Egypt

World News This Week in Prayer – Thursday, May 10, 2018

Lord, we come before you

Prayer is communication that invites at-one-ness with You, the source of our being. We call you God, and as revealed in the flesh, Jesus. We ask for empowerment. Transform us with the life-giving force of the Holy Spirit. Make us channels of the your Eternal Love, Light, and Grace. Help us to continue this work of transformation, of ourselves and of all creation.

Lord, in your mercy hear us

As You are One, You call us to this oneness yet we are so divided by what should unite us, our religious beliefs, diverse cultures, resources and desires. You have shown us glimpses of Yourself according to what we are willing and able to receive, then, too often, we become exclusive and possessive. Thinking we own the truth, we denigrate others.

We see this in the tensions in India between Hindus and Muslims leading to the torture, rape and murder of young girls. Coptic Christians being attacked in Egypt. Conflict and sectarian violence continuing in Somalia, Sudan, Iraq, Syria, the Democratic Republic of Congo, in Nigeria and elsewhere around the world.

Lord, hear us and forgive us

You call us to care and nurture all creation, yet so often we treat it cavalierly and out of greed, abuse our resources. The continuing deforestation of huge swathes of Indonesia, Vietnam, Brazil, and even in protected ancient forests such as Poland. New gigantic off-shore platforms near Australia are drawing natural gas resources to meet our insatiable greed for energy.

Lord, teach us stewardship and how to touch the earth lightly for the benefit of all and generations to come.

Lord, hear us and forgive us.

We give thanks for the work in the United Arab Emirates by scientists from Norway who have developed a method to pump liquid clay nano-particles into sandy desert so that crops are planted in seven hours instead of seven years. Water required to grow these crops is also reduced by up to 50%. The blooming of the desert is a closer reality.

We give thanks too for the female armed rangers in southern Zimbabwe who are protecting highly endangered elephants from poachers. Unlike their male counterparts, they are not succumbing to corruption or pressure but are arresting poachers even from their own villages or families. Often having survived abusive relationships, these women can now send their children to school and support them.

Lord, continue to strengthen those taking such creative action in solving problems we humans so often have created.

Lord, we bless your holy Name: hear us and bless us.

We continue to remember all who fear. Remember those experiencing natural disasters such as in Hawaii, U.S., and dust and electrical storms in India. Guide our leaders as we watch such political posturing as between North Korea and the rest of the world. Give us discernment in the Iranian nuclear discussions and in the latest financial crisis in Argentina. Comfort those experiencing the devastating wave of knife crimes in London, England among the young. Be with those imprisoned throughout the world without trial or justice, those lonely, those who feel they have no self-worth.

Help us to reach out as need presents itself in all its forms. We have heard your Truth. Prompt us to act on it and live it in our daily choices and decisions.

Lord, hear and answer our prayers for the sake of Your Son, Jesus Christ who opened the way for Your kingdom here on earth as it is in heaven. Amen.

World News This Week in Prayer – Thurs., Nov. 2, 2017`

Once again, dear God, once again we come to you in grief and anger. Once again terror has struck at the heart of New York City, U.S. Once again, we know the weeping of Rachel that is heard across Your creation. Once again, what You declared to be good has fallen short of Your glory. Once again the world village of sorrow grows larger and smaller at the same time. Once again the people of the United States join hands with Rohingya villagers in Myanmar, a family of grief united with Boston (U.S.) and Barcelona (Spain), Paris (France) and Orlando (U.S.), Israel and Egypt, Pakistan and Nigeria.

Once again tears mix with tears without concern for race, creed, loyalties. Once again we taste true communion in our remembrance of Christ’s own innocent death. Once again we know Good Friday, and Easter feels far away. Once again we know the power of hatred testing the power of love. Once again we seek for Good News. Once again we hear the tempter’s offer of shortcuts, if only we would bow.

Once again, Holy God, hear our cry, heal our spirits, touch our hurt, forgive our hatred, guide our steps, strengthen, strengthen, strengthen our every breath to be God-breathed. Amen.

World News This Week in Prayer – Thursday, 17 August 2017

We lift this prayer, written from the ancestral home of the llini, Miami, Shawnee, Dakota Sioux, Chickasaw, Winnebago, Delaware, Kickapoo, Ottawa, Potawatomi, Huron-Wyandot, and Sac-Fox tribes with full respect for their creativity and courage.

