Let us pray ... as women and men of faith we hold our joys and our longings before God.
We give thanks for the women of the scriptures: For Sarah, who dared to laugh at God's plans and then to take a part in them; for Ruth, who in the absence of a future trusted her intuition and a person she loved; for the woman who bled profusely, and had the courage to ask a stranger to heal her; for Mary of Magdala, cured of her sickness who became the first apostle of the resurrection.
God of grace ... We thank you.
We give thanks for Li Tim-Oi: Who trod with female feet on male ground and worked in partnership with men who received her as a gift. Who challenged what was acceptable with the force of her being yet pointed towards God, and not to herself.
God of grace ... We thank you.
We give thanks for the work of ordained women: In all denominations where that offering is embraced, in all communities where that touch is received, in all circumstances where that ministry brings hope, and in all places where women offer a new way of being.
God of grace ... We thank you.
And we give thanks for the work of the Li Tim-Oi Foundation: For what it offers and is open to receive; for what it teaches and is willing to learn; for the doors it unlocks for others and the thresholds it beckons across.
God of grace ... We thank you.
We pray for a fuller ministry for women: In the episcopal ministry of the Church of England, in denominations where priesthood is not open to them, in places where transformation is silently resisted and where women are fearful of women, and prevent one another's full flourishing.
God of the future ... Draw us onwards.
We pray for an inclusive Church: Where inclusion does not bury disagreement but engages the most challenging voices. Where inclusion does not dis-empower the Gospel But releases the sword of truth.
God of the future ... Draw us onwards.
We pray that women will continue to be agents of change: In our communities and in the structures of the Church, through our questioning and our answers, by our strength, our risk-taking, our vulnerability, our tenacity, and our ability to be different and equal.
God of the future ... Draw us onwards.
We pray for women who protest: Those who keep alive the memory of 'the disappeared', Those who are the victims of domestic torture, Those who are the casualties of war or engaged in armed combat, And those whose silent screams are known only to God.
God of the future ... Draw us onwards.
Together, as women, as men: We give thanks for the richness of the shared gifts of yesterday, we rejoice in today's celebration, and we pray in the determination that tomorrow will hold greater understanding. Amen.
Rosemary Lain-Priestley