Saying goodbye to our 48 year old altar

This morning, we offered our Sunday prayers and the Holy Eucharist for the last time at this altar, which has been the center point of our worship for 48 years. We are grateful for its presence and all that it represented to us in our worship life. Let us pray.

Holy God, you received the prayers of your holy ones from altars made of stone and wood and received the humble sacrifices of all your faithful ones at places set apart for worship of you; we give you thanks this morning for this altar. For almost half a century it has faithfully served you and us as a place on which our prayers were offered. It was here we made our Thanksgiving to you with the Body and Blood of your Son, Jesus, offered to you and shared with one another. Countless people have found you here, have offered you their joys, their sorrows, their pains and anxieties and their gratitude at this altar. We thank you for them, for the priests who have offered the sacrifice of the Holy Eucharist here, the hands that made it and the resources that brought it to us. It will now be replaced with a new altar. We ask you to continue to bless this place with your Presence, let your Holy Spirit descend upon us here and from here share the Body and Blood of your Son, Jesus, with all those who come here to seek you. We ask this all in his holy name. Amen.