We light this candle as a sign of God’s holy word, alive in scripture.

The responses are from Psalm 19, which is the set psalmody for today. You should have received a small sheet with these on, if you would please follow them through in that order.

Almighty God, you have inspired holy scripture and have sent out your word, that it would accomplish your purpose as surely as the sun and the rain make productive the waiting earth.

The precepts of the Lord are right, they gladden the heart.

We pray for the whole Church that she may be filled with your spirit and inspired with the strength of your love to do your work in the world, reaching out to destitute and refugees and to victims of cruelty and violence. We remember before you, Lord, the people of Yemen, especially the children. May it be that hearts would be moved by the plight of children to seek peace. May the Church be a strong voice for peace and justice.

The law of the Lord is perfect, it revives the soul.

We pray for the work of our own church here that through the inspiration of your holy word we might do the work of evangelists, showing the face of Christ in our city. We pray for St Mungo’s, our charity of the month, for their work in the centre of the city, offering shelter for homeless people. We give thanks for them as they carry out your command to help the destitute and poor.

The command of the Lord is clear, it gives light to the eyes.

As we pray for the world we think gladly of all that is good and beautiful, that we see around us day by day in nature. We think of the compassion people show to each other and their readiness to help those in distress. May this spirit spread, through the abiding of your word within us all. We pray for world leaders, pausing to consider the heavy burdens of leadership and the seeming intractability of the problems confronting the nations.

The rule of the Lord is to be trusted, it gives wisdom to the simple.

We pause again to consider the wounds we have inflicted – by ignorance, by greed, by desperation – on the quiet earth itself, holding before God our world, in some ways so fragile, yet tough and enduring; We go on now to think of all who are named here, letting the light of the candle stand for prayer for each one. Names:

We also name before God those who have now passed into a greater light: Names:

No speech, no word, no voice is heard, yet their span extends through all the earth.

The decrees of the Lord are truth and all of them just. They are more to be desired than gold, than the purest of gold and sweeter are they than honey, than honey from the comb.