Weekly Prayers

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

[Yay, our website is finally back up! If you subscribe to the email edition of World in Prayer, we apologize that you’re getting last week’s prayers again. Unfortunately, we have no way of telling the email service to skip a post that we’ve already sent out manually.]

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.

World News This Week in Prayer – Thursday, 26 September 2019

Precious Lord, take my hand.
Lead me on, let me stand.
I am tired, I am weak, and worn.

Precious Lord, there are times when the news of the world – your world – seems only to abuse and abase us, when it seems indeed to assault us. When a large clump of the Mont Blanc glacier in Italynears collapse, when scientific review of the data show the oceans suffering as never before from climate change, the very earth seems to shudder with destruction. At the United Nations General Assembly in New York City, USA, the leaders of the world appear unable to prioritize our duty to care for creation above our fascination with making money. Indeed, we are tired, we are weak, and we are worn.

Yet these are circumstances of our own making in many cases. These are circumstances where we have been gifted with the minds and abilities we need to protect the earth and everything therein. Lead us on, let us stand where we ought to stand.

We believe that our inheritance is in your image. Our prayer is not of something you don’t understand. Our prayer is to share more generously of your understanding. Our prayer is to have more of your strength in confronting what we need to confront, in meeting whatever grief we must with compassion for those who suffer and those who love them. Our prayer is struggling to build up the individuals and communities who all belong to you.

When our way grows drear, Precious Lord, linger near with forgiveness for our inevitable failures to prevent what we should have prevented and with compassion for our hope that you will correct all those things that should long since have been corrected.

When we stand at the river of the decision, when we face final judgments on how we have used this blessed life you entrusted to us, when the light of life is extinguished in us, we pray that you accept us in spite of our imperfections.

Through the storm, through the night
Lead me on to the light
Take my hand, Precious Lord, lead me home.

Amen.

Editor’s note: “Precious Lord, Take My Hand” lyrics by the Rev. Thomas A. Dorsey

World News in Prayer – Thursday, 19th September 2019

There is a voice ringing throughout the universe; throughout all space and time; seeking to reach our ears, to touch our hearts and souls.

Gracious God, help us to listen for Your voice, calming and clear, throughout the chaos of our frenzied lives, the voices in our heads, and the roaring sounds all around us. Help us to tune into you as we pray for our world.

Holy One, we listen for Your guidance in healing your world. We pray for resolution of political, economic and social paralysis and uncertainty affecting the UK and Europe over Brexit. We pray for the people of the Bahamas, who have a long road of recovery ahead after Hurricane Dorian turned their world upside down and the need for help seems endless. We also lift our hearts in prayer for Bermuda, where Hurricane Humberto knocked out the power for about 80% of the island.

We pray for all the places in the world that are burning, including Brazil and Bolivia, and Indonesia. We pray that we are given ears to hear the cries of your children, including those across the Globe who have organized the Climate Strike this Friday, September 20th..

Loving One, we listen for Your tranquility when the clamor of gun violence and missiles so often ring in our heads, even days, months, and years after we hear of them. We pray for change in the United States, where gun violence is so prevalent, particularly after the Sandy Hook Promise commercial has been released and gaining so much attention, seven years after the school shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary.

We pray for the Middle East, especially since the Saudi Arabia oil attacks, that they may experience healing rather than rage. We cry with those grieving in Afghanistan following the attacks by the Taliban yet again on civilians and now a hospital replicating the murderous attacks on hospitals in Syria. We pray for the protection and provisions for all seeking to help the wounded and vulnerable.

Help us tune into Your voice, O God, that we may live lives of true discipleship and carry out Your will to bring peace to this tumultuous world around us. Amen.

World News This Week in Prayer – Thursday, Sept. 12, 2019

Sometimes I feel like a motherless child,
Sometimes I feel like a motherless child,
Sometimes I feel like a motherless child,
A long way from home. – African-American spiritual

Mother-Father God, we come to you when we feel lost. We come to you when we feel discouraged. We come to you when our strength fails us. We come to you when injustice seems to have the upper hand. We come to you on our knees when we can no longer stand on our own.

Hear us, O God, and heal our hearts and our world.

Our hearts are broken as Israel continues to plan to annex one-third of the occupied West Bank, virtually negating any future peace process. Our minds are confused as we seek to understand Japan’s government considering dumping radioactive water from the Fukushima nuclear plant clean-up into the Pacific Ocean, even as area fishermen and the government of South Korea protest.

Hear us, O God, and heal our hearts and our world.

Our hearts are broken as we think of the 14-year-old schoolgirl in Kenya who hanged herself after being shamed in class because her uniform had been stained by menstrual blood, in spite of the 2017 law to provide free sanitary products to schoolgirls, and we cry out, “Enough is enough!” Our minds are confused as we see the continued lockdown of Kashmir by India, as food and medical care and supplies reach crucial levels, as men are killed or simply “disappeared,” putting women at high risk for violence, threatening the well-being of countless children.

Hear us, O God, and heal our hearts and our world.

Our hearts are broken as we learn that large parts of this planet have already passed the crucial climate threshold of 2 degrees Celsius of warming, as we see the people of The Bahamas attempting to recover from the devastating effects of category 5 Hurricane Dorian.

Hear us, O God, and heal our hearts and our world.

Mother-Father God, we also come to you when we feel gratitude. We come to you when we see things which give us hope. We come to you when our hearts are overflowing with joy at the actions of our fellow humans which inspire us. We come to you with our arms raised, reaching out for your ever-present hand to hold and guide us.