A Prayer of Thanksgiving for Zoom

Post Author: The Rev. Elise A. Hanley

Image courtesy of Coffee Geek-https://coffeegeek.tv/

This prayer marks the transition from online back to in-person worship. You are welcome to adapt to your context.

A Prayer of Thanksgiving for Zoom

Holy God, we give you thanks that we can worship you together in-person in the church building as of next Sunday!

At the same time, we mark this last service together on Zoom, and we give you thanks for this software platform. Thank you for giving your people the talents and skill to develop this communication tool.

For over a year, Zoom has enabled us to safely have and be church from home in the midst of a terrible pandemic.

We give you thanks that we have had access to computers, phones, tablets, and stable internet.

Of course, it hasn’t always been easy – we learned a great deal along the way. There were those times when someone not being muted led to a phone ringing or a dog barking during prayer or the sermon.

We’ve had feedback, lagging internet speeds, and the Pentecost cacophony of us all trying to pray in unison.

Zoom often liked to run updates on Sunday mornings, so suddenly, everything looked different! We had to stay on our toes and keep learning.

And then there was that one Sunday morning when Zoom went down throughout North America!

We have used slides, artwork, recorded music, and the chat function as we’ve learned. Yet we’ve lamented never being able to sing together, except muted.

Whoever would have thought that we’d worship you in this way.

Thank you for this season on Zoom, O God.

And now give us the energy, excitement, and courage to be your church in this next, new season.

We pray all this through Jesus Christ our Lord, in the unity of the Holy Spirit, one God forever and ever, and together, well, almost together – we say – AMEN!