Fr Robert Hendrickson
Dear Friends in Christ,
This week commences our online annual meeting. It occurs almost to the day of the announcement of our status as a parish of the Episcopal Church which happened on February 5th 1939, the day Bishop Mitchell made the announcement.
With that anniversary and the annual meeting, it seemed a lovely thing to share Prayers for Thanksgiving for a Church from the Book of Common Prayer. I encourage you, this week, as you are able, to pray some or all of them each day!
A Litany of Thanksgiving for a Church
Let us thank God whom we worship here in the beauty of holiness.
Eternal God, the heaven of heavens cannot contain you, much less the walls of temples made with hands. Graciously receive our thanks for this place, and accept the work of our hands, offered to your honor and glory.
For the Church universal, of which these visible buildings are the symbol,
We thank you, Lord.
For your presence whenever two or three have gathered together in your Name,
We thank you, Lord.
For this place where we may be still and know that you are God,
We thank you, Lord.
For making us your children by adoption and grace, and refreshing us day by day with the bread of life.
We thank you, Lord.
For the knowledge of your will and the grace to perform it,
We thank you, Lord.
For the fulfilling of our desires and petitions as you see best for us,
We thank you, Lord.
For the pardon of our sins, which restores us to the company of your faithful people,
We thank you, Lord.
For the blessing of our vows and the crowning of our years with your goodness,
We thank you, Lord.
For the faith of those who have gone before us and for our encouragement by their perseverance,
We thank you, Lord.
For the fellowship of Saint Philip, our patron, and of all your Saints,
We thank you, Lord.
Yours, O Lord, is the greatness, the power, the glory, the victory, and the majesty for everything in heaven and on earth is yours. Yours, O Lord, is the kingdom and you are exalted as head over all. Amen.
Yours in Christ,
Fr Robert