We lift this prayer that will be read within many other geographic and cultural contexts with full respect for the various ways you have inspired leaders and followers to make every human city, and even every human household more like your household, more like the City of God, your city.

We lift this prayer expecting within a few days an eclipse of the sun, and we hope to acknowledge it with the awe Job felt when you answered his feverish complaining with the assurance that there was much he failed to understand.

Indeed, there is so much we fail to understand:

violent racism in the United States, not to mention fear of migrants,
indefinite prison in Jordan to ‘protect’ abused women and girls,
the likelihood of a very long exile for South Sudanese refugees,
the hundreds dead and missing in flooding and mudslides in Nepal and Sierra Leone,
suicide bombings in Nigeria,
those killed and injured in terror attacks in Burkina Faso and Barcelona, Spain,
the dozens killed and over one hundred injured in a train collision in Egypt,
illnesses, injuries, and misfortunes, our own and of others.

Jolt us, we pray, out of our uncompromising certainties.
Explode our imaginations with new possibilities.
Teach us to accept those who hold opinions we cannot approve.
Guide us in protecting interests beyond our own.
Forgive us when we are in error.
Love us into joining you with compassion for all creation.

Amen.

World News This Week in Prayer – Thursday, July 27

The unfolding of your words gives light; it imparts understanding to the simple….
My eyes shed streams of tears because your law is not kept. Ps 119: 130, 136

Likewise the Spirit helps us in our weakness; for we do not know how to pray as we ought, but that very Spirit intercedes with sighs too deep for words. Romans 8:26

Forgive us, Lord, for reducing your might, majesty, and power to fit our comfort zone. The news of world events overwhelms us. We can be assailed by doubts, fear, and despair while choosing to say that you are God over all. So often this masks, however scantily, our lack of faith and understanding.

Forgive us, Lord, we implore you.

Lord, hear us: may your Holy Spirit breathe life into our prayers.

This week, whether in the northern or southern hemispheres of our shared planet, bush-fires, floods, snow storms, thunder storms, drought, famine, and melting glaciers causing water levels to raise world-wide have brought havoc and devastation to millions. Behind such abstract figures are individual stories of people who are just like us.

We pray for and give thanks for all aid agencies and people helping their neighbours in this time of great need. Forgive us for our heedless use of resources not rightly ours. Teach us to touch the earth lightly and to live thoughtfully and in harmony with the generous provisions in Creation you have given for us and all your children.

Lord, hear us: may your Holy Spirit breathe life into our prayers.

We hear of wars and rumours of wars and violence in Syria, Afghanistan, Somalia, Venezuela, Colombia, Mexico, Egypt and at local levels in all of our own countries. Hatred and fear of difference make us dehumanise our neighbours and inflate ourselves. We continue to pray for justice for all regardless of race, gender, religion, sexual orientation, or politics. We long for the time when this will be the norm throughout the world. Prince of Peace, jolt us awake when we casually slide into indifference and cruelty to each other. May we follow your example in our daily lives.

Lord, hear us: may your Holy Spirit breathe life into our prayers.

We give thanks for the love and compassion for others often shown by wounded individuals. Jodi Ann Bickley from Birmingham, UK, who fights depression, has written over 4,000 letters of encouragement to complete strangers as part of her One Million Lovely Letters project started in 2013. These life-enhancing and life-changing letters have transformed the lives of the recipients and even helped youngsters in rural South Africa move beyond their experience of abuse and violence and marginalisation. Open us up to hear your prompts for loving acts you wish us to do and for the loving people you wish us to be.

Lord, hear us: may your Holy Spirit breathe life into our prayers.

Open our ears, glorious Lord Christ, to hear the music of your voice above the chaos of this world: the power of your love, your mercy for each one of us, and the wisdom and wonders of your law and commandments which promises to lead us from darkness to light. Amen.

World News in Prayer- Thursday, April 13, 2017

This is the day that the Lord has made; let us rejoice and be glad in it. Psalm 118:24

We are stumbling on our way toward the day of Resurrection, gracious God. Stumbling and falling, sometimes crawling on our knees toward the cross, hoping that when we lift our tear-filled eyes, it will be empty, that the tomb will be empty, that your promise of New Life will indeed be real and we can sing with our hearts and voices:

This is the day that the Lord has made; let us rejoice and be glad in it.

