Bangladesh

World News This Week in Prayer – Thursday, July 5, 2018

This week’s prayers are adapted, with permission, from a prayer written for U.S. Independence Day 2018 by Leslie Barnes Scoopmire.

(Inspired by the Preamble to the United States Constitution)

In peace, we pray to You, Lord, God:
from our rising to our resting
we give You thanks and praise for all your blessings.

We give you thanks for the 12 boys and their coach found alive after being trapped in a cave in Thailand by rising waters, for the divers who reached them with food and supplies, for all who are working to rescue them, and for the millions throughout the world who have held them in prayer during the search.
We give you thanks for the breakthrough in-vitro fertilization technique that may save the Northern White Rhino species – now down to two surviving females and no living males– from extinction; for all the gifts of this Earth, and all who work to protect and preserve them.

May we seek to form a more perfect union
with You and with each other,
loving our neighbors as ourselves,
sharing each other’s burdens,
seeking to relieve each other’s wants.

We pray for an end to the posturing and tit-for-tatting in the tariff wars started by U.S. President Donald Trump against Mexico, Canada, China and the European Union. We pray for sanity, caution, compassion and courage among U.S. leaders as Trump threatens to pull out of the World Trade Organization and violate its rules with impunity. We pray for all whose livelihoods are at stake.
We give thanks that all 329 municipalities in Bangladesh have agreed to join the United Nation’s Making Cities Resilient Campaign. Low-lying, densely populated Bangladesh is one of the world’s most disaster-prone countries, hit every year by cyclones that are becoming more frequent and more intense due to climate change. The UN Campaign will develop local action plans and improve infrastructures to prepare for disasters.

May we establish true justice as our foundation,
justice that builds and creates
rather than subjugates and destroys,
and work for an end to oppression, poverty, and prejudice,
remembering always the many mercies
we ourselves have received.

We pray for those who would want to make national criticism illegal. We pray for Poland, which has reduced the penalties in its controversial law against accusing the Polish nation of complicity in the Holocaust. In response to international pressures, jail time is no longer among the penalties.
We pray for the five people killed in a shooting at the Capital Gazette newsroom in Annapolis, Md. (U.S.), and for the courage and commitment of the remaining staff in getting out that day’s newspaper anyway. We pray for the countries where a free press is banned, for those who spread fake news and inflame the public against the media, and for all truth-seekers and truth-tellers everywhere.
We pray for the day when ethics will outweigh profit-making in every business venture. We give thanks that Kenya’s public prosecutor has ordered the arrest of two farm managers and several government officials over a dam which collapsed and killed more than 47 people in May. The dam had been constructed by unqualified staff and also broke environmental laws.
We pray for the day when compassion will universally be valued more highly than conformity. We pray for North Korea, where a high-ranking military officer was executed for giving out extra rice and corn rations to his troops.

May we ensure tranquility
by defending and protecting each other
in compassion and mercy,
that true liberty may be a blessing for all
grounded in our common life together.

We pray for the success of the peace agreement signed this week between South Sudan and rebels, where the past five years of fighting have displaced one in three South Sudanese from their homes. We pray that the promised ceasefire holds, that safe passage is indeed provided through which food, water and medicines can reach those in desperate need.
We pray that Russia, the U.S., and Jordan will use their influence to broker an immediate end to the fighting in southwest Syria – as they did last in persuading the Syrian government and rebels to create a de-escalation zone along the Jordanian border.
We pray for the eventual safe home-coming for the Rohingya people, still trapped in exile in the no-man’s-land between Myanmar and Bangladesh. U.N. Secretary General Antonio Guterres visited the camps earlier this week, hearing “unimaginable” accounts of atrocities.

May we work for the welfare of all
by giving of ourselves in unity, gentleness, and sacrifice,
rooted in God’s love,
grounded in the call to welcome and protect
those who turn to us for help or refuge,
and protecting the least among us always.

