World in Prayer

World News This Week in Prayer – Thursday, 20 February 2020

World News in Prayer – Thursday, February 20, 2020

We offer our prayers for the growth of God’s kingdom in our world today, uniting our voices with Christ, who perfects our prayers. Let us pray.

Holy Rock, when our world trembles and quakes, when plagues of locusts take over, and when drought and wildfires wreak havoc on ecosystems, we come to you in prayer. We continue our prayers for the people of Puerto Rico, United States, and countries in southern Africa still experiencing drought, especially Zimbabwe. We pray also for Murrurundi, Australia, a small town that has not felt the relief of rains that much of Australia has. Restore among us a love of the earth you created and give us respect for all your creatures.

Your kingdom come; your will be done.

Friend to all, we pray for the 2,000+ people who have died from the Coronavirus and the approximately 75,000 who are infected. When we are tempted to turn away from your people and find new reasons to discriminate against one group or other, remind us that pointing the finger at anyone based on their ethnicity is wrong and that, before you, all people are holy.

Your kingdom come; your will be done.

God of compassion, we pray for the 32 people who were killed in the crossfire between security forces and the separatists during an attack in Cameroon over the weekend. We pray for the people of Syria, where Turkey and the Syrian regime have been attacking one another harder and harder. Be present with all those fleeing war and violence with nowhere to go. Inspire the hearts and minds of our leaders and our military that they may seek your righteousness and lovingkindness so that liberty and peace may dwell with your people.

Your kingdom come; your will be done.

Divine teacher, may our prayers manifest into actions that guide us toward your will. Send your Holy Spirit’s blessing to each one of us and all of your good creation.

Your kingdom come; your will be done.

Amen.

World News This Week in Prayer, Thursday, February 13, 2020

Ah, Lord God, our creator, our father. The world is changing. Again.

It’s difficult to realize, as I write when the sky is wall to wall blue and a plane suddenly adds a tracery of white, that that interesting line is part of what is changing our world.

As another huge iceberg calves from the Pine island glacier in West Antarctica, as we trace the causes of the desert locust outbreak across South Asia and East Africa we have to admit our world is one ecosystem.

When zoos, such as Chester in the United Kingdom team up with other organizations half a world away, such as nuns protecting axolotl in Mexico, it’s hard to accept that our very interest in a global village doesn’t help protect our whole vulnerable environment.

With the death toll rising and researchers rushing to find a vaccine for the Covid 19 Coronavirus we are concerned that shutting down the economy in China may bring disaster for businesses and nations world wide.

The integration of our vast world has progressed to the point that we cannot imagine how to unravel the threads to this web, the histories, wars and strife and our collective lives. We confess we have become so used to it that we seem immunized by the fighting in Syria that the news that more people have fled in the last 10 weeks than in the previous 9 years has no effect. We take news of earthquake and storm and disaster as the daily norm.

Even in this there is good news for you, our Creator and Father, share your graceful gift of creativity with every child. We hear from the Zaatari camp in Jordan how emergency shelters are recycled and mattresses can be used to grow crops. Good news might be in short supply in our media and never in your good hands and so we give thanks. For all the rescuers; all the acts of kindness all that expresses you are our parent. Praise to you, creator God.

Amen

World News This Week in Prayer – Thursday, February 6, 2020

Will you love the “you” you hide if I but call your name? —Will you quell the fear inside and never be the same?
Will you use the faith you’ve found to reshape the world around, through my sight and touch and sound in you and you in me?
“The Summons” (Traditional Scottish song, words by John Bell)

Oh Lord, you are speaking to us, calling us through the ages, beyond time itself. We hear your voice through prophets and burning bushes, in the questions of young adults, the roar of wind and singing forest. Help us to listen. Guide us from fear to action. It is such a leap. It doesn’t feel possible. We lose our way so quickly. We worship you in a world that worships things, walls, winning and hoarding, fame and notoriety. How do we reconcile famine, epidemics, resistance by leaders, poverty and the turning away of great need? Still you call us. We are listening in this moment.

