Ethiopia

World News This Week in Prayer – Thursday, July 2, 2020

The World in Prayer team member who wrote this week’s prayers has spent the past 6 weeks catching, taming, and finding homes for a litter of feral kittens. It has, she says, definitely affected how she understands God, and how she prays for the world. “You’ll have to forgive me,” she writes, “if these prayers are rather – well – kitten-shaped.”

I. Courtship. They appeared in my yard, the terrified but oh-so-proud young mama cat, and her four just-starting-to-explore adorable kittens. Me, I spent long hours sitting absolutely still. Marveling. Waiting. For them to get used to my scent. For them to get used to my presence. For them to get used to my voice.

And I thought with awe – and wonder – and thanksgiving – about God. Our God, who loves us with such patient adoration. Waiting, for us to notice God with us. Waiting for us to abandon fear, for curiosity. Waiting for us to dare to approach. Waiting for us to dare to be loved.

Holy and loving God, we adore you and we praise you, because you love with infinite patience even those that the world despises, ignores, or rejects:

The Oromo – the largest ethnic group in Ethiopia, where unrest has spread after the death and funeral of 34-year-old singer Hachalu Hundessa. His songs advocating their rights have become anthems in a wave of protests in that country.
More than 40,000 impoverished people have been evicted from their homes since March in Somalia, Kenya, and Ethiopia, primarily in communities already displaced by violence, droughts, or floods.
Strawberry pickers brought from Morocco to Spain are not considered essential workers, and are not being provided even the most basic hygiene needed to protect them against the new coronavirus.
Sex workers in Thailand (more than 125,000 of them, from Myanmar, Laos, Cambodia and Vietnam), as well as in Bangladesh (an estimated 100,000) – have been jobless and facing abuse from their dissatisfied brokers since the coronavirus pandemic forced bars and other entertainment venues to close. For many, this illegal work is the only way they can survive and provide for their children.
According to the United Nations, the pandemic is reversing progress on ending child marriage and female genital mutilation (FGM). An additional 13 million girls could be married off and 2 million more could undergo FGM in the next decade, beyond what would have been expected.
Indigenous Amazon communities in Brazil, who have no immunity to external diseases and whose communal lifestyle rules out social distancing – and who are not receiving adequate help during the pandemic from the Brazilian government.

II. Trapping. I put out food. Each day, moving a little bit closer. Each day, with breath held, waiting for them to come eat. Then the food went into the cat carrier, and if they wanted it, they had to go inside. And then one day, while they were eating, I gently shut the door, and brought them inside my house.

And I prayed…for all who don’t know if a sweet enticement will turn out to be a trap or an opening to a world of joy. For all who are trapped. For all who are being freed. For all who hold open doors to new life.

Holy and gracious God, whose will it is always to bless, stretch out your protecting arms over:

Hong Kong, as China’s new “national security law” for Hong Kong takes effect, criminalizing what had been protected speech (i.e., the right to criticize the Chinese government), and allowing mainland Chinese security personnel to legally operate in Hong Kong with impunity.
The dead, the missing, and the grieving after a landslide at a jade mining site in northern Myanmar killed at least 162.
The United States, where there are way too many people who believe their right not to wear masks or take other public health precautions to prevent the spread of Covid-19 is more important than protecting one another; and many others who cannot understand that the best way to have a healthy economy is to have healthy population.
Scientists in Canada, South Africa, and Zimbabwe who are helping Botswana try to determine the cause of the “completely unprecedented” deaths of more than 350 elephants since May

III. Delight. As I had known they would, the kittens came to trust. They learned to play, to pounce, to wrestle. They discovered that being petted was Very Good, Very Very Good. The legs grew longer, and the purrs grew stronger, and my arms or my lap were usually filled with a cuddle puddle. They learned to ask – often way too loudly, and way too early in the morning – for the food and loving they craved.

And I heard God’s prayer for us: What would this world be like, if we could hold each other in patient love? If we could trust, without pushing, that just loving and waiting in love were enough to transform the world? What if we could love enough to truly hear one another, and to answer – even if it’s momentarily inconvenient – with infinitely deep love?

