"A New Corporate Confession" by Rev. Dawn Hutchings

https://pastordawn.com/2018/02/17/lent-letting-go-of-our-tightly-held-piety-to-see-our-need-of-confession-3/#more-10965 

The following is an excerpt from the above article on confession.

LETTING GO – A New Corporate CONFESSION

P: God, creatively active for billions of years in this emerging universe, come to expression in us. In God we live and move and have our being. In, with and through us God can be generous, loving, creative, happy, delighted, sad, and disappointed.

C: God loves in us; God cares through us; God laughs in us; God cries in us.

P: As we open ourselves to the power of God in and around us, we often cling to our desire for control, our self-centered nature, and our fears.

C: Together in the presence of God and to one another, we confess that our failures have all too often defined us.

P: By the power of the Spirit who lives and breathes in with and through us we can let go of all that separates us from God and from one another.

C: Together, we confess our sorrow for the limits we have put on God’s Spirit at work in us. We confess that we often fail to live in ways that foster our relationship with God and with one another.

P: In Jesus we have met the One whose life teaches us to act justly, walk humbly, love selflessly, expand our notions of neighbour, love our enemies, care for creation, and forgive as we are forgiven.

C: In Christ, we freely let go of our fear and open ourselves to the Spirit’s power to heal our relationships.

silence for reflection

P: In Christ we have learned the healing power of compassion.

C: In Christ, we freely let go of our own arrogance, our tightly held grudges, our temptation to seek revenge and our desire for victory.

P: In Christ we have seen the power of grace.

C: In Christ we open ourselves to the powers of mercy as we begin the work of forgiving ourselves, our neighbours, and our enemies.

silence for reflection

P: In Christ, God’s power to forgive is realized. May God continue to find generous and courageous expression in, with and through us as we forgive ourselves, our neighbours and our enemies. Breathe deeply of the Spirit, as you continue Love’s reconciling work! Let the Reign of God evolve in, with and through us!

C: Let us give life to: the love of God, the peace of Christ and the power of the Holy Spirit, now and always. Amen.