God of love,

you looked and you saw

that this world needed more holiness.

Not the false piety of loud prayers and hypocritical living,

rather the true holiness

of embodied love,

of raging for justice at the temple gate,

of washing the feet of friends

of receiving the gift of anointing.

The true holiness of self-giving love,

that gave itself up to arrest, abuse and scorn,

that stood up to the tyrants and bore the rants of the mob,

that led with painful inevitability to a cross and death.

You emptied yourself of power, of privilege,

you entered the mess and the pain,

you enfolded the world in your arms

outstretched in holy love.

As we walk the path of holiness,

teach us your way.

Amen

- By Revd Michaela Youngson (District Chair)