World in Prayer

World News This Week in Prayer — Thursday, 5 December 2019

We open our hearts to you, God of compassion, God of power,

Because we know we need your creative power and precision of language when we speak, we need to learn the voice of clarity, to see with vision, to hear with discretion and act with generosity.

In this season of hyper-charged commercialism, ever attempting to smother the celebration of the birth of the Christ child with mountains of trinkets and toys, we pray for discernment. May we spend our time building up our friendships and a larger sense of community. May we spend our money in ways that enlarge the lives of those around us and benefit those who receive funds through charities.

You give us prophets. Help us resist the temptation to convert them to profits.

You have given us your Son; we pray you teach us to follow Him.

As children we learned to sing, “O be careful, little eyes, what you see,” as a reminder that where our attention goes, our efforts follow. When we see the climate shocks affecting Africa today and all over this world, we pray you guide our eyes to look at the evidence of scientists and fieldworkers to spare extinctions and destructive events. As polar bears starve due to lack of sea ice habitat in the Arctic circumpolar world, show us what we must do to keep your beautiful earth safe for all life.

There is another verse warning, “O be careful, little ears, what you hear.” We need to shut off the noise, the corrosive example of politicians who demean themselves and each other with name-calling. If our radios and televisions are mainly inflaming us, give us the wisdom and strength to turn down these devices. If our meetings are frustrating us give us the wisdom to listen and take right action. If our conversations are filled with cynicism and complaint, help us to find better topics. When we are tempted to repeat criticisms of others, be they neighbors or elected officials or respected leaders, give us pause to reflect on whether we are doing your will.

Most of all we pray as in the children’s verse that you guide our “feet” to humble stables, where homes and shelters are nourishing children’s hopes. Inspire us to find our way living out Christ’s examples of kindness and compassion.

We pray that we become part of the prospering of institutions such as Berea College U.S.A. with more than a century of success in providing excellent education to students who have everything they need to benefit from excellent education except money.

We pray that we form the support that is needed by Greta Thunberg of Sweden and youth around this globe as they confront climate change.

We pray for strength as we hear that Jewish graves in the Alsace region of France are desecrated. Strengthen us to be part of the resistance and investigation of hate crimes.

This world is a wonderful place. We thank you for it and for our own opportunities therein. Bless us as we take up what it is we are to do. Show us our work in this. Correct us when we need it. Lift us up when we grow weak. Help us to spread the joy of an abundant life in all times.

Amen.

World News in Prayer – Thursday, 28 November 2019

Father God, are we there yet?
We are between the last Sunday of the year and the first – are we nearly there yet?

“The days are coming” (book of Jeremiah) – are we nearly there yet?
We are between the new beginning and end of the last new beginning – are we nearly there yet?

For those who challenge us all to leave our comfort and engage, we give thanks.
We have made a start on changing our world view, making poverty history, fighting against “one answer fits all” – are we nearly there yet?

When the emergency service personnel brave floods and wonder if it will stop raining – are we nearly there yet? We pray with the people of Cote d’azur, France and Savonna, Italy

When the firefighters brave the flames and wonder if it will stop burning – are we nearly there yet?
We pray with the people of New South Wales, Australia and Santa Barbara, California.

When the rescuers brave the aftershocks and struggle to reach trapped people – are we nearly there yet?
We pray with the people of Albania.

When there is lack of equality and justice for all, intensify out desire to support those who are blocked from their established way – are we nearly there yet? We pray with the Uighar people; with those caught in the tension across the Uganda / Rwanda border.

Child-like we want the journey to be over, to get to the exciting bit at the end, asking are we nearly there yet? This time of Thanksgiving in the USA reminds us of all those, down the years who have made a journey and gave thanks when it was over. For those brave enough to set out on the search for new lands, new places, new cultures, we give thanks. For those who help, rescue and introduce them to the new, we give thanks. We pray with those whose travel plans for thanksgiving have been disrupted by winter storms.

Father, there are many things for which we give thanks, but most of all we give thanks for the privilege of talking to you in prayer and for your patience as we demand that world is set right immediately “are we nearly there, yet?”

Patient God, supporting brother, mothering spirit, these and many more are our prayers, all praise and thanks for hearing, receiving and answering. Amen

World News This Week in Prayer – Thursday, 21 November 2019

Ever-present God,
as we come to the end of another liturgical year,
we remember and celebrate the present and coming kingship of Christ.

We anticipate the coming day
when the prophetic words of scripture are fulfilled
and we work, diligently,
to co-create a world where all people are loved and respected.

Yet, we are perplexed by the struggles,
the incongruity, the brokenness,
which is so virulent and rampant in the world.

It seems the stories of pain, violence, and despair
extend from the walls of our own homes
and into every corner of the world.

