Prayers of intercession for Pride Sunday

God of love, justice, and welcome, we bring before you today the deep longing of our hearts for the world in which we live, and for those whose experience of this world is marred by the actions of others.

This weekend of Pride, marking fifty years since the Stonewall riots in New York City, we think particularly of those who are discriminated against because of their sexuality or gender.

We thank you for the presence of Christians at Pride at yesterday’s parade here in London, and we rejoice that we live in a country where the freedom to express our God-given sexuality and identity is protected by law. We thank you for the twenty six countries where same sex marriage is legal, where people are free to marry the partner of their choice.

But we hold before you the horrific truth that there are over seventy countries where same sex relationships are criminalised, with penalties including long prison sentences, corporal punishment, or even the death penalty. And we recognise that in many other countries, including our own, members of the LGBTQ community still face routine discrimination, particularly those who are trans.

We confess the role that the Christian church has played in shaping homophobic and discriminatory laws and cultures over the centuries, and we commit ourselves as a congregation of your people to the ongoing and challenging task of continuing to challenge our own attitudes to difference and discrimination, and to speaking out the truth that is revealed to us.

So we pray for ... LGBTQ Christians who have found themselves excluded from faith communities by exclusive, homophobic and transphobic theologies. We recognise that our view of God and our understanding of scripture need to change if we are to be genuinely inclusive, and we give thanks for those who speak from the margins to challenge those who would not otherwise have cause to question their assumptions.

We pray for … LGBTQ Christians who suffer damage to their mental health and spiritual wellbeing from the abusive expectations of other Christians. We think of those coerced into denying their sexuality, those who have found themselves in loveless marriages, and those who have remained single and celibate against their calling or desires. We see the danger of normalising one dominant understanding of sexuality, and we give thanks for those who reveal through their lives a deeper understanding of the great diversity of humanity that is made in the image of God.

We pray for… Those who have had the courage to take a stand for LGBTQ inclusion in our society over the last fifty years, and those who continue to speak out within society for equality and inclusion, particularly for trans rights. We recognise that without challenge, nothing changes, and so we stand in prayer alongside those who have found the strength to bring challenge even at great personal cost. We hold before you those who continue to speak out, refusing to allow our society to become complacent, highlighting homophobic violence, trans rights, and the many other less visible discriminations that mark the day to day existence of the LGBTQ community.

We pray for … Those speak in church communities, seeking to bring change, and to ensure that the family of God is place where all are welcome. We think of those who offer faithful witness within churches where same sex attraction is condemned as sinful, but who hear weekly a condemnation of their identity. We think of those who are called to serve you in Christian ministry, but who are denied recognition and ordination, and we confess our own Baptist sin on this. We think of churches divided against each other and within themselves, and we know that the body of Christ is broken, and the blood of Christ is spilled.

We give thanks for organisations such as Christians at Pride, Affirm, One Body One Faith, the 2.23 Network, and other organisations which offer a faithful LGBTQ voice within the structures and systems of Christian life and witness. We thank you for clergy who have spoken up in support of same sex marriage and LGBTQ inclusion. And we give thanks for those in our own church family who offer a persistent challenge for us to never be complacent. We pray for those who have entered into same sex marriages in this building, and we give thanks for those other churches which have taken a public stand on inclusion.

We bring all these our prayers before you, and we commit ourselves to the task of bringing into being your kingdom of love, justice and welcome, on earth, as it is in heaven. Amen.