Prayers for Southern Seasons

<p><span style=color: rgba(0 0 0 1)>Worship leaders this engaging collection of prayers will support your work of creating meaningful services that reflect the church year in our part of the world.</span></p><p><span style=color: rgba(0 0 0 1)>Joy provides prayers for many different purposes: Gathering - Candle lighting - Thanksgiving - Intercession - Petition - Confession - Assurance - Illumination - Offering - Blessing - Commissioning. </span></p><p><span style=color: rgba(0 0 0 1)>In Aotearoa New Zealand the church year begins in early summer harvest comes during the fast of Lent and we celebrate Easter not when life is emerging anew in a burst of spring flowering but when leaves are turning red and gold and falling to the ground. The prayers and poems in this collection have been arranged to reflect the cycle of the seasons as we experience them and the church's feasts and fasts and other commemorations as they occur within those seasons. </span></p><p><span style=color: rgba(0 0 0 1)>To lead a congregation in worship is both a great privilege and a great responsibility. Prayer is a vital part of public worship. Many of the prayers are responsive giving congregation members an opportunity for more active involvement in the service. The poems for personal reflection are ideal for printing on the front cover of an order of service or within a church bulletin.</span></p><p><span style=color: rgba(0 0 0 1)>Joy's hope is that this book will be a useful resource for worship leaders providing just the right words when they need them and that they and others who happen to open these pages may find within sparks of inspiration to ignite their own devotional creativity.</span></p>