Our hearts break at the news of yet more shootings in the United States
in Santa Clarita, Fresno, Duncan, and other towns.

We are shocked to hear of 25 people discovered hidden on a ferry bound for the United Kingdom.

We are saddened to hear of the death of Boglaetch Gebre,
a renowned Ethiopian Women’s Rights Activist
who sought to end the practice of genital mutilation.

Our breath catches in our throats at the news
of the highest deforestation rate in a decade in the Amazon
with an increase of 29.5% over last year.

Uncertainty swirls in the aftermath
of protests-turned-violent in China at
Hong Kong Polytechnic University.

Fear rises with the death toll in Bolivia
following a contested election in October.

And many more personal griefs and fears:
friends undergoing amputations and broken limbs,
neighbors facing financial and legal trouble,
colleagues who do not see a way to retire with grace.

The fear, grief, and pain can feel insurmountable.

Yet, if we have the eyes to see
and the ears to hear,
there is hope on the horizon.

Infants are welcomed into the world,
bringing hope and change.

US citizen Kevin King and Australian citizen Timothy Weeks
were released by the Taliban after being held for three years.

France returned the sword of Omar Saidou Tall,
a west African ruler who led an anti-colonial struggle against the French in the 1850s,
to Senegal’s President Macky Sall.

Open our eyes,
Ruler of All,
so that we might see and sense your presence,
in the midst of grief and pain,
AND in the middle of joy and celebration.

Empower us,
Holy One,
to work for the wholeness and healing you promise,
as we proclaim the reign
of your son and our savior,
Jesus Christ.

In whose name we pray,
Amen.

World News This Week in Prayer – Thursday, 13 November, 2019

Great justice-seeker of the universe,

You know that we live in a great and awful time. You have opened our minds to the secrets of nature, but record flooding in Venice, Italy, and raging fires from the United States to Australia, give us reason to pause about having the power of sub-atomic particles placed into our human hands. Through the marvels of medicine our corporeal bodies have extended in longevity, yet, Ebola continues to have tragic effects in the Democratic Republic of the Congo and other countries in the western part of Africa. As generations before us pled for your mercy, so we today entreat your goodness. We pray to hold our wealth lightly and to tread modestly as we inhabit the earth’s surface.

Give to our leaders a wisdom and love of creation and a zeal for peace amongst the citizens of your planet:

with Jeanine Áñez as she takes office in Bolivia;
with the United States House of Representatives as they continue impeachment hearings on President Trump;
with those still engaged in political struggle and protests in Hong Kong;
with those fighting for their beliefs in a recent ramp-up of violence in Israel and Gaza.

Replace our greed with a gracious sharing of our abundance. We pray for healers and those who preserve life and seek peaceful ways forward instead of resorting to violence and fighting and destructive practices. May our longer lives prove to bring a greater sense of our saving love and may we be a blessing with the many years we have added that many of our great-great-great-ancestors did not. As in Jesus you came to show your love for the world, so through Jesus we pray that the world you love may be preserved and made better and safer and braver for future generations. May it be so. Amen.

World News in Prayer – Thursday, 7 November 2019

Dear Lord, Great Mystery, Comforter and Reconciler of All.

In your Great Mystery you are a bulwark, a fortress and watchtower. You protect and shield and send light forth to guide and unite. We build walls, over 70 of them across lands and around the world from the U.S.-Mexican border to the fences separating Hungary and Serbia and those between Botswana and Zimbabwe. People wait at these walls. They hunger. They need shelter. They need safety and comfort. Help us to see the other as self. Help us to practice your great commandment to love one another.

We pray for the over 10,000 people who have drowned while crossing the Mediterranean Sea since 2015. Lord show your mercy upon so many. Comfort the families who know not where their loved ones are – living or dead. We did not welcome them in as survivors in many instances. Open our hearts and enlighten our paths to be caring, to show concern and to take right action. In 2019 alone over 800,000 people have been apprehended at the U.S.-Mexican border. We pray for those who are scapegoated and dismissed. We pray for those who are marginalized, imprisoned, separated from family, mothers and fathers from children. Be with those who seek to console and bring justice to such great inequity and horror.

We grieve and so often feel helpless. Shine your light. Help us to recognize your will even in days that seem so dark. Help us to step through our feelings of overwhelm and fear recognizing your spirit will sustain us as we move into taking actions of kindness and compassion. Amplify what we give. Help us to understand that you nourish all. Fill our mouths with soothing words. Remove our bitterness and prejudice. Give us ears to hear those crying and weeping, evening screaming for help. May we never turn away without turning around and changing our minds, and turning back to those who are suffering.