(silence)

We hold in prayer the East African peoples of Kenya, Somalia and Ethiopia where heavy rains in October and November (300% above average) have tipped the scales allowing for swarms of desert locusts to annihilate crops and pastures and farmer’s livelihoods. We pray for the people of Uganda where floods are washing away homes and families. We pray for Ugandan climate activist Vanessa Nakate who is speaking out against racism, suppression and the invisibility in the news of Africa’s climate disruption. Strengthen her resolve and voice. We are listening.

(silence)

We pray for the peoples of Puerto Rico who devastated by hurricanes, lack of federal support for the restoration of so much infrastructure, and who now suffer through reoccurring earthquakes and aftershocks that are frightening and destructive. We pray for resources to be brought to bear to improve roads, bridges, homes, schools and water systems. We are listening.

(silence)

We pray for governments around the world and, particularly in the United States, where divisiveness is at a high. We pray that your peace and justice would lead the way for those governing all your people. We are listening.

(silence)

Mysterious is your work in us — perhaps we don’t have to understand, but just hold on to being grateful. Guide us then in each holy moment, clearing our vision, enlivening our touch, awakening our voices.

We are the young our lives are a mystery,
we are the old who yearn for your face,
We have been sung throughout all of history,
Called to be light in the whole human race.
Gather us in the rich and the haughty,
Gather us in the proud and the strong;
Give us a heart so meek and so lowly,
Give us the courage to enter the song.*

Amen. Alleluia.

*Excerpt from Gather Us In (Marty Haugen)

World News in Prayer – Thursday, 30 January 2020

Arise, shine, for your light has come,
And the glory of the Lord rises upon you.
See, darkness covers the earth
And thick darkness is over the peoples,
But the Lord rises upon you
And his glory appears over you.
Nations will come to your light,
And kings to the brightness of your dawn.

Isaiah 60:1-3 (NIV)

O Dayspring, O Sun of Justice, you have set our hearts ablaze with the light of your message of hope, reconciliation, and peace. Help us to shine that light into our dark world. Help us to look for signs of that light.

Death and the fear of death surround us as the coronavirus spreads from China and into many nations around the world. But the light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it (John 1:5). In Wuhan, the center of the outbreak, a restaurant owner named Li Bo spent the Lunar New Year packing boxed lunches for medical workers in the local hospital, despite his fears that his restaurant will go bankrupt due to the city shutdown. Help us to look for the light, O God.

Anger and distrust of the “other” runs rampant in our world as populist movements grow strong and suffering people blame the most vulnerable among them for their ill fortune. But the Lord is our light and our salvation; whom shall we fear (Psalm 27:1)? As we recognize the 75^th anniversary of the liberation of the Holocaust concentration camp in Auschwitz, Poland, we hear stories of hope from survivors like Anita Lasker-Wallfisch, whose musical talent helped her to survive as a prisoner and later thrive as a founding member of the English Chamber Orchestra. Help us to remember the light, O God.

Evidence of human impact on our climate continues to grow as ‘extreme’ weather becomes the norm in countries around the world. Emergency workers in Australia continue to battle bushfires across the country and respond to damaging hail and rainstorms in places like Canberra and Melbourne. But God is light, and in him there is no darkness at all (1 John 1:5). People of good will across the globe continue to work for solutions, like the firm Portal Forest Estates, which has been planting trees in Ghana since 2000 to provide a balance between conservation and manufacturing for economic growth. Help us to be the light, O God.

Jesus told us, “You are the light of the world. A town built on a hill cannot be hidden. (Matthew 5:14).” Give us hearts and minds, hands and voices, to take up that call and that promise. Rekindle the light of hope in us. Send us out to look for places of light, remember examples of light, and be sources of light to a dark and hurting world.

Amen.

World News This Week In Prayer – Thursday, January 23, 2020

He has told you, O mortal, what is good;
and what does the Lord require of you but to do justice,
and to love kindness, and to walk humbly with your God?

Micah 6:8

Dear God,

Sometimes it feels that this world is full of so much chaos that we forget to take the time to talk to you even when we try to do the work you are calling us to do. As we come to you in these moments, we ask for your presence both in our own lives and for those who feel so far from you. We ask that you help us to spread justice in a world which is in so much need of peace.

Do justice, love kindness, walk humbly.

