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The Methodist Church of Great Britain | Prayers with a rural focus

Prayers with a rural focus

Loving God

The countryside is often presented in an unrealistic fashion; a rural idyll of a green and pleasant land; a place of relative affluence, to which people can escape for leisure and recreation; where a strong sense of community prevails and life is lived at a gentler pace.

We pray for those who live with a reality which is very different

  • the 20% of the population living on or below the poverty line
  • the young people forced to leave their communities because staying is no longer a viable option
  • those who suffer from the lack of appropriate, affordable housing
  • those who struggle to access services such as transport, healthcare, education, broadband, job centres and training schemes
  • for farmers expected to produce more food in a more efficient and sustainable way – and in particular those experiencing considerable pressure, especially in dairying and uplands livestock production, or struggling with Bovine TB, or wrestling with the complexities and inefficiencies of the current system of support payments

We pray for policy makers and those with influence

  • for the political will to address the serious challenges facing rural communities
  • for the imaginative, creative, tailored and possibly costly solutions which are required to maintain a vibrant and sustainable countryside
  • for it to be recognized that living in a rural community should not necessarily result in isolation, exclusion and disadvantage
  • for justice and fairness for British farmers and food producers
  • for greater support for rural churches and the work they do in offering social and pastoral care for those in need and in using their buildings for the benefit of the whole community

We pray for those people of faith engaged in addressing the rural agenda

  • for the work of the Arthur Rank Centre - the churches’ rural resources centre and a partnership between the Royal Agricultural Society of England, the Rank Foundation and the churches
  • for the ecumenical networks of Rural Officers and Agricultural Chaplains working through the Districts, Dioceses and Synods of the churches
  • for The Revd Dr Stuart Burgess, Chair of the Commission for Rural Communities and the Government’s Rural Advocate

Loving God, hear our prayers and, with the help of our being and doing, may our prayers be answered. Amen

Prayers and other worship resources focussing on rural matters may be found on the Arthur Rank Centre website.