We pray for those in harm’s way in unsafe homes and where entire families suffer. We are alarmed that a new report notes emergency rooms in the U.S. are seeing an increase in children suffering from sexual abuse. Open our eyes. Help us to listen and bring our best care to our children and youth. Sustain counselors and parents, teachers and coaches and all of those who provide guidance and a caring safety net.

We pray as fires continue and the dry season endures in Australia, throughout the Middle East, Africa, and the U.S. and so many parts of the world. Help us to understand our role as stewards as great and rapid changes come to our rainforests, salmon runs, eroding shores, rural and not so rural villages and towns. We know that you keep all in your watch, that you see beyond the blaze and ash filled air even when we are hunkered down and fearing for our lives. Sustain those who serve and provide relief for the long haul. Protect our firefighters, community volunteers and those serving while serving time in prison.

We call upon you in these times of grief and unrest, uncertainty and calamity.

Help us to see your design, to do your will in our short span of life, to grow wise in thought and be quick to nourish those around us.

May the blessing of You, You who are our Strength and Refuge sustain us this day, in this moment and all of our days.

Amen.

World News this Week in Prayer – Thursday, October 31, 2019

Holy God, we give thanks this day for the diversity of your creation. As we prepare our hearts and minds for prayer, we remember that you created our world in all of its differences.

We give thanks this day, O God, for all the saints who have come before us: those who worshiped in homes to avoid persecution, those who worshiped in grand cathedrals, and everything in between. We give thanks for holy hands now that are lifted in praise and clasped in prayer.

We pray for the United States, where the Impeachment inquiry divides the country and creates further contention each and every day. We know that you do not discriminate between Republican and Democrat, and we ask that the hearts of each of us as well as our leaders be guided by Your justice and compassion.

We pray for those in California, as hurricane force winds stoke at least 10 wildfires. We know that fires do not discriminate between rich and poor, but the process of recovery does. May we care for the Earth that you created and be your holy hands that come together to help in recovery efforts.

We pray for the people of Britain as they prepare for a general election in December. We pray it doesn’t become a single-issue debate but a government with a broad vision is elected so your people may they hold onto a sense of hope and work toward harmony.

We pray for Lebanon, where Prime Minister Saad Hariri has said he will resign after two weeks of massive protests over corruption and the economic crisis that paralyzed the country. With the country’s uncertainty during this time, may Your light of creation shine so bright as to help the people of Lebanon create something new and more equitable.

We pray for all areas of the world where Your beautifully diverse creation somehow turns people away from one another, rather that uniting the world in Your love.

As we approach All Saints Day, we give thanks for everyone who has left their mark all around the earth for you, for us, and for the future. May we walk wisely in the path set before us through examples of faith in action and may our prayers and actions make their mark on this world and lead toward a future that is more just, more hope-filled, more peaceful, and more loving. We pray all of these things in your many, mighty names. Amen.

World News this Week in Prayer – Thursday, 24 October 2019

Creator God, we give thanks for the privilege of praying. Hear us as we try to pray for our world.

Our world seems to be surround by protests.
We pray for those in Chile and Ecuador who protest against income inequality.
We pray for those who protest about corruption in Iraq, Egypt, and Lebanon.
We pray for those who protest for political freedom as in Hong Kong, China, and Barcelona, Spain.
We pray for those who protest activities leading to climate change from New Zealand to Europe.

In all these protests and many others friendships form and strengthen. We give thanks that it takes time to grow old friends. We give thanks for the new friends we meet today for the first time.

We pray for those who need friends, for whatever reason, as we recognise the interweaving of the causes of these protests. Help us to share the friendship of Jesus who saw income inequality, corruption, political constraint and the devastation of human action and overturned tables in protest.

Amen.

World News This Week in Prayer – Thurs., October 17, 2019

Be gentle with us, O Lover of Souls.
Be gentle with us, for surely in this fractured and fracturing world,
that above all is what we need:
To (re)learn to be gentle with ourselves.
To be gentle with each other.
To be gentle with our planet.

Be gentle with those – especially with those – who don’t seem to have a gentle bone in their bodies.
Be gentle with the United States, for abandoning their Kurdish allies; with the Turkish forces attacking the Kurds; with the country of Syria in the middle.
Be gentle with the owners of the Bangladesh clothing factory under investigation for abusing their workers.
Be gentle with the leaders of Venezuela, which just won a seat on the United Nations Human Rights Council, despite their country’s own horrendous human rights violations.

Be gentle with those whom we cannot forgive.
Be gentle with the South Korean mastermind of the massive “dark web” child pornography marketplace who was arrested this week, along with 337 users of the site from 11 countries.
Be gentle with all who bully and abuse and terrorize, in the schoolyards, in our homes, in our workplaces, in our world.

