O Lord, the great and awesome God, who keeps covenant and steadfast love with those who love Him and keep His commandments,
We have sinned and done wrong and acted wickedly and rebelled, turning aside from Your commandments and Your righteous judgments.
We have not listened to Your servants, who proclaimed Your Word to our fathers, our kings, our rulers, and our people throughout the British Isles and the lands to which our forefathers went.
To You, O Lord, belongs righteousness, but to us open shame, as at this day: to the English, the Scots, the Welsh, and the peoples of Britain and Ireland; to those scattered throughout Australia, New Zealand, Canada, America, and the other nations that sprang from these shores, because of the unfaithfulness we have committed against You.
To us belongs open shame, O Lord, to our rulers, our fathers, and our people, because we have sinned against You.
To the Lord our God belong mercy and forgiveness, for we have rebelled against Him.
We have not obeyed the voice of the Lord our God, to walk in His laws, which He has set before us in His Holy Scriptures.
Our nations have turned aside from Your law and refused to obey Your voice. We have cast off Your commandments, despised Your Word, corrupted justice, dishonoured marriage, destroyed the innocent, and called evil good and good evil.
We have inherited a great Christian witness, yet squandered it. Our fathers built churches, translated the Scriptures, sent missionaries across the earth, and established institutions shaped by Your truth. Yet we, their descendants, have despised that inheritance, abandoned their faith, and taught our children to forget Your name.
And now calamity has come upon us, yet we have not humbled ourselves before You. We seek prosperity without righteousness, peace without repentance, freedom without obedience, and blessing without the God from whom all blessings flow.
Therefore You are righteous, O Lord, in all that You have permitted to come upon us, for You have acted faithfully, but we have not obeyed Your voice.
And now, O Lord our God, who rules over the nations and directs the course of history, who raised up kingdoms and brought them low, who bestowed upon our forefathers privileges and responsibilities beyond measure, we confess that we have sinned and acted wickedly.
O Lord, according to all Your righteous acts, let Your anger and Your wrath turn away from our lands. Look upon the British Isles and the nations that sprang from them. Look upon our broken homes, our empty churches, our corrupted institutions, and our children who no longer know You. We have become a reproach among the nations, and the name of Christ, once honoured among us, is now openly mocked.
Now therefore, O our God, listen to the prayer of Your servants and to our pleas for mercy. For Your own sake, O Lord, cause Your face to shine again upon Your churches, now neglected and desolate.
O my God, incline Your ear and hear. Open Your eyes and behold the condition of our peoples and the lands in which Your name was once proclaimed. For we do not present our pleas before You because of our righteousness, nor because of the greatness of our ancestors, nor because of the achievements of our civilisation, but because of Your great mercy.
O Lord, hear! O Lord, forgive! O Lord, pay attention and act! Do not delay, for Your own sake, O my God. Bring our peoples to repentance, restore the fear of God to our homes, raise up faithful rulers, turn the hearts of fathers to their children and children to their fathers, and cause the Gospel of Jesus Christ to flourish once more throughout our lands.
For Your name’s sake, O Lord, remember mercy in the midst of judgment.
Amen.