Liturgies for Hope by Audrey Elledge and Elizabeth Moore
I first encountered a ‘liturgy for hope’ when logging into my London-based church service amid the global pandemic.
The words, though written in another busy city that had been brought to a standstill, travelled the miles to meet me and my congregation, cutting into the present with a razor-sharp clarity and beautiful relevance that went straight to the gut.
This ‘liturgy’ – spoken collectively then, but which I have read regularly, individually since – turned out to be one of several written by Audrey Elledge and Elizabeth Moore, both members of the creative team at Church of the City New York and I had the pleasure of journeying with them towards signing a book deal for Liturgies for Hope – Sixty prayers for the highs, lows and everything in between (Form, 1 Nov 2022).
From ‘A Liturgy for Perfectionists’ and ‘A Liturgy for Jealousy’ to ‘A Liturgy for Those Who Have Not Belly Laughed Recently’ and ‘A Liturgy for Letting Go of Your Younger Self’, these biblically inspired prayers speak right into the heart of what it means to live for Jesus (or at least try our sometimes-shaky best to) amid the busyness, confusion, demands and delights of living in our culture today.
As a publisher, I have the pleasure of commissioning and editing a plethora of books. And yet, it is when I feel moved as a reader – not a professional but just as little old Jesus-loving Lizzie Neep – that I know I’ve come across something really special.
Though written for ‘such a time as this’, these liturgies manage to feel both timely and timeless and I just know that they will be a part of my devotional life (and spoiler alert: the lives of every single one of my friends that I’m obviously going to gift this to) for years to come.
Elizabeth Neep is a publisher at SPCK, pioneering the Form imprint and publishing bestselling authors including Katie Piper OBE, John Mark Comer and Brian Heasley.