God, this week in the U.S. we celebrated the life of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. in a number of different ways. Some of us attended services and lectures to commemorate his life. Others read his speeches or read books to our children to remind us of the racism in our world which does not reflect the love and peace you call us to. As we leave this week behind, we ask that you help us to bring these calls to act into the rest of the year so that we might be better doers of justice in your world.

Do justice, love kindness, walk humbly.

We ask for your presence all over China where an awful outbreak of the Coronavirus has killed your dear children. We ask for your presence there with both those suffering and those who feel trapped, knowing that they may fall ill because of this terrible illness. May the illness cease and may healing come to your children.

Do justice, love kindness, walk humbly.

We remember this week the 75th anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz. As we remember this horror, we ask that you continue to instill in us love for all people and a willingness to stand up for all of your children. We ask for your presence and your love to overshadow such immense hate and lead us into being justice doers in such a broken world.

Do justice, love kindness, walk humbly.

We ask for your presence in Australia where the fires do not cease, and your beautiful creation continues to be destroyed. We ask that you be with your dear people who are now rendered homeless and for those who are continually hurt by the blazes. We ask that you help us to remember your dear children during this time.

Do justice, love kindness, walk humbly.

God, there are so many things that, although may be out of mind to some of us, are very real and horrific experiences in the lives of your children. Help us to listen more and to remember to continually do justice and spread love and peace in this often broken world.

In your name we pray,
Amen.

World News This Week in Prayer – Thurs. January 16, 2020

Dear Friends in Prayer,

Did you ever have one of those sleepless nights? When, after three hours of perfectly wonderful, refreshing sleep, you are suddenly awake, wide awake, for no apparent reason? And when, despite watching a couple of shows on your Kindle Fire (or whatever you resort to during wakeful hours), your mind is still filled with the fires in Australia…. the opioid crisis… the volcanoes erupting in the Philippines and Mexico…. the families being separated at the border between the U.S. and Mexico…. the refugees being rejected from more countries than we can count…. hungry, homeless people… hard-working families, struggling to pay their monthly bills… people with pre-existing health conditions, unable to pay their medical bills… police and military people and first responders committing suicide because of what they have seen and heard and done… children living day-to-day with food insecurity… wars and threats of war in Libya, Iraq, Iran, Syria, Yemen and other countries… teenagers being bullied by someone who is telling them they are not enough…. people fleeing gang violence in Mexico, El Salvador, Guatemala, and Honduras… poor women seeking family planning advice and unable to find it because clinics are being closed… preschoolers with no one to read to them because everyone in their family is working so hard just to stay above water, or never had a chance to learn to read themselves… LGBTQ teens being rejected by their families for being who they are… churches whose doors are narrow and their welcome conditional…. extremist religions like the “Christian” sect in Panama that killed seven indigenous persons in a ritual intended to force them to “repent their sins”… the oceans being polluted with our discarded plastics…. the discovery that the million+ common murres (seabirds) that died between 2015 and 2016 probably were killed by a blob of hot water in the Pacific Ocean (what will global warming do to our furred and finned and feathered friends?)…. those who continue to deny climate change, in spite of the increasing evidence and the warnings of environmental scientists… the impeachment trial of U.S. President Donald Trump…. Russian President Vladimir Putin trying to wrest control from the Russian government and turn the country into a dictatorship… the 2020 elections which will determine the paths of our countries for years to come….

Did you ever have one of those nights when every attempt at prayer seems to fall on empty ears…. when God seems far away and you feel very alone? And when you utter the Serenity Prayer for the tenth time, and find that your heart and mind are settling in, and you finally feel bathed in, encompassed by God’s grace, and sleep feels possible once again?

If you have, dear friend, know you are not alone…. That the writer of this week’s prayers, and all who pray them, and many other wayfaring pilgrims have been and are with you in the darkness, holding out a trembling hand to clasp yours, and together, we’ll make it through the night, God-in-flesh for each other.

Amen.

World News This Week in Prayer – January 9, 2020

Dear God,

While we know you hold onto us, and we know that you are there during every moment of our lives, we also live with so much fear. Fear for the planet, fear for all people around the world, fear for our friends and family, fear for the places we live, and fear for our own lives. There is so much to be afraid of and yet we still know that you are here with us. We ask for your presence to wash over us now.