Holy God, when challenging circumstances threaten to isolate and overwhelm us, strengthen our resolve and dispel our gloom, that we may find ourselves fully immersed in your unrelenting love.

Help us to cherish all that is good in human behaviour. Open our eyes to see divine beauty in human endeavour and creativity, and our ears to hear the beautiful voice of God in earth’s harmonies. While our capacity to worship is restricted, keep us faithful and true in our worship so that we and all God’s creatures are lifted into the beauty of holiness.

So may we praise God for all that is past, and trust God for all that’s to come. Amen.

By Revd Dr David Dickinson

We ask for your prayers:

• for the neighbourhoods our local churches serve,   where new needs – many hidden and some plain to see – have resulted from the   spread of Covid-19. How do we rise to these challenges, replicated in so many   different forms across the city?

• for the recovery of churches whose mission and   ministries have been compromised by the virus. How do we restructure circuits   accordingly?

• for potential new ways of being church in Cheam,   opportunities for property development in Wallington, and new mission in the   premises of the former Bandon Hill church.