We pray for those whose homelands are no longer a place of safety. We pray for those from Africa trying to reach Europe, for those from South and Central America trying to reach the United States, for the many refugees trying to find someplace – anyplace – where they will be welcome.
We pray for the countries in the European Union that have reached a deal in principle on how to handle African refugees and migrants, but differ sharply on the implementation details, with no country yet willing to set up the “secure migrant processing centers” called for in the agreement.
We pray for the families separated by the U.S. “zero-tolerance” policies against would-be immigrants and asylum seekers. We pray for the children – some as young as toddlers – expected to represent themselves in immigration court.
We pray for all who have settled into new countries, only to find that those, too, are not places of safety. We pray for the 3-year-old refugee in Boise, Idaho (U.S.) who died after a man with an extensive criminal background stabbed her, five other children and three adults at her birthday party. We pray for all migrants who face distrust and anger, and all who harbor suspicion and hatred towards them. We pray for all who want to live together in peace.

May we secure the blessings of life, liberty, and happiness
and free ourselves
from all that chains us-
fear,
want,
suspicion,
jealousy,
division,
injustice-
and fully embrace and celebrate each other
in all our diversity.

Bless us and keep us, O God,
that we may dwell in peace, equality, and security all our days. AMEN

World News This Week in Prayer- Thursday, February 22, 2018

“Be still, and know that I am God”
(Psalm 46:10)

O God, O God, my God, our world is full of anything but stillness. There is no silence to be found, I fear; no quiet about. We hear of your “still small voice”, we know You have taught that there is virtue in silence, we yearn for “green pastures” and “still waters” where You can restore our souls.

But all around us are sounds we cannot escape. The crack and pop of gunfire in schools in the United States. The screams of targeted children, the moans of the wounded, the sirens of police and ambulances, the shouts and gasps of families. These echo the bomb blasts of terrorists and bomb-strikes of armies in Syria and Afghanistan and Iraq, and the aftermath of it all. So close to home.

We hear the loud voices of those who demand change, or peace, or justice. We hear the chatter of politicians and pundits who explain away change, or peace, or justice. And now we hear a children’s chorus of victims and survivors, reviving the ancient Biblical hope that “a little child shall lead them.” We hear the calls for action, for accountability. And we hear the mockery and insults as clearly as we hear the passion and demands.

We hear the pleas of refugees in camps in Bangladesh and Kenya and Lebanon, and migrants on the seas; we hear the scratch of the pen across the paper as decisions are made about who shall be free or turned away. We hear the whimpering of the hungry, the wailing of the mournful who do not feel blessed.

God, we hear it all, and we are caught in-between. We want silence and stillness in order to know You, and to hear You. But we know we should not block out such sounds. Our world cries out to us, as surely as they cry out to You. In partnership with You we hear. Lord, as much as we might wish to be, we pray for, an exemption. Be known to us through all these sounds. Amen.

World News This Week in Prayer – Thursday, February 15th, 2018

It seems very odd, Lord, that people call for January to be a month to try being vegan when Lent was a period, 40 days, in the time before world trade hit our food markets when it was a necessity. We pray for those to whom being vegan is not a life style choice but a necessity forced on refugees, rough sleepers and displaced people. We think especially of those in the Cape provinces of South Africa where drought is forcing extreme measures as water may run out in a matter of weeks.

It seems very odd, Lord, that people think shooting in a school will solve their problems rather than ask you. We pray for all those dealing with the school shooting in Parkland, Florida, USA, for those who grieve, those who are injured and those treating trauma, giving thanks for all who cope as the incident unfolds.

It seems very odd, Lord, that people rake over old scandals rather than seek your moral code for how to live together as a society. We pray for the people of Haiti and other countries where foreign aid workers have inflicted life style problems to the detriment of those they were sent to help. We pray for the Governments of both donor and recipient countries especially those who, lacking perspective, trash all that has been achieved.

