Matt 9:37 The harvest is plentiful, but the workers are few. Ask the Lord of the harvest, therefore, to send out workers into his harvest field.’

At this Harvest time, we pray for all the farmers and producers, that they may have a successful harvest time, with good weather and safety on the machinery. We pray for all the processors and distributers, shops and wholesalers, who enable us to be well fed.. We pray especially for those people who struggle to put food on the table and all the food pantries and banks who give these people a chance to stay healthy and fed. We thank you Lord, for all the churches and charities who have stepped up and fed the hungry, just as You instructed them to.

We pray for justice throughout society, not just here in Britain, but across the world. We pray for equality for women and children, for different ethnic groups, for young and old, for gay and straight, for those with disabilities, for those with mental illness. We are all the children of the same wonderful God, and our love for each other should try to match God’s love for His creation.

We will be thinking about St Francis, in the context of the created world, and so we pray for all the initiatives that are trying to correct the human mistakes around the earth. We pray for governments to take seriously the damage that we have created and help to repair it.

Bible Sunday reminds us of the essential nature of our scriptures and the solid basis to our faith that they provide and we thank God for all the translators and distributers that ensure that the Bible can be read in hundreds of languages over the world. We pray for those Christians who live in countries where, to possess a Bible, or just part of a Bible is an offence punishable by imprisonment. We pray that those societies will recognize the value and beauty of God’s world.

Ps 119:32 I run in the path of your commands, for you have broadened my understanding.