Memorial Prayer for Phil Haddock
August 14, 1997

Almighty God, hear the tumult that death and dying work in our hearts and minds. If we are nice about it, it's not real. When its reality breaks through our pretences, we are overwhelmed.

We are feeling everything.

Rage at how the battle of life is lost no matter how it is fought.

Anger when that losing battle is prolonged after it suffers depredation.

Fear because there is no way we can imagine what it is not to be.

Remorse for there are so many things we did that we wish we didn't and so many things we left undone we wish we did.

Loss because the flesh and blood of a dear one are no longer with use.

Dear God, hear our rage and fear, remorse and grieving, for we don't want them to keep us from conducting a fit memorial for Phil Haddock.

Sanctify our rage and fear, our remorse and grieving, so that they rather enhance our memorial.

Gracious God, liberate our remembering, so that our hearts swell with gratitude for the unique life Phil lived among us, and so that our deep need to appreciate him be satisfied. Dear God, the Bible describes you as delighting in a tree kept green by rivers of water. What delight you must have in a human's bountiful care for forests of trees!

Let our remembering roll like a mighty stream as we discover how blessed it is to mourn.

Open our hearts to each other. Surprise us with how well we are understood by each other as well as how uniquely we are alone at a time like this.

Now Almighty God

Upholder of the universe,

We pray that you will receive Phil into your rest! For centuries this has been the ardent human prayer offered to you on behalf of the dead. How well we understand why this was done and all of us make it our prayer too.

Receive Phil into your rest. It is coming to him.

We ask this in the name of Jesus Christ our Lord...

And now as our Saviour has taught us we pray...