It seems very odd that prescription drugs are sold illegally for uses they can’t possibly treat, promote household chemicals as cures for fatal illnesses, while others poach endangered species and prey on people for body parts.

We pray:

for the women of Pakistan, trying to open bank accounts but whose spinal fluid was abusively taken.

for the churches of Limpopo province, South Africa, where insecticide was used on their congregations.

for those who are willing to pay, and those who take their money to poach, for the short terms gains from shark finning, rhino and elephant poaching.

We ask that things seen as of little media interest in the face of –

the political crises in South Africa and Israel;
the collapsing health care in Gaza, Syria and Jordan;
the Rohingya crisis in Bangladesh;
the banking investigation in Australia

may be recognised as the major events they are for the future of our whole world.

We pray for those killed and injured in the tragedy of incidents and life-affecting disasters –

in the plane crash in Moscow, Russia;
in the helicopter crash at the Grand Canyon, USA;
in the bus crash in Hong Kong;
in the train crash in central Austria;
in fighting and air strikes in Syria,

and may all those involved in rescue and emergency aid operations be recognised for the vital work and care they administer.

Lord, it might seem odd to us that we do so little: a smile here, a hug there, a donation, a prayer. Help us not to forget that the small thing we do today enables another to do a bigger thing tomorrow until all becomes part of your vast generosity. Amen.

World News in Prayer Thursday, November 30, 2017

“Yet, O Lord, you are our Father; we are the clay, and you are our potter; we are all the work of your hand.” ~ Isaiah 64:8

“The people who walk in darkness will see a great light; those who live in a dark land, the light will shine on them.” ~ Isaiah 9:2

“Either Christ is Lord of all, or He is not Lord at all.” ~ Rev George Macleod, founder of the Iona Community, Scotland

In the northern hemisphere, the earth is groaning with the approach of winter, which strikes fear and dread into the hearts of many. We remember especially those without homes, those without jobs, those without families and alone; those marginalized for being different whether through disability, illness, gender, ethnicity, or sexuality; those in refugee camps with little space, sanitation, water, heat, food, medicine, or education. The desperation which has forced so many to flee their beloved homelands often leaving family behind, trying to find peace, a means to live and provide for their families in safety and seeking hope laments a song of longing heard by you but by so few in governments and communities. Fear for their own status, families, and needs harden hearts.

Longing for light, we wait in darkness: come Light of all the World.

In the southern hemisphere, as summer approaches and the prospect of water shortage and natural threats to crops, it raises tension about sharing limited resources. We give thanks that the people of Zimbabwe have tentative hope for a new beginning with the change in leadership. We give thanks for the slight easing of the blockade on Yemen, where 7 million are on the verge of starvation; cholera still rages; and now diphtheria is spreading especially among the children. We give thanks for at least some aid getting through although it is drop in the ocean of need. Bless and protect all who are seeking to serve and care for those in need and protect all working for peace and reconciliation.

We ask for constructive change and new ways of working from the exchanges between Pope Francis and de facto leader, Aung San Suu Kyi in Myanmar. We continue to pray for the Rohingya people, tortured, murdered and exiled. Now many of their women are being trafficked for sex in the alleged ‘safe haven’ of Bangladesh. May truth, not falsehood, be the coin of exchange and, underpinning all efforts, may they be done in love and compassion for fellow human beings.

Longing for light, we wait in darkness: but we trust in your promise of hope, love, justice, and mercy.

As the litany of countries, problems, opportunities, crises, kindnesses, flow through our minds, Lord, God – Father, Son and Holy Spirit – we seem to get confused by your seeming multiplicity when in fact you are the ultimate Unity. We give you thanks and praise that all love, beauty, truth, justice, and compassion shown in even one situation whether a Royal engagement or the extract allicin from garlic being shown to treat MRSA or harmonic music and art being shown to develop the left side of the brain, all are small but important steps to help us all grow to being the people you have created us and this planet to be – instruments of your grace and love.

