August 31 is International Overdose Awareness Day. The churches of New Hampshire have both felt the pain of the our state’s addiction crisis and have supported a diversity of recovery-related ministries. Christians recognize not only that addiction is an illness but also that Jesus is a healer. As believers in the Gospel, Christians desire to be a part of God’s offer of health and well-being for all people.
The NH Council of Churches encourages your congregation to set aside time on Sunday, August 26 for preaching and prayer on the theme of Overdose Awareness. We reached out to two clergy women to help support you in this task.
The first is Rev. Susan Grant-Rosen, of the NH Conference of the United Church of Christ. She leads their Opioid Crisis Mission Group. Rev. Susan offered several suggestions for worship leaders around August 31:
- Choose a sermon text dealing with health and healing for that day.
- Invite a local first-responder professional to speak briefly (EMT, fire, police). That person might bring materials for the bulletin or be available for Q&A after worship.
- Invite a speaker or even a panel of speakers from prevention, treatment or recovery ministries and organizations close to you. These could be faith-based ministries or secular agencies.
The second is Rev. Sandi Albom, of the Episcopal Church of New Hampshire. She leads their Recovery Ministries commission. Rev. Sandi offered the extensive list of resources on the NH Episcopal Church website for support. Some of these are Episcopal Church-specific, but most will work in any Christian context.
Rev. Sandi regularly leads worship services that bring addiction to God in prayer. She offered these resources (and more) as your plan your worship for Sunday, August 26:
Suggested Hymns
All Who Hunger Gather Gladly
Amazing Grace
Bless the Lord My Soul
Breathe on Me, Breath of God
Eternal Spirit of the Living Christ
From Miles Around the Sick Ones Came
Guide My Feet Lord
Have Thine Own Way, Lord
His Eye is on the Sparrow
I Come With Joy to Meet My Lord
I Heard the Voice of Jesus Say
I Want to Walk as a Child of the Light
I’ve Got Peace Like a River
If You Believe and I Believe
Jesu, Jesu, Fill Us With Your Love
Joyful, Joyful, We Adore Thee
Just As I Am
Lead Me, Guide Me
Lord of All Hopefulness
Lord, Make Us Servants of Your Peace
Love’s Redeeming Work is Done
Now Thank We All Our God
Now the Green Blade Riseth
Precious Lord, Take My Hand
Standing in the Need of Prayer
Take My Life, and Let it Be
The King of Love My Shepard Is
This Little Light of Mine
Tis the Gift to Be Simple
We Walk by Faith, and Not by Sight
Welcome Happy Morning
When From Bondage We are Summoned
Prayer for the Victims of Addiction
O blessed Lord, you ministered to all who came to you: Look with compassion upon all who through addiction have lost their health and freedom. Restore to them the assurance of your unfailing mercy; remove from them the fears that beset them; strengthen them in the work of their recovery; and to those who care for them, give patient understanding and persevering love. Amen. (Source: The Book of Common Prayer)
Surrendering Prayer
God, we offer ourselves to you, to build with us and do with us as you will. Relieve us of the bondage of self, that we may better do your will. Take away our difficulties; that victory over them may bear witness to those we would help of your power, your love, your way of life; May we do your will always. Amen.
Serenity Prayer
God grant us the serenity to accept the things we cannot change, the courage to change the things we can, and the wisdom to know the difference. Living one day at a time enjoying one moment at a time; accepting hardship as a pathway to peace; taking, as Jesus did, this sinful world as it is, not as we would have it; trusting that you will make all things right if we surrender to your will, so we may be reasonably happy in this life and supremely happy with you forever in the next. Amen.
Prayers of the People
Adapted from the Twelve Steps of Alcoholics Anonymous
God, help us to admit our powerlessness and the unmanageability of our lives. Lord, there are some things over which we have no control. The more we try to manage them alone, the worse they become. Without your help, our lives just don’t make sense. We have come to believe that a Power greater than ourselves can restore us to sanity. Restore us to sanity, Lord. (Steps 1 and 2)
Loving God, receive our prayer.
God, help us to make a decision to turn our will and our lives over to your care. It is difficult to let go and to let you work your grace in our lives, Lord. But you are God, who meets us where we are. Help us to release our grip and flow into the loving arms of your embrace. (Step 3)
Loving God, receive our prayer.
God, help us to make a searching and fearless moral inventory of ourselves. With your help Lord, we can face our brokenness and share that brokenness with a person we trust, admitting to you, to ourselves, and to that person the exact nature of our wrongs. We will not be abandoned, and we trust that you will remove these stumbling blocks that cause us to fall. We are entirely ready to have you remove all these defects of character and to give us strength when we are tempted to fall back into old patterns of behavior. God, we ask you to remove our shortcomings. (Steps 4, 5, 6 and 7)
Loving God, receive our prayer.
God, help us to make a list of all persons we have harmed and become willing to make amends to them all. As hard as it is, God, we will make amends to all whom we have injured whenever possible, except when to do so would cause even more hurt. Grant us courage to make our amends. (Steps 8 and 9)
Loving God, receive our prayer.
God, help us to continue to reflect on our thoughts and actions, especially those that tempt us to sin, and when we are wrong, help us to admit it. It is not enough to live these prayers once. Help us to reflect often on who we are and who we are becoming. Give us humility to know ourselves. (Step 10)
Loving God, receive our prayer.
Through prayer and meditation we will continue to improve our conscious contact with you, God, praying only for knowledge of your will for us and the power to carry that out. We know that prayer and meditation takes practice, God. Help us to learn and grow in the ways we seek to hear your voice. We pray, Lord, for the power, grace, and will to seek you out in all that we do, to know and to do your will always, day by day. (Step 11)
Loving God, receive our prayer.
Having had a spiritual awakening as a result of these practices, we will try to carry the message of your love to others and to practice these principles in all our affairs. All good gifts are meant to be shared, God. Grant us grace and opportunity to share the blessings you have given to us and to let our lives reflect them in our prayer. (Step 12)
Loving God, receive our prayer.
We pray also for the special needs and concerns of this congregation: Please add any intercessions specific to your community
Loving God, receive our prayer.
For all who have died in the communion of your Church, and those whose faith is know to you alone, and especially for those lost to the disease of addiction, that, with all the saints, they may rest in that place where there is no pain or grief, but life eternal. The people may add their own petitions.
Loving God, receive our prayer.
O blessed Lord, you ministered to all who came to you: Look with compassion upon all who through addiction have lost their health and freedom. Restore to them the assurance of your unfailing mercy; remove from them the fears that beset them; strengthen them in the work of their recovery; and to those who care for them, give patient understanding and persevering love. Amen.