praying for the restoration of integrity in the UK’s public life

We’ve uploaded a new resource to the Sanctuary’s website. This series of prayers look at different areas of public life in the UK and reflect our heart-cry to intercede for the restoration of integrity in those who lead the various sectors of our society, and a rebuilding of trust in all of us. You can download them from our new and topical resources page.

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This morning we found ourselves praying for this root issue again as headline after headline spoke of loopholes, erosion of trust and a twisting of how things are represented for influence or financial gain.

Almost every area of our society has been exposed as being touched by a willingness to sift the truth and shift our language and our practices for its own ends. And we have to recognise that this includes ourselves. And the church as a whole.

This morning we held two things together – how changeable and shifty we are by nature – and how constant and unchangeable our God of justice and truth is. He is the Father of lights who provides all good gifts and there’s no trace or hint of a shadow of darkness in him. (James 1:16-17)

Reading even just one of this morning’s stories about the use of complex redefinitions to creat loopholes or injustices – in this case ‘mechanically sourced meat‘ – we were amazed again to see how the simple truth of what is right and wrong is disguised with layers of justification.

This week our prayer stations on fairtrade and economic justice for the global poor have been challenging us to cut through complex economic arguments and hold each international system up to the simple truth of Proverbs 14:31:

“Whoever mistreats the poor insults their Maker, but whoever is kind to the needy honours God.” (New Century Version)

If we are willing to place such a low price on fair and honest speech and dealings so close to home it’s unsurprising that it is so rife in the global economic systems we’ve been focusing on particularly this week.

We want to see the widespread acceptance of half-truths and loopholes end at every level in our society and mindset. So that change comes.

Let’s keep praying for the Father of lights to challenge and lead us into his truth and light so that we – like him – are characterised by love and justice.

The following prayer is taken from our written prayers for the restoration of integrity in the UK’s public life and is available to download with the others on our new and topical resources page.

A prayer for the retail industry and our supply chains

Lord of all areas of life, we have watched all we trust let us down
And every god of our age turn out to have feet of clay.
And now even our retail industry –
From which we have sought therapy, comfort, identity and meaning –
Has lost our confidence.
Household brands reveal they are not as trustworthy as we thought they were
And products have been packaged as something else to cut costs or corners or both.
We clamour now that the scandal is close to home but we confess we have let other supply chains exploit those far away
And done little to resist or oppose tax dodging in countries who needed the income more than ours.

Lord of all areas of life, redeem our market places,
Convict us of our wrong consumer practices
And restore a fair, ethical and balanced attitude towards what we need and what we are willing to buy.
For you say we cannot worship God and money
And we would once again choose you.
Restore our nation’s reputation for fair play
And bless the enterprise of all who are worthy of it still.
May we see recovery in our high streets and use this to help those in need
Until we build a just, equitable and beneficial society for all.

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