Lead us from darkness to light; from unreality to what is real; from ignorance lead us to truth; lead us from fear and hatred to love and understanding; grant us peace, not as the world gives, but that we only find in you. In Christ’s name we ask this: Amen.

World News This Week in Prayer- Thursday, October 26, 2017

A 500th Anniversary Reformation Litany (Adapted from the writings of Lutheran reformers)

Note: 31 October 2017 marks 500 years since the monk and priest Martin Luther nailed a series of statements calling for reform in the Catholic church to the door of the city church in Wittenberg, Germany. This action unwittingly set off the German Reformation, the splintering of catholic unity in western Europe, and the development of dozens of different Christian denominations over the next decades and centuries. On this day, we celebrate God’s gift of Christian freedom that allows all Christians to believe and practice their faith according to their consciences. We also pray fervently for God’s continued re-formation of the Church, so that, even in our diversity, we might better reflect the unity of Christ and so that, even in our disagreement, we might better represent God’s kingdom of love and justice on earth.

P: Through all times and places, God’s grace has been at work, building up the faith of God’s people and inspiring good works in the name of Jesus Christ. Christ’s church stands as an imperfect testament to God’s love as we work for justice and peace in all the earth. The Word of God has resounded through the ages, proclaiming Jesus Christ as the center of the universe and the hinge of history.
C: We celebrate the Reformation which continues even today.

P: For Christ has redeemed us, even though we were lost. He has freed us from all sins, from death, and from the power of evil, not with gold or silver but with his precious blood and innocent death. (adapted from Martin Luther, 1528)
C: We give thanks for the gift of grace.

P: God of forgiveness and second chances, your patience and love for us never end, even as we fail again and again to live as your children. Remind us of your faithfulness as we engage with the unglamorous, long-term recovery efforts in places that have experienced natural disasters: hurricanes in Ireland and the United Kingdom, and in Texas, Florida, and Puerto Rico, United States; an earthquake in Mexico City, Mexico; wildfires in Portugal, Spain, and the United States; and severe flooding in India, Bangladesh, and Nepal. Teach us compassion as we face new needs in the wake of Typhoon Lan and its destruction in Shizuoka, Japan. Reform us and renew us as we respond in gratitude to your gift of grace by sharing that grace with others.
C: Amen.

P: Faith is a sincere confidence in the grace of God, promised to us in Christ, kindled in the heart by the Holy Spirit. (adapted from Johann Arndt, 1605)
C: We give thanks for the gift of faith.

P: God of truth, your steadfast love endures forever, even as our faith in you wavers and falters. We make decisions based on fear, and we trust in our own abilities rather than in your will for us: this week, Australia has rejected a groundbreaking clean energy proposal in favor of a plan that will lower costs and secure the energy grid, and the Czech Republic has elected a new leader with an anti-refugee stance, joining many nations around the world that are turning their focus inward in response to social and financial anxieties. Reform us and renew us as we seek to live as people whose faith and trust rest not in human power, but in the power of your love.
C: Amen.

P: We must be saved only and alone through faith; our works are a fruit of faith and are connected with the gratitude we owe to God. (adapted from Philipp Spener, 1675)
C: We give thanks for the gift of good works.

P: God of empowerment, despite our failings, you bless us with opportunities to be your hands and feet in the world. You transform our selfish and sinful natures and give us capacity for compassion and love. Forestry groups in Iceland fight to restore trees that will reduce soil erosion and combat climate change. Nicaragua has signed the Paris climate agreement, leaving only two countries that do not support this international effort to protect our environment. Raqqa, Syria, long held as the headquarters of the radical ISIS militant group, has been mostly liberated, though fighting and dangerous conditions will continue for some time. Reform us and renew us with boldness to serve you with all that we have and all that we are.
C: Amen.

