Salal + Cedar Eucharistic Prayer
This Eucharistic Prayer was created for the Salal + Cedar Watershed Discipleship Community and is authorized for use in the Anglican Diocese of New Westminster on Coast Salish Territory. It includes references to the First Nations, species, waterways and human activities of our region -these can be adapted for different locations. We ask if you use and adapt this prayer to make a financial contribution to the Indigenous people on whose territory you gather, or if this is not possible to local Indigenous land defenders.
May God be with you
And also with you
Lift up your hearts
We lift them up
Let us give thanks to God our Creator
It is right to give our thanks and praise
It is right at all times and in all places to thank and praise you Creator of all. We praise you here on this Coast Salish land where the Fraser River meets the Salish Sea, where city and farm, wilderness and industry are side by side. We praise you at a time when the body of earth is broken again and again.
We give thanks for our place in the story of salvation. Our ancestors journeyed with you in creation and migration. They depended on the land, were displaced from the land and displaced others from their lands. They knew you in tents and cities, on mountains and by wells, in families and in dreams, and through wilderness prophets who spoke of cedars and listened to ravens.
Together with angels and ancestors, orca and salmon, bear and raven, salal and cedar we join our voices with all creation in this ancient honour song:
Holy, holy, holy One,
God of power and might
Heaven and earth are full of your glory.
Hosanna in the highest.
Blessed is the one who comes in the name of Our God.
Hosanna in the highest.
We give thanks to you for Jesus, whose first bed was a feed trough. He was baptized into the Jordan, tested in the wilderness, he traveled in fishing boats and told parables of famers and seeds, labor and wages, yeast and bread.
On the night before he died, Jesus took bread, food of the poor, the work of field and hearth, he gave thanks, broke it and gave it to his friends saying: Take and eat, this is my body, given for you, do this to remember me.
Again after supper he took the cup of wine, fruit of the land, gave thanks and gave it to his friends saying: This is my blood, which is shed for you. When you do this, do it in memory of me.
Remembering Jesus’ life, death and resurrection and awaiting his coming kingdom, we offer you this bread and this cup.
Creator, send your Spirit on these gifts so that we know Jesus in them and are gathered together with everyone who shares this sacred meal of justice and community.
Fill us with the courage and love of Jesus, that we may strive for justice and peace, respect the dignity of every human being, and safeguard the integrity of creation.
Bring us with (name patron saint of your community or saints you celebrate today) and all your saints to your commonwealth of sparrow and lily, child and beggar which is both now and yet to come.
All honor and glory are yours, Creator, Christ and Spirit, now and forever. Amen