Call to Worship and Opening Prayer for Father's Day

One: Our relationships with our fathers are complicated.

Many: For some of us, our father's love is like God's love -- too deep, too long, too wide, too strong to measure.

One: Some of our dads are here; some were never here.

Many: For some of us, God's love fills in the empty spaces our fathers left behind.

One: All of us are shaped by the relationship or lack of relationship with our fathers.

All: On this day when we remember what it means to have a father or be a father, we recognize the importance of fathers in our communities. We pledge as a congregation to love and nurture the fathers among us so that they will manifest the love of God in all that they do.

Opening Prayer

Loving God, you who are our father and our mother, we thank you that you have shown us how important it is to follow your example as we grow in faith. Teach us to be obedient to your will, respecting you as children ought. Thank you for your mercy despite our disobedience. Strengthen us to stand up against the challenges of this world, honoring your name and trusting your grace. In the Name of your Son, we pray. Amen.

The Rev. Dr. LaGretta Bjorn is the pastor of the United Methodist Church of Spring Valley in Spring Valley, New York and is a clergy member of the Greater New Jersey Annual Conference of the United Methodist Church.