P: The church is truly the church only when it exists for others. (adapted from Dietrich Bonhoeffer, 1944)
C: We give thanks for the gift of the church.

P: God of all creation, you have raised up the church so that the world might be blessed though us, but we often feel overwhelmed by the suffering that we see around us. Political conflicts in Venezuela and Spain continue to hurt the vulnerable. The death toll rises in the aftermath of a truck bombing in Mogadishu, Somalia. Remind us that we are not alone in facing these problems. Reform us and renew us with the presence of your Holy Spirit, so that your church might be a symbol of hope in a suffering world.
C: Amen.

P: Our identity is in Jesus Christ and nobody else. (adapted from Elizabeth Eaton, 2014)
C: We give thanks for the gift of Jesus Christ.

P: God of mercy and grace, we commit our lives to your living Word, Jesus Christ. Help us, your church universal, to grow in faith and love, so that we might always live in trust and hope. Make us bold to share your good news with the world as members of Christ’s church, and make us humble to acknowledge our own role in dividing the body of Christ. Fill us with wisdom to find our common ground in Christ, and give us patience to face disagreement with grace and embrace diversity with gratitude. Guide our lives, forgive our sins, inspire our thoughts, shape our attitudes, and fill us with hope and joy, assuring us of your constant presence in all times and all places.
C: Amen.

World News This Week in Prayer – Thursday, October 19, 2017

Dear Lord,

Your people in Puerto Rico and across the Caribbean have looked up into rain flooded skies and out onto destroyed homelands, waiting for water, food, shelter and the provision of medical care. Open the hearts of decision makers to release funds to continue the rescue, to bring relief and stability. Smooth the communications to move people to care as the USNS Comfort (US naval ship) waits for the needy. Help us to grow in compassion as a people as we listen to news from hurricane-devastated places and during the long recovery, not forgetting the gulf coast.

We pray for the Rohingya peoples who await smugglers to take them across the Naf River between Myanmar and Bangladesh. Others make the treacherous journey to safety through jungles and mountains and into refugee camps such as Balukali, Kutupalong and Nayapara, where the depth of need is continually expanding. Dear God, our Comforter and Protector, be with the nation of Bangladesh and the NGO’s as they summon all their capacity to meet the needs of these deeply suffering refugees. Surround exhausted families with nourishing sleep. Tend to the children who make up 60% of the refugees – lost and torn from their families. Open our eyes to the horror of genocide, as a people are being erased from Myanmar’s history and annihilated. Come Holy Spirit. Guide the world as it seeks to address this calamity.

Some look up into smoke and ash filled skies in the western United States barely escaping burning homes and a tortured landscape and yet 10,000 firefighters – including 100 women prisoners working as firefighters – move toward the flames. Renew their energy to endure and guard their steps. We are so grateful for their unique skills in this treacherous work. Dear God, provide shelter to families bereft of everything they owned. Sustain the communities in their great work of serving these families, providing food, a listening ear, counseling and guidance in next steps and getting in touch with family. Be with the 42 families who have lost loved ones and the 68 families with unaccounted for loved ones. Hold them in their distress.

Some hide in the shelter of darkness yet afraid. “Has the fighting stopped?” Oh Lord, how seemingly endless is the noise and dust and calamity of war and the horrific suffering, the interminable loss and degradation. We pray for the peoples caught in the wars within wars, in the Iraqi Kurdistan Region of Kirkuk, for the police killed in Taliban raids and bombings in the Paktia and Ghazni provinces in Afghanistan. We pray for the dead and wounded civilians as they were waiting to get their identity cards. We pray for an end to 6 years of suffering in the Syrian civil war displacing 6.3 million people internally, causing the deaths of 400,000 with more than 5 million Syrians fleeing the country.