But these recent days, as we approach Good Friday, have been difficult ones in which to see the reality of Resurrection, filled as they have been with death and destruction:

The truck attack in Stockholm, Sweden, which killed four.
The explosion in Diyarbakir, Turkey, which injured at least four.
The fire gutting the Grande-Synthe Dunkirk migrant camp in France, home of 1500 migrants, with at least ten injured.
The two deadly blasts which hit Coptic Christian churches in Alexandria and Tanta, Egypt, killing more than forty people and injuring over 100, including several police officers.
The severe frosts and snowstorms affecting Central Europe in which at least 25 have died, mainly in Poland and Serbia. The weather is primarily affecting the homeless and refugees, with more harsh weather predicted in coming days.
The killing of Criminal court judge Raymond Myles shot outside his home in Chicago, Illinois,United States (USA).
The ever-rising death toll of refugees attempting to cross the Mediterranean Sea that, according to the UN Refugee Agency, rose to 5000 in 2016.
The building tensions between the USA and North Korea, in response to the air strike to Syria.
The USA drops the largest non-nuclear bomb ever made in Afghanistan.
The planned execution of eight men beginning the day after Easter by the State of Arkansas, USA.

And amid the darkness of Good Friday, we turn to you, Father/Mother God, not as we ought but as we are able, trying to discern our place, our role, in the healing of this hurting world, seeking to be the people you are continually calling us to be, seeking to find hope and joy and peace, so that we can sing with our hearts and voices:

This is the day that the Lord has made; let us rejoice and be glad in it.

And soon, Easter will be upon us. The day of Resurrection will be here and our newly opened eyes encouraged by signs of New Life and Hope:

Malala Yousafzai, born in the Swat Valley, Pakistan, the young woman shot by the Taliban for going to school, being made the youngest ever U.N. Messenger of Peace.
Amnesty International report that global executions have fallen 37% since 2015, with the USA being removed from the top 5 for the first time since 2006.
The coastguard of Italy and their rescue of more than 300 migrants attempting to cross the Mediterranean Sea on flimsy rubber boats.
A restaurant in Tripoli, Lebanon offering free meals to the poor and needy, feeding 185 to 200 daily.
The discovery of a 14,000-year-old Ice Age village on Triquet Island, British Columbia, Canada, with carbon dating placing it older than the pyramids in Egypt.
Pope Francis rallying many Roman Catholic cardinals, bishops, and priests to oppose immigration crackdowns throughout the world; and his planned visit to Egypt to meet with the Coptic Orthodox Pope Tawadros II.

Amid the glowing light of truth and new life, the reality of grace and hope for our world, we give thanks, not as we ought but as we are able, opening our hearts and hands, our minds and wills to your leading, Holy One, living in the assurance that in you there is indeed Resurrection and New Life, and so we sing with hearts and voices:

This is the day that the Lord has made; let us rejoice and be glad in it.

Let it be so. Amen and amen.

World News This Week in Prayer – Thursday, March 9, 2017

Now the Lord said to Abram, ‘Go from your country and your kindred and your father’s house to the land that I will show you. I will make of you a great nation, and I will bless you, and make your name great, so that you will be a blessing. I will bless those who bless you, and the one who curses you I will curse; and in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed.’

Genesis 12:1-3, NRSV

Lord, just as you called Abram from his country, so you call us out of our places of comfort and into the places where we can be a blessing. And yet we cling to what is familiar: our own countries, our own kindred, and our own homes. We are afraid to follow your call into the unknown, even though you have promised to bless us. We fail to put our trust in you, in your vision for our future, and in the land that you will show us. You call us to place our trust in you, and to follow where you lead. Give us courage, O God,

So that in us all the families of the earth might be blessed.

