Prayer of Lament

Florence Li Tim-Oi

This prayer is taken from the service at St Martin in the Fields for the 80th anniversary of the priesting of Florence Li Tim-Oi. It’s a wonderful prayer and we would encourage you to pray it, as we recognise the ongoing discrimination and sexism that women experience both in our own church today and all around the world.

God of glory, we lament before you the way your gospel has been used to demean women; the manner in which your church has contrived to exclude women; the frequency with which leaders of your church have harmed women; the pattern by which your followers have neglected, suppressed, damaged and discredited women. We grieve that these attitudes and actions are not all in the past but are experienced every day in your church worldwide. And we seek the power of your renewing grace to transform your church in body, mind and spirit that it may more fully be an agent of your healing, empowering and transforming love. Amen.