Holy and delighted God, smile with us in pleasure, as the restorative power of the Black Lives Matter movement spreads across the world:

In France, where the global anti-racism protests led the armed forces ministry to provide local authorities with a guide to 100 Africans who fought for France in World War II, so that streets may be named after them. Presenting the list, Junior Defense Minister Genevieve Darrieussecq said, “the names, faces, lives of these African heroes must become part of our lives as free citizens, because without them we would not be free.”
In the United Kingdom,where the Lloyd’s of London insurance market apologized for its “shameful” role in the 18th and 19th Century Atlantic slave trade, and pledged to fund opportunities for Black and ethnic minority people.
In Nigeria, where leaders of the Igbo people hope the BLM movement will inspire similar change for their people, many of whom are the descendants of slaves and still face significant discrimination.

IV. Setting free. The time came. I wish I could have kept them all. I wish I could have kept that wild, but maybe-just-beginning-to-trust mama cat, and taught her how to be loved. I fell in love with the kittens, and wished they could have stayed with me forever. But they were ready. Feral mama, still very wary, was spayed and went to live on a friend’s ranch, where she will be cherished and invited into as much love as she can accept. The kittens were chosen with love, and this weekend will be on their way to wonderful families.

And I heard again God’s prayer for us: that incredible, deep, wanting all to be well with us. With every single one of us. With every single fiber of this planet, of this universe. With every single nation. Filling us with love…and then sending us forth, in love, to be love.

Holy and amazing God, rejoice with us at every tiny sign that your love is at work in the world, that the Kingdom of God is indeed at hand:

From Kenya to Tanzania, Ethiopia to Malawi, Liberia to South Africa, tens of thousands of ordinary African women battle Covid-19 in their communities. Recruited and trained by governments and charities, the unsung army of mostly female and mostly unpaid community health workers are going door to door in remote villages and urban slums, talking about the virus, showing residents how to wash hands or don a mask, patiently answering their questions. Regardless of the risk to themselves. They do it in love.

And God said, go forth in love, to be love.
Amen.

World News in Prayer – Thursday, May 7, 2020

Creator, Redeemer, Sustainer,
we come to you in prayer today,
longing to see and sense your presence in these uncertain times.
We pray for your world,
as we seek to understand
and find a way to stop the spread of COVID-19.

Bring comfort to those who grieve,
remembering especially those in India who died
or are suffering due to the Styrene gas leak;
peace to those who are anxious,
caution to those who needlessly risk their health,
hope for all who are struggling
economically,
socially,
mentally,
physically,
and in any manner
because of this pandemic.

Lord of Lords, even as countries like
Peru, the US, and the UK
see a continued rise in cases,
other countries like
Germany, New Zealand and Australia
are lessening the restrictions on their residents.

Guide the leaders in government
and health officials
as they make exceedingly difficult decisions
in the days and weeks to come.

We give you thanks for the blessings we have seen,
for the rapid response of a lighting manufacturer
to create personal protective hoods for medical staff in Southampton, UK,
and offering the design free of charge online;
for time with family,
for the opportunity to reevaluate our choices
and how we allocate the precious resource of time.

We pray for the farmers and people of Africa, Healer of the World,
as they are experiencing a second,
larger surge of locusts.
As the insects rise to plague levels,
they are causing widespread destruction in
Kenya,
Yemen,
Somalia,
Ethiopia,
and other nearby countries.

In the United States we pray for justice
following the killing of Ahmaud Arbery,
a 25 year-old black man out for a run in his neighborhood.
May this tragedy bring a swift end
to the racism and discrimination
which plagues us all in every country of your world.

Also in the United States,
this weekend is a celebration of mothers
and mothering figures in our lives;
many students are completing their studies
under strange circumstances.

Therefore, O God, we offer these prayers:

We come to you today, O God,
honoring the mothers in our lives:
those who give us life,
who nurture us, care for us, love us and guide us.

We pray, Holy One, for women who can not,
or choose not to have children of their own,
women for whom this remembrance sparks pain, grief, and loss.

Comforter of the hurting, we pray for children
who have not known the love of a mother,
the nurture of a loving parent,
and women who have struggled to provide the care their children need.

God of the loving heart, we know
the care and love of mothering
extends beyond the boundaries of blood;
beyond the boundaries of biology;
beyond the boundaries of age;
beyond the boundaries of gender.

Your care and love, Eternal Giver of Life,
extends beyond the boundaries of space and time;
beyond the boundaries of creed and doctrine;
beyond all boundaries the human mind can imagine.

We join our hearts and minds in prayer,
Comfort of sufferers and Companion of the lonely,
seeking your peace and mercy,
your presence and comfort,
for those of us who grieve;
for the sick and hurting
and those who care for them;
for the poor and the oppressed,
and for the advocates who speak for them.