Fear and ignorance continue to spread as world leaders turn their focus inward. The federal government in the US is preparing to implement a new executive order banning refugees and citizens of six majority-Muslim countries from entering the country. Tension between officials in North Korea and Malaysia are building in the wake of the assassination of Kim Jong-nam. Young people in Egypt responded with dismay as former Egyptian president Hosni Mubarak was acquitted of complicity in the deaths of 800 protestors in 2011. You call us to step out of our own concerns, and to hold our leaders accountable for their impact on our world. Give us wisdom, O God,

So that in us all the families of the earth might be blessed.

Millions of vulnerable people around the world continue to suffer due to natural disasters and climate instability. Torrential rains have caused the Limpopo River to burst its banks, resulting in floods and loss of crops in Mozambique, Zimbabwe, and South Africa. Cyclone Enawo has left at least three dead and over 500 homeless in Madagascar. In Brazil, dozens of homes have been destroyed in a fire. In Somalia over 110 people died within forty-eight hours due severe drought conditions. With over 100,000 people facing starvation in South Sudan, the United Nations has declared a famine in the region. You call us to step out of our own concerns, and to use our resources to bring relief and aid to your beloved children. Give us compassion, O God,

So that in us all the families of the earth might be blessed.

Our news is filled with daily examples of hate, retribution, and senseless violence. In France, a family of four was murdered over an inheritance argument. A series of fatal shootings of individuals of Indian descent in South Carolina, US, points to an epidemic of racial hatred. In the largest military hospital in Kabul, Afghanistan more than thirty people were killed and dozens injured by Islamic State gunmen dressed as medics. Even as we celebrate International Women’s Day this week, police in Australia, have just rescued a woman who had been sexually and physically abused over the course of a two-month period, and statistics show that 70% of women around the world will experience domestic violence in their lifetimes. You call us to step out of our own concerns, and to treat all people with humanity and respect. Give us love, O God,

So that in us all the families of the earth might be blessed.

You call us to love our neighbors as ourselves, to advocate and fight for safety and security for all of your children around the world, O God. Give us courage. Give us wisdom. Give us compassion. Give us love. Empower us to be your hands and feet in the world, so that in us all the families of the earth might be blessed.

Amen.

World News This Week in Prayer – Thursday, December 15, 2016

We have come to worship you, Shepherd of Israel. Out of the busy-ness we create for ourselves at this season, we come to remember why. We give thanks for the bravery of Mary, for the courage of Joseph, and we ask that these qualities support us in the face of overwhelming commercialization and the rewriting of the good news.

This week, as we think of Mary, we pray for all preparing to give birth, for their midwives, doctors and all who provide equipment, medicines and other support. We give thanks for the California, USA company, We Care Solar, which, realizing the difficulties of providing midwifery and other medical care when electric light is not reliable, invented “solar suitcases”.

As we think of Joseph, we pray for fathers facing the need to become refugees to keep their children safe – those who are too small, too old, too frail, yet in fear for their lives must run. With the news that any ceasefire in Aleppo, Syria, has been violated and praying for those who are frustrated in their attempts to give shelter and aid, we must cry out for these your children, Shepherd God.

We pray for the people of Yemen, as the humanitarian crisis deepens; and for the people of Palmyra as so-called ISIS retakes the city. Because the media is silent we must cry out for these your children, Shepherd God.

As the western side of the Pacific ring of fire seems to be particularly active, we think of those whose lives continue to be affected – in Aceh province, Indonesia; in the Solomon Islands; in New Zealand and Japan. While we give thanks that scientists note the changing coastlines which may give clues to earthquake predictions, because the media is silent we must cry out for these your children, Shepherd God.

We pray for Christians in Nigeria and Egypt following attacks on churches and cathedrals. For all who are attacked for their faith, because the media is silent we must cry out for these your children, Shepherd God.

We pray for those recently married, who in their love radiate the good news that in love there is room for all in this world. We praise you, Shepherd of Israel. Amen

