The Wesleyan Covenant Prayer

This evening (December 31) many churches – though not nearly as many as once was the case – will be holding Watch Night services.  These gatherings mark the end of the calendar year and the beginning of the new.  Such assemblies may spend a little time reflecting on the year past, but their primary concern is what lies ahead.  The new year carries with it a sense of turning the page, of starting with a clean slate and undertaking a fresh, new set of hopes.  The opening of a new planner and the making of resolutions signal an opportunity for doing things a bit differently than has been the case in the past.

The Wesleyan tradition includes a bit of liturgical material known as The Wesleyan Covenant Prayer.  Although John Wesley did not compose this prayer, he adapted it for Methodists and printed it in a pamphlet called Directions for Renewing our Covenant with God in 1780.  In 1784 when Wesley issued The Sunday Service of the Methodists; With Other Occasional Services to be used by the Methodists in North America, he included this prayer as part of A Service for Covenant Renewal.  This service has informally become known as The Wesley Covenant Service.  At the heart of this observance is this prayer:

I am no longer my own, but thine.

Put me to what thou wilt, rank me with whom thou wilt.

Put me to doing, put me to suffering.

Let me be employed for thee or laid aside for thee,

exalted for thee or brought low for thee.

Let me be full, let me be empty.

Let me have all things, let me have nothing.

I freely and heartily yield all things to thy pleasure and disposal.

And now, O glorious and blessed God, Father, Son and Holy Spirit,

thou art mine, and I am thine.

So be it.

And the covenant which I have made on earth,

let it be ratified in heaven.

Amen.

I offer this prayer as a word of hope for the days ahead.

Happy New Year!