Open the hearts of combatants to give safe humanitarian access. Our hearts are torn again as we hear about the global food crisis, severe food insecurity, and the increasing risk of full on famine in northeast Nigeria, Somalia, South Sudan and Yemen. Some are too week to sit or even cry, hungry to the point of death. Oh God, you are listening. You surround them. You love them. Open our hearts. Help us to prayerfully consider our time, talent and treasure. Help us to share the wealth from our tables. Bring peace in those places where war creates famine, where conflict creates war, where war seems to be endless.

We watched with deep concern as Ireland and the UK received the effects of Hurricane Ophelia downgraded to a tropical storm. We are saddened at the loss of life as severe winds toppled trees on to cars. We are grateful for advanced warning such that the Irish Defense Forces were ready where needed and schools were closed keeping children safe. Be with families in their sudden grief and with those experiencing the deep deep losses in Portugal and Spain as wildfires fanned by the winds of the very same hurricane have brought further catastrophe. Again we pray for the 6,000 firefighters and nations called to come together in these wildfires. Be with the injured and their caregivers as severe burns are treated. Comfort those who are in mourning of the over thirty-two victims including a one-month old infant taken so quickly. Many weep for their cherished lands and fields, and livestock so vulnerable. Comfort them in their mourning. Give them your strength.

And your people in Mogadishu, where the Somali nation again suffers a bombing so despicable and barbaric with over 276 lives destroyed in an instant. Oh Lord, we take-in this news of the over 300 injured and suffering, and families still searching for the missing. We hear of the need for donor blood, the exhausted hospital staff, and how they keep going, as its populace is weeping, weeping, weeping. Help them as they assemble and arise as a people to discern steps for increased stability and safety in their nation. Comfort your people of Somalia in their great sorrow. Bring them peace.

Guide us in our faith. Help us to seek your will.

May we rush to understand one another, to love urgently, and to grow steadily in becoming more tolerant.

From you comes all blessings and life itself.

Amen.

World News This Week in Prayer – Thursday, October 5, 2017

A note from the writer of this week’s prayers:
I really wrestled with what prayers to write today. Part of me – a LARGE part – wanted to rage at God: “If Jesus’ crucifixion, death and resurrection was supposed to end the power of evil and sin, your experiment has failed. Utterly. It’s time to try again, with something different.” But then I saw Connie Sun’s Blessings of Life cartoon, and all the tangled threads of anguish within me took a deep breath and began to unwind. And I thought, “This. Yes. This is what we need. Blessings. To bless, and to be blessed.”

Cartoon reproduced by permission. To see more of Connie Sun’s work, go to http://www.conniewonnie.com/ or follow her on Instagram https://www.instagram.com/cartoonconnie/.

A Litany of Blessings

Bless the conflict
Bless the yearning

Bless the Catalonians who voted to split from Spain. Bless the nation that wants to keep them.
Bless the Kurds who voted for independence from Iraq. Bless the Iraqis who fight the Islamic State beside them.
Bless the ceasefire in Colombia with the Marxist National Liberation Army rebels.
Bless the dreams of every homeland.

Bless the grief
Bless the caring

Bless the victims of the mass shooting in Las Vegas, Nevada, U.S.
Bless the dead after a stampede on a footbridge at a Mumbai, India, railway station.
Bless children and teachers lost when a day care center in Brazil was set on fire by a guard who worked there.
Bless the troubled. Bless the injured.
Bless the memories of all survivors.

Bless the leaving
Bless the turning

Bless the more than 150,000 from Bali, Indonesia, who are in limbo, waiting to see when and if it will be safe to return to their homes near a possibly soon-erupting volcano.
Bless the lives lived out in makeshift refugee camps around the world. Bless the Rohingya who have fled Myanmar for Bangladesh.
Bless the devastated U.S. territory of Puerto Rico.
Bless the hope. Bless the rebuilding.
Bless the new homes and, someday, those returning.

