This week's prayer Focus

Interior designers and providers of home furnishings

Loving God, you decreed that tabernacle and temple should be finely adorned; that your house should be a place of beauty and splendour. Yet we find you born on this earth in a stable and declaring that though foxes have holes and the birds their nests, the Son of Man has nowhere to lay his head. And so we thank you for our homes, we celebrate that aspect of your likeness in us that enables us not simply to see them as functional, but also to appreciate beauty, design and craftsmanship; and we thank you for those whose ability and skill provide the things with which we furnish them. But we recognise too that there are greater treasures in this world, and so we pray that you will help us to adorn our homes with love, generosity and welcome, and make them places where Your presence is sought and found. We pray to for those who are without homes, or whose housing conditions fall well below the standards of decency that befit our humanity. May our desire to provide safe and attractive dwellings for ourselves never eclipse our sense of responsibility to strive for a world where all people can live in places of safety and comfort. Through Jesus Christ our Lord. AMEN

Next ICF Members and Friends Evening

Monday 16th July 2012
Further Details to follow

The Big Society - 10 Questions for Churches