World News This Week in Prayer- Thursday, September 22, 2016

“The Bible says little about the temperature of hell nor the furniture of heaven”. This quote from the great German theologian Reinhold Niebuhr fits in with the story of the rich man and Lazarus where we are made aware of the dangers of being mean with our money and uncharitable to others. This is echoed by the scam artists who have been using Italy’s earthquake disaster for profit by selling T-shirts and claiming the proceeds will go to the victims and their families. We, as human beings must adopt a just and moral outlook to life and realise that bad deeds have consequences and bring regret, and yet also know that God is at our side, protecting us and forgiving us when we show remorse and hold steadfast in our beliefs.
• After a ‘Refugees Welcome Here’ march in London, England, let us pray against the exploitation of thousands of refugees in places such as the Middle East and South Sudan who can be ruthlessly stripped of their life’s savings to risk their lives to escape from war and poverty for a better life. The UN estimates there are over 65 million people worldwide who have had to flee their homes, 34,000 every day, nearly half of which are children. Many are missing and are feared to have fallen victim to human traffickers, sexual abuse or modern slavery.
Merciful Lord, defend and protect those innocents, and let peace override greed and power…
• We pray for those affected by the world’s natural disasters of floods, fires and typhoons: in the U.S., Taiwan, China, Greece and North Korea.
‘For we know that if the tent that is our earthly home is destroyed, we have a building from God, a house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens…’ (2 Corinthians 5.1)
• Let us also pray for the 9 people stabbed at a shopping centre in Minnesota, U.S. in a suggested religious attack. For the 29 people in the U.S. who were injured in an explosion in Manhattan, New York and those affected by the explosion in New Jersey. We pray, too, for the cities of Tulsa, Oklahoma, and Charlotte, North Carolina, which are reeling from the deaths this week of two black men killed by police, Terence Crutcher and Keith Lamont Scott, and ask, Loving God, that peace and wisdom may prevail, and hearts may be opened.
• We pray for the dozens of aid workers and truck drivers killed by two air strikes near Aleppo, Syria.
• We pray for the 13 dead after a boat capsized north of Bangkok, Thailand and the 43 migrants who perished off the Egyptian coast, with hundreds still missing.
• Let our thoughts turn to the 20 killed in rebel fighting in Central African Republic and those suffering from warfare throughout the continent.
Gracious God, bring comfort to the victims and help turn the hearts that hate…
Help us Lord, to take pride in helping others, to put our trust in you instead of money and put it to good use. We can then be rich in ourselves and our souls if we are generous to those less well-off whether they be family, friend or neighbour, close by or far away. Let us take inspiration from those people; such as the man from Yorkshire, England who ran 75 marathons in 75 days, at the age of 75, raising £75,000 for a special needs school.
Lord, we give thanks and praise to those who inspire us; bless them all.
Amen.

World News This Week in Prayer – Thursday, July 14, 2016

There is a terrifying passage in ‘I and Thou’ by the Jewish mystic Martin Buber in which God says ‘I have sunk my hearing in the deafness of mortals’. If this should be even partly true what a tremendous responsibility it places upon us to listen, to listen to each other with our whole attention, with our hearts, but what a difficult thing to do. ~ Elizabeth Bassett in “Beyond the Blue Mountains: Wisdom and Compassion on Living and Dying” (p. 93)

Without forgiveness there can be no future for a relationship between individuals or within and between nations… Resentment and anger are bad for your blood pressure and digestion… My humanity is bound up in yours, for we can only be human together. ~ Archbishop Desmond Tutu

The news recently has been a cataloged of ever greater misery, tragedy, horror, and violence depicting the broken relationships between groups and nations. Hurt breeds resentment and violence arising from a sense of frustrated helplessness. This makes the truth of the essential need to truly listen to each other haunting. Challenge and inspire me. I can only hope to do this through the grace and power of the Holy Spirit to enable me to fulfill, however falteringly, the command of the risen Christ, “Follow me!”

LET GOD…be Parent…speak…liberate me from my prisons…direct my path…infuse me with grace and love.

How do we reconcile God’s grace and love with our world where at least 80 are dead in Nice (pron. Neece), France as a result of a rampage driver, weaponry, and a hate-filled heart? Who did this? Why? What matter does it make? Hate and violence and death… Death and violence and hate…

The killings between black and white, police and citizens in the U.S.A. and in Kenya;
Bombings and murder of Christians and other minority faiths in Iraq;
The seizing of Christian villages by Kurds;
The bombings and warfare in South Sudan;
The territorial advancement by China onto militarized coral reefs and artificial islands in the South China Sea as platforms for their nuclear arms;
Over a thousand people have ‘disappeared’ without trace and 40,000 have been arrested and tortured in the last 3 years in Egypt according to Amnesty International;
Hunger and lack of food in Venezuela that is being tackled by the army because it is so pervasive.

