There has been an unexpected glitch preventing the prayers being edited and posted as usual yesterday for which we apologise. Here they are now.
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O Lord, all the world belongs to you,and you are always making all things new,what is wrong, you forgiveand the new life you give,is what’s turning the world upside down.
(from a hymn by Patrick Appleford*)
Thank you for the signs that life is still there, emerging and changing: for the snowdrops brightening many a British garden; and for the smallest reptile in the world found, still surviving, in Madagascar.
Yet, that reminds us of the need to care for all our environment; we pray about the people who trade in, steal, kill, collect the rarest and the most important. As experts investigate a probably poisoning of endangered Andean condors, in Bolivia, we pray for understanding of the remarkable interdependence we have with our world. Similarly, for the area of the Tapovan Dam, Uttarakhand state, India, where 170 people are still missing following the dam collapse caused by a glacier burst. The United States is experiencing its worst avalanche season and related deaths in a 100 years and this pattern is repeating elsewhere in so many aspects of nature. We give thanks for the multiplicity of often small-scale ventures trying to stabilise and reverse this trend of climate warming affecting all our weather systems and therefore life for us all.
Lord, in your mercy: Hear our prayer.
As the news from the WHO report is that the pandemic is unlikely to be caused by a virus escape from a lab in Wuhan, China, we pray that Governments pause to reflect then act on the findings.
We pray for:
- the people of Tanzania as their Government shows how to make smoothies to protect from Covid-19.
- for the people of Ghana whose Parliament will be closed for 3 weeks following a virus outbreak.
- for the fake news from anti-vaccinators focussing on ethnic and minority groups in so many countries including sadly even by missionaries to tribes in São Francisco reservation in the state of Amazonas, Brazil.
With so few countries able to sequence and identify new strains we pray for the scientists now faced with the new, possibly annual, struggle to update vaccines.
Lord, in your mercy: Hear our prayer.
- As we hear of one child and her mother, from El Salvador, held for over 500 days in an immigration centre in the US, we recognise that if this happens once it happens again and again. So we pray for justice.
- for the Amazon workers fighting to found a union in Bessemer, Alabama, USA, we pray for justice
- for the creative artists in the music industry, we pray for justice as Universal, the world’s biggest music label seeks to expand even further.
Lord, in your mercy: Hear our prayer.
So much biodiversity, Lord, that it’s easier to stick with fake news – for what is human-made can be understood by people. We thank you that in your mercy you hear our prayers. Grant us the ability to be your answers for each other.
Amen
* © 1965 Josef Weinberger Ltd., 12-14 Mortimer St., London W1N 7RD
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