Bless the danger
Bless the healing

Bless all in Yemen, where cholera cases could hit a million by the end of the year.
Bless the government health officials, World Health Organization, aid agencies and private donors from around the world, now meeting in France to commit to preventing 90% of cholera deaths by 2030.
Bless the 1.2 million “food insecure” in Sri Lanka, where drought has led to the loss of two successive harvests, many small farmers have resorted to eating seed saved to plant next season, and many households are eating just one meal a day.
Bless the hungry. Bless the hurting. Bless the fear-filled.
Bless the aid-workers. Bless the donors.
Bless the researchers. Bless the prayer-supporters.

Bless the night
Bless the morning

Bless the birthdays. Bless new lovers and years-long friendships.
Bless the sunsets and the rainbows.
Bless the achievements, large and small.
Bless the learners and the doers.
Bless the meals eaten, alone and those together.
Bless each hour of rest and slumber.

Bless the hands, and hearts, and spirits
Lord God, bless us all

World News in Prayer for Thursday, September 14, 2017

[Italicized portions below from John Newton’s hymn Amazing Grace]
Amazing grace! How sweet the sound
That saved a wretch like me!
I once was lost, but now am found;
Was blind, but now I see.

God of grace and sound, we need finding. The world around us is broken by climatic and political chaos, and many of us feel wretched and blind.

’Twas grace that taught my heart to fear,
And grace my fears relieved;
How precious did that grace appear
The hour I first believed.

God of relief, help us to believe. We have lost faith in our governments: 600 citizens are displaced in Ethiopia following a boundary dispute, and nearly half a million Rohingya Muslims have fled to Bangladesh following what is widely perceived as ethnic cleansing in Myanmar.

Through many dangers, toils and snares,
I have already come.

We have lost lives and land to the danger of fires:
§ In Malaysia, where 23 children and two school staff were killed in a fire at a Muslim boarding school
§ In Kenya, where a 14-year-old student set fire to a school dormitory that killed nine other students
§ Across the Western United States, from Southern California to Glacier National Park in Montana, experts predict this wildfire season to be one of the worst in decades

’Tis grace hath brought me safe thus far,
And grace will lead me home.

God of safety and home, we ask you to help the people of Texas in the United States as they rebuild their homes and communities in the aftermath of Hurricane Harvey. And we lost lives as a result of Hurricane Irma in the following countries:
§ Anguilla
§ Barbuda
§ British Virgin Islands
§ Cuba
§ Puerto Rico
§ St. Barts
§ Saint Martin
§ Sint Maarten
§ Turks and Caicos
§ US Virgin Islands

When this flesh and heart shall fail,
And mortal life shall cease,
I shall possess, within the veil,
A life of joy and peace.

We are grateful to those who bring joy and peace into our lives: first responders, children, religious leaders, teachers, parents, healers, and the families we create. We have found grace in the responses of the American, British, Dutch, and French governments as they provide aid to Caribbean populations devastated by Hurricane Irma.

God of grace, help us to find amazing, help us to be amazing, and help us to be found. Amen.

World News This Week in Prayer – Thursday, August 31, 2017

Do you know what I have done for you? – John 13:12c

And new things I now declare – Isaiah 42:9b

The word of the Lord stands forever – Isaiah 40:8b, I Peter 1:25

Lord, we see what you have done for us, but sometimes it is difficult as we do not know or understand exactly what this is. We only see that something has happened, something is different.

Then there are the times, over generations, when we have acted as if we were gods. When failures to understand and then to correct, once we have understood, catch up with us, we are quick to blame you and slow to mend our ways. As the effects of global warming are felt around the world it is easier to say “an act of God” than “an act of humanity.”Forgive us our failure to be proportionate and well balanced in our assertions. We do not know what you have done when in your steadfast love you declare this new thing: we are forgiven.

The word of the Lord stands forever.

