Prayers of the People Are Our Purpose
I believe that the Prayers of the People are the main reason why we gather to worship. Another word for worship is liturgy, which comes from Greek and means “public working.” When we worship, we are there to work: to do a public working or a public service.
The public service we are called to do in worship is to pray for others. For me, all of our worship service leads up to the Prayers of the People. We gather, we confess, we sing, and we receive the words of scripture all to prepare us so that we may do the public work of praying for others.
Two terms are used to refer to these prayers: Prayers of the People and the Pastoral Prayer. The distinction is that typically the Prayers of the People include a balance of thanksgiving and intercessions, whereas Pastoral Prayers focus more on the intercessions. Yet, whichever form or title you use, this prayer is the main prayer of the service; it is our work as followers of the Way of Jesus.
The typical form of the intercessions is to begin with a broader view and then gradually focus in on more personal prayers. For example, they may start with prayers for whole earth, its people, and all of creation, then the worldwide church and its mission; this is often followed by concerns related to one’s own country and area, town, or city, moving then to prayers related to the local congregation and community, including prayers for any who are suffering, ill, or grieving, or affected by violence or abuse, or dealing with addictions. Usually, the Prayers of the People or Pastoral Prayers end with the prayer Jesus taught.
This major prayer of the service is not meant to be an extension of the sermon. While it may be shaped by themes and images from the scripture and sermon, the Prayers of the People are not a second chance for the preacher to get across the message of the sermon. It is not the time to offer what didn’t get included or presented clearly in the sermon. The Prayers of the People are the time for us to get to work as followers of Jesus, doing our public service of praying for others and for the world.
However, in doing this work, we need to be attentive. We need to decolonize how we pray for others. How often do our prayers have the following—likely unintentional but deeply ingrained—undercurrents: “We are superior. We have lots of everything. We have it all together. Others aren’t as successful, happy, or productive as we are, so we will pray for them.” This is expressed when we pray for “the poor, the hungry, the homeless,” etc. We are praying for them but we are labelling them by what they are experiencing rather than naming them as people first.
Yet, all of us are in need of God’s grace and compassion. All of us need the Spirit’s presence to uphold and encourage us. While our work is to pray for people, we too might be struggling in some way: me and the person beside me in worship.
I’ll never forget the day a woman disclosed to me the abuse she and her children were facing at home. She said, “Because each Sunday, you pray for those who face violence in their own homes, I felt safe coming to tell this to you.” It was a deep reminder that when we do our public service of this major prayer of worship, we are not praying for others, somewhere out there. We are praying for each other and for ourselves.
I’m still learning how best to phrase prayers so that they don’t set up an “us and them” dichotomy. I continue to prayerfully examine the language I use that might divide rather than include, that might set me up as superior rather than as another human in need of God’s grace.
The offering of the Prayers of the People is important work. For me, it is the major act of worship, our public service that then unfolds into the service we offer each day in the world as followers of Jesus.
Susan Lukey, Editor
