An Opening Prayer

I asked Lucy if she would write an Opening Prayer. She said that she had tried but no words would come. I recorded the Opening Prayer she gave at the Swindon Church.

As we join together in our service tonight so we come sending out our thoughts of gratitude for all the blessings that we receive.

There are so many things that we take for granted; the things of our material lives that are necessary for our existence upon Earth. We thank You for our food, for our homes, for our families, for our work, but most of all we thank you because we have the opportunity of worshipping in the way that we feel is right. There are so many places on our Earth where people's lives are dictated as to how they should act, how they should think from childhood to the grave, and we feel that we are especially privileged because we can worship in the way that we feel is right for us. We can link together, knowing something of the afterlife, knowing that our time upon Earth is just a short period in our existence and that, when we come to the end of our days on Earth, we shall go forward into the new life.

We send out our prayers to the leaders of the nations, particularly to those countries who are fighting wars of one kind or another, to the leaders of the Third World nations who have so much to put up with in the way of the devastation’s of nature. We pray that all men may come together to work out a solution to the problems of Earth.

We know that life on the earth plane is never intended to be perfect but we do believe that there should be sufficient of this world's goods for everybody to have sufficient to eat, to have a home, to have a job.

We send our love out to all those who are suffering through man's inhumanity to man. We pray for the animal kingdom and we pray that those who are cutting down the habitat of the wild creatures in South America and in Africa will come to an understanding of what they are doing and they will learn to live with nature, cooperating with it, so that in the days that lie ahead there will be sufficient of this worlds goods to feed everybody.

We send out thoughts out onto the other side of life, Father, praying for those who are passing into the World of Spirit that they may have a speedy passing and a glorious awaking in the next world and praying for those souls who are coming to Earth that they may find here the circumstances that they want in order that they may build their lives, in order that they may develop their characters, in order that they may make their spiritual progression.

We pray for this little church that it will always remain open for those who are seeking, that there will be knowledge given to them, friendship for the lonely, comfort for the sad, healing for the sick and that it will shine like a beacon in this district.

Finally, Father, we ask for a blessing on this service tonight and may everything that is given here be in accordance with your Holy Will. We ask these things in the name of Him who we try to follow and serve, Jesus the Master Christ.

Amen.