Canonbie United Parish Church

An advent prayer:
You want the best for each one of us, but we know that so many people still live lives that are hard and careworn.
We remember all of those who labour in the fields or toil in factories to provide us with the food and other products which we eat and enjoy. We think of those who grow cocoa but have never tasted chocolate, of those who fill baskets with their harvest but cannot afford to eat themselves.
From hungry to well fed.
From sorrow to laughter.
From poverty to plentiful.
From fair to flourishing.
We pray for change.
Amen

This morning Kirsteen invited us, the congregation at Canonbie,
if we would take part in a reverse advent calendar event. Reverse advent calendars are not a new idea, other groups and organisations have done this before, by collecting food to be donated to a local food bank or or clothes to a charity.
Today we’re asking you to support Traidcraft Exchange through prayer, and if you feel able, by giving.
The idea is you take a Christmas sock from Church, or use one of your own, and pin or peg it somewhere in the house, like you would a stocking.
Then every day we ask that you pop a coin in the sock and think of and pray for a producer as you do so.
It could be the person who picked the leaves that made your tea, the farmer who harvested the cocoa that is in the chocolate you ate or the one who grew the sugar you sprinkled on your cereal.
A prayer list, including products sold by Traidcraft and companies they work with, is available if you would like one. Do take a look at the prayer list even if you don’t feel able, or inspired, to collect coins.
We will collect in the mini-stocking socks after Christmas and send the money to work for a fairer world by sending it to Traidcraft Exchange.

To access the list of advent prayers please click here – Reverse Advent.