You take the work of human hands and, against all sense but out of unconditional love, you make good what we have done and declare new things. As we face the worst damage that hurricane Harvey is wreaking on Texas, Louisiana and regions in the US; as most States in India and Mumbai suffer collapse of buildings and flooding; regions in Nepal and one-third of Bangladesh cope with monsoon flooding which has killed more than 1,200 people and made millions homeless; as heavy rains flood Niamey, the capital of Niger, Africa; as the second tropical storm in days hits Southern China and Hong Kong; we pray that out of all this horrendous upheaval new attitudes, new ways of living, new things will grow.

Lord, declare new things, now.

The word of the Lord stands forever.

It is strange to those safe in developed countries that even flooded Bangladesh becomes a refuge to the Rohingya Muslims of Myanmar fleeing nationalist persecution. It is strange to us in Europe that crossing the Mediterranean in unsafe boats seems a better chance at living than remaining in so many third world countries. It is strange to us in our wealth that Brazil is now opening environmental reserves to destructive mining in parts of the Amazon. Give us a new understanding of wealth and safety and plenty — so that we do not take more resources than we need from our planet.

Lord, declare new things, now.

The word of the Lord stands forever.

As we see the heroes in their little boats in the southern states of the US; as we see the heroes of conservation protecting endangered species in Nepal; as we see heroes pull people from the seas of southern Europe and those who give them clothing, food and respite; as we see those heroes who continue the work of caring long after the journalists have gone – in Freetown, Sierra Leone dealing with the disastrous landslide; among rescue workers in the Alps landslide in Bondo, Switzerland; with medical workers in Yemen – we know that you are constantly declaring the good news of your love for all this, your world.

Lord declare new things, now.

The word of the Lord stands forever

Amen

World News This Week in Prayer – Thursday, September 15

O how wondrous
is the foreknowledge of the divine heart
that knew every creature in advance.
For when God looked upon the human face
that he had formed,
he glimpsed all his works,
in that same human form, all summed up.
O how wondrous is the inspiration
that has thus animated the human being.

Hildegard of Bingen, “O quam mirabilis”

Creator God, your love for us is apparent in the wonder and complexity with which we are made. We are created with endless diversity, each face distinct, each personality unique, and yet we all bear your divine image. The inspiration with which you breathed us into life is displayed in so many ways:

In the perseverance and strength of athletes during the Paralympic Games in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil;
In the persistence of rescue crews in Bukoba, Tanzania, who searched for survivors of an earthquake, and crews who worked in Taiwan and China to evacuate families and prepare for the arrival of Super Typhoon Meranti;
In the devotion of over 1.8 million Muslims who traveled to Mecca, Saudi Arabia, for the Hajj pilgrimage;
In the compassion and courage of first responders in O Porrino, Spain, who worked to rescue victims of a deadly train crash, and in Tongi, Bangladesh, who battled a fire caused by a deadly factory explosion;
In the emerging hope for peace in Colombia, where FARC rebels have released a group of child soldiers and have promised to discontinue recruitment of children.

We know, Lord, that you rejoice with us when we embody the love and care for which you created us. And yet so often we fall short, seeing the gift of diversity as a threat and forgetting the divine image that we all possess. Fear, suffering, and broken relationships disfigure your divine image and damage your creation in so many ways:

In violent hate crimes perpetrated against Muslim mothers in New York, US and Bletchley, UK;
In a successful nuclear test in North Korea, which deepens tension among nations and adds to the number of nuclear-capable countries, including Russia, the US, France, China, the UK, Pakistan, India, and Israel;
In acts of terrorism designed to spread fear and perpetuate extremism in Minto, Australia; Shikarpur, Pakistan; and around the globe.

Forgive us for abandoning our primary identity as your beloved children. Bring hope and healing to our broken world. Give us strength and inspiration to look into the faces of our neighbors and see what you see: A glimpse of all your works, a glimpse of you.

Amen.

Note: Many Christians celebrate the feast of St Hildegard of Bingen on 17 September. Hildegard was a Benedictine nun and Christian mystic, writer, and composer in 10^th century Germany.