Lord, help us to persevere in the face of so many discouragements to do whatever little bit of good we can wherever we are. Together these small acts form channels for your love and grace to be freed to transform our brokenness and overwhelm evil. Lord hear us and bless us.

With a new government and a second female Prime Minister installed in the UK, we pray for the challenges to be faced together, from people of very differing viewpoints and convictions, so that the good of the country – as well as bridge-building to repair shaken if not broken relationships with other groups and countries – can be undertaken in honesty and integrity.

We pray that all those, everywhere, may listen to each other before leaping into superficial response and action. Our heavy use of social media often makes this a default position rather than pausing, reflecting, and even daring to take time to pray… We continue to pray for the often bitter and divisive presidential electoral campaign in the U.S.A. So often at times like this we seem to revert to appealing to the lowest common denominator instead of offering a vision of the best… Forgive us when we get seduced by the attractiveness of power – thinking it glamorous rather than often seedy and corrupting.

Remind us, O God:

Good is stronger than evil; love is stronger than hate; light is stronger than darkness; life is stronger than death. Victory is ours, through him who loves us…Child of God, known by name, and whose very hairs are numbered. Praise and adore God and thank him for ever and ever. ~ Archbishop Desmond Tutu in “An African Prayer Book”

LET ME…be son or daughter…listen…walk out of my prisons through opened doors…follow your guidance…open up my being to your grace and love…Study and imitate…the perfect sonship of Jesus the Christ…the universal brother…or all other sons and daughters.

Amen.

World News This Week in Prayer – Thursday, May 19, 2016

Heavenly Father, we come to you with open but hurt hearts with this week’s news. May the Holy Spirit fill us with strength and compassion towards our neighbors, near and far.

We pray for the millions of students who celebrate their graduations. May their learning enrich our world.

Lord, hear our prayer.

We pray for the the 66 Egyptian, French, and British passengers aboard EgyptAir flight MS804 between Paris and Cairo that crashed into the Mediterranean Sea near Greece. We pray for the victims’ families and the Greek and Egyptian armed forces involved in the recovery effort. May we have answers soon and reforms to prevent such crashes in the future.

Lord, hear our prayer.

We pray for the victims of terrorism throughout the world, including those in Baghdad, where in the past week more than 150 people have died in violence linked to the Islamic State. May people all over the world be able to shop, play, and attend school without fear.

Lord, hear our prayer.

We pray for the seven miners that have been rescued and for the two that remain trapped in a platinum mine in Rustenburg, South Africa. We pray for the people of Sri Lanka, where landslides have left 134 people unaccounted for and have displaced nearly 350,000 people; continued bad weather has hampered the army’s efforts to reach possible survivors. May the rescue teams find strength to complete their tasks and to save as many lives as possible.

Lord, hear our prayer.

We pray for parents: biological, adoptive, stepparents, grandparents, and all who provide care giving. May their children, our future, feel safe and loved.

Lord, hear our prayer.

We pray for reforms that promote equality and discourage discrimination against people because of their sexual orientation. We pray for The United Methodist Church as their quadrennial General Conference continues to debate, continuing for 40 years, the issues of human sexuality. We praise Seychelles’ parliament for decriminalizing homosexuality and Mexico’s president for proposing constitutional reform that would legalize same sex marriage throughout the country. May these actions broaden our understanding of those who love.

Lord, hear our prayer.

We pray for the hungry in Venezuela, where the president has declared a state of emergency. Venezuela has the world’s highest inflation rate at 180%. The country is experiencing shortages of basic goods as well as power outages due to the country’s economy being highly dependent on the export of oil, the price of which has more than halved in the past two years. May their political, social, and religious leaders work together to mitigate the effects of unrest.

Lord, hear our prayer.

We pray for mercy and grace towards immigrants, where political officials in Australia and the United States have discounted their value. May we broaden our understanding of those who live, work, and worship differently from us.

Lord, hear our prayer.

O Lord, may we feel the Holy Spirit in our daily lives—on planes, in markets, at school or work, within our homes—and may we love each other as your Son loved us. May we feel the peace he left with us. May we seek and find peace within each other. Amen.