (Evangelical Lutheran Church in Canada) called "Intercessions for the Church Year" for use in congregations.  This series was written by some talented people, and I did some adaptation for the parish but let the words of the prayers as already written speak to the church.  I do not have a complete record of names of the authors, so I simply thank unnamed sources at this point.  The sections for which I do know the source, I will list. 

Some thanks from me goes also to the individuals who have posted prayers on the lists, PRCL-L, Preach, Propertalk, and more recently Ecunet.  In looking back at the record, I have seen that I did indeed use prayers written by others at times, when I felt they were especially good, or when I have been in a rush.  From some others I have cribbed for style, for message, and for a boost in thinking when the well was dry.  On those you will find the name of the individual at the bottom of the page.  There is always a concern in the fields of writing about plagiarism, and I hope that none of those who have been quoted on these pages will have that concern.

When I first came to this parish, I found that (surprise!) they had a habit/tradition of the way things went with the prayer of the church.  One thing that was a change from my previous parish was that no matter how many people were sick, in hospital, in the Care Homes, or had recently lost a loved one, the congregation wanted every name to be part of the Prayer of the Church.  In previous situations, I had put the first name of each person in the prayers ("bless Sam, Jennifer and Alex in hospital"), but they wanted the full name.  There have been Sundays when there were 25 to 30 people in hospital, in care homes, or under care of the doctor.  It has definitely been necessary to pause a couple of times for breath during those prayers.  On these pages there will be a line …………… where the names had been .

It was necessary to develop some ground rules, as there were none to advise me regarding how long a person should be on the prayers list, or how individuals were added to the list or removed from it.  I set these out as a general advisory, so that people would know, but not as hard and fast rules.

1. To get on the list, it is necessary to a) tell the Pastor, or b) ask someone else to tell the Pastor, or c) be in hospital when I am visiting.
   
2. To get off the list, it is necessary to a) tell the Pastor, or b) ask someone else to tell the Pastor.
   
3. Once on the "in hospital" list, a name remains until I know the person is out, and at that time the name will be moved to the "under doctor's care" list until I am requested to remove it, or, if the person attends church regularly I will ask him/her if the name should be removed.
   
4. When there is a death in the congregation, or of a family member of someone in the congregation, the name of the family and the name of the deceased will be in the Prayer of the Church for one month following the burial service.