Gentle them, Beloved, as you would gentle a wild horse.
As you would coax love from the strong muscles and striking hooves of the fearful and ranging stallion.

Be gentle with all who hurt, or weep, or mourn, or fear.
Be gentle with the survivors of Typhoon Hagibis in Japan.
Be gentle with those searching for survivors in the collapsed apartment building in Brazil.
Be gentle with the tens of thousands of migrants applying for asylum in Mexico, now that it appears that the U.S. will no longer be a possible place of refuge for them.

Wrap them in the tenderest love, Beloved, as you would a flurry of newborn kittens.
As you would make a nest of the softest blankets, in which to grow and heal and thrive.

Be gentle with our fragile Earth.
Be gentle with the students in Gambia protesting climate change, because one day, “my city Banjul could end up under water.”
Be gentle with Lebanon, facing the worst wildfires in decades.
Be gentle with Australia, where a growing drought is stirred up a dust storm so thick that day seemed to turn to night.
Be gentle with the lives we have built, with the lives we do not know how to sustain.

Help us to walk gently in our lands, in our lives.
As gently as a drop of dew on a morning flower.

Be gentle with us, O Lover of Souls.
But, oh, we do not need to ask.
For you are our Gentleness and our Beloved.

Amen.

World News This Week in Prayer – Thursday, October 10, 2019

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But now thus says the Lord,
he who created you, O Jacob,
he who formed you, O Israel:
Do not fear, for I have redeemed you;
I have called you by name, you are mine.
-Isaiah 43:1b (NRSV)

Parent of us all,

You have created us.

You are with us, Lord, even in some of the most distressing and humiliating moments of our lives. We pray for all of those around the world who are not being treated as they should be. Be with your people in Hong Kong who are being terribly hurt as they are trying to voice what they feel. Comfort and strengthen the people of Iraq, where well over 100 protesters have been killed, and where services were cancelled last Sunday at St George’s in Baghdad because of the violence. We pray for those who have experienced power outages in California, USA, leaving many without lights and in fear of more fires. We ask that you be with those at the Turkey and Syrian border who are being hurt by airstrikes and artillery fire as your children try to seek safety. May you be with all of your dear people whom you created in your image.

You have formed us.

We celebrate the minds of your people who are doing incredible things to transform your world and make it a place worth living. We give thanks for the Nobel Prize winners, for their insights, discoveries, and innovations, and for the upcoming generations whom they inspire. We yearn for a better existence.

You have redeemed us.

We ask that you be with those who celebrated Yom Kippur this past week. As your children fast and study your Word, may you remind all people to repent of the things we have done badly or inadequately, which should be done better in this next year. We are so grateful that you forgive us even though we do not deserve it.

You have called us.

You have called us and yet we so often fall short of what you want us to do. Help us to heed your call and to act as you choose for each of us to act. While we try our best, so often we fall short. Please help our world to learn how we might better follow you and act according to your will. Stop those who are engaging in horrendous acts toward others – lead them to act as you call us. May you teach us how to stand against hate, violence, and any action which does not reveal your love. Help us to take stands against gun violence, such as the most recent shooting in Kansas, USA. We remember the 6000 people in Venezuela who have died since January 2018, most of them probably as a result of extrajudicial executions. We ask for mercy, forgiveness and compassion to be shown by those in power throughout the world.

We are yours.

Most of all, Lord, help us to remember that we are yours. No matter where we go or what we do, remind us that we belong. Even when others hate us, or do not share the love of our neighbor that we do, may you remind us that we belong to you. Even when it seems that there is no place for us and no place for those we love, we will always belong to you. Continually remind us, God, that there is nothing and no person in this world who can separate us from your love, for we are infinitely yours and in that alone, we can find our rest.

Amen.

World News This Week in Prayer – Thursday, October 3, 2019

God,

We lift in prayer this week:

Political leaders and all people in Hong Kong, China; North Korea and surrounding neighbors; Baghdad, Iraq; Paris, France; the United States of America and all Central American countries;
The family of Botham Jean and all impending fall-out from the sentencing of Amber Guyger;
The families of those who died following a WWII B-17 bomber crash in Connecticut, U.S.;
Those involved in the process of the impeachment inquiry in the U.S.;

The threads do not wane, the ever-present dangers of living are real, the power to create chaos and confusion exists. So, come into these places and speak your word that will rip open the threats, siphon off the danger and tame the ungodly, unjust powers of the world.

We lift in prayer this week our local and community concerns: (spoken and silent prayers may be offered)

Make your presence known, God, in this brave space and all spaces. Present to us calmness in our need to distort, that we may have the courage to depart our seduced world where we call evil good and good evil.

We thank you for the yes’s in our lives and with a grateful heart we pray, Amen.

This Week’s Prayer