We celebrate with those who have recently or will soon graduate
from high-school, college, and all schools;
that they might feel you at work in their lives;
that they might stay safe
during this time of celebration;
that they might find joy in their future.

We pray for those for whom schooling is difficult,
who are working toward their GED or other exams;
who are struggling with trouble at home;
who must join the work-force too early just to survive.

Guide us, we pray, so that we may do your will,
today and every day.

Form us into a healthy, vital, growing followers of Jesus,
joined in purpose and vision;
united in our search for a deeper relationship with you,
Mighty God,
empowered by our salvation through Christ,
and guided by the presence of the Holy Spirit.

AMEN

World News This Week in Prayer – Thursday, 27 February 2020

Jesus is a rock in a weary land,
A weary land, a weary land;
My Jesus is a rock in a weary land,
A shelter in the time of storm.
African American spiritual

God of forgiveness and mercy, God of grace and truth, we enter this season of Lent with both gratitude and trepidation. Evidence of your reign often seems so sparse that we can barely see it in light of the pain and suffering all around us. And yet, just as we move through this forty days with the knowledge that Easter awaits us on the far side of Good Friday, so too your strength bolsters us to move through this life so surrounded by death with eyes keen for glimpses of the longed-for resurrection.

Even as stock markets fall across the world, we see hope grown in the changes to the government and economy in Ethiopia that allow Ethiopians who have been living in diaspora to return home and open new businesses.

Even as panic and fear spread along with the COVID-19 coronavirus, we see faith grow in the creative ways quarantined people in China are working to connect to each other, like gyms that now offer online workout classes to their members to keep them busy and active during the quarantines.

Even as political unrest increases around the world in places like Haiti and India, we see love grow in big and small ways every day, like for the Rhode Island, USA, toddler who hugged the pizza delivery man, not knowing that the man, who had recently lost his teenage daughter, deeply appreciated the small gesture of thanks and connection.

Help us, O God, to be always aware of your presence. Fill our hearts with longing for you so that, throughout this time of repentance and contemplation, our hope, faith, and love might grow to reflect who you are and who you call us to be. In our waking and in our sleeping, in our stillness and in our movement, make us ever more hopeful, faithful, and loving, so that the world might see the good news of the resurrection and bring glory to you alone.

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 This Week in Prayer – January 2, 2020

Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above.
James 1:17

Oh Lord, there are many things that concern us and call us to prayer.

We open our hearts to you in gratitude and wonder.

We pray for those who rage and are quick to anger, for those who seem to be eaten up by intolerance. We pray for those who express their contempt and fury in violence to themselves and others. We grieve at those who have lost their lives to aggression due to fighting, war, criminal violence, and terrorism. We call out the names of nations so rife with conflict, so often in the news — Afghanistan, Mexico, Yemen, Syria, Iraq, Nigeria, Somalia, Saudi Arabia, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Mali, South Sudan, India, Cameroon, Ethiopia, Central African Republic, Pakistan, and the Philippines. We call out the nations that make the weapons of war that fuel decades-long conflict and destruction: US, Russia, France, Germany, Spain, South Korea, China, the United Kingdom, Israel, Italy, and the Netherlands and many more. Help us to see beyond the headlines to stand up for the women and children, the families, the victims, those starving and displaced. We call out for your mercy. Safeguard the journalists who bring the news, relate the stories of the imprisoned, the refugee, those made invisible by war, bigotry, and hatred. Safeguard the whistleblowers. Sustain us as we examine our own hearts, shed our own contempt and learn the practice of peacemaking in our homes and communities.

This season can be a time of anxiety as well as anticipation. We can sense tension and disharmony instead of peace. Many feel depression and despair instead of wellbeing and belonging. Help us to understand and accept those who suffer in mind, body, and spirit. They may be close or far away. Help us to learn compassion and to practice generosity, consideration, kindness and mutual regard. We pray for those who are without homes, who are estranged from their families who feel alone and isolated. May we grow in our practice of charity and give beyond counting. Guide each of us to do the right thing in our own special way for the need is great.

As the past year turns into this new decade in the tumultuous millennium help us to shed despair and the sense of heaviness that the need is unending and insurmountable. Sustain us with the words of healing. May we be reminded that around the world literacy is increasing, childhood deaths are declining and people are being lifted out of deep poverty as never before known.

May the hope born in Advent light the way through the minutes, hours, days and