A Prayer for Brexit Week

That week I've been dreading has arrived - it's Brexit week - and unless there is some kind of miracle we're going to be tearing ourselves from the EU on Friday. I've described our exit a bit like that TK Maxx label you try to remove so you can give the item to someone without them knowing how much you spent, but however hard you try, all you leave is the price. 

We don't know what the price to our country will be on leaving the EU. We don't know how much it's going to hurt. We don't know what benefits it might have (although forgive me for being blinded to that completely in my mourning for what is happening this week). We don't know who it is going to affect the most. 

But we do have some ideas. 

Anything with a cost takes money out of places where that money would bring benefit - and whilst we await the money promised on the side of the bus, it's important we don't lose sight of the fact that the money that is spent on Brexit will affect those already affected by cuts far much more than those who are doing alright already - it was in the government's own documents. 

I have never hidden the fact that I feel great sorrow at us leaving and I am not convinced it has ever been a good idea, however I do know it is inevitable, and there are a lot of people in this country of ours who think it is a good idea despite the effects it will inevitably have - very much on those communities who voted for leaving as a way out of the difficulties they currently find themselves in. This action leaves a path of uncertainty in its way, stirs up anxiety and uncertainty and a sense of loss. In our actions as a result of what happens we can go someway to working with ourselves and others in that, but like with anything that causes pain and change, the effects are not going to simply go away. 

And we must pray. The Joint Public Issues Team have brought out a statement from church leaders this week in the light of the events as they pan out in our exit from the EU - you can read that here and my prayers in church yesterday were based loosely on what was said there. 

A Prayer for Brexit Week

Father God we come to you in prayer to lift to you the things that are in our hearts. We live in a world where there is conflict, where there is pain, where there is sickness and where there are divisions - and right now while we see the promises of spring, of new beginnings, beginning to show their promise from beneath the earth - as we see the hope of the snowdrop that surprises us on our paths, we yearn for a better day.

In this week where we begin to break our EU bond completely we pray for our country. 

We pray for those who have not much and for whom the effects of Brexit will probably mean they have even less. We pray you will provide, that you will lift up those who are poor and marginalised and put their needs at the forefront and centre of our Government's minds. 

We pray for those who are worried about their place in this country as a result of Brexit. We pray that they might feel like they belong, that you would mean any divisions amongst us and that you would calm the anger of those individuals that feel let down - that they will find peace. Help us to be builders of bridges and not walls. Stir up in us a spirit of welcome. Keep our relationships strong and grow new bonds between us. 

We pray that as the divisions in this country are seen so acutely this week that we might move towards having a sense of common purpose, despite the divides. Help us to act with kindness, humility and respect towards those with whom we disagree. Be with our leaders as they carve out a path for us. 

Heal our country Lord. Heal our world - and may the things that we yearn for be things of you. Show us the role we have to play in all this. 

May your Kingdom come. 

May your Kingdom come. 


*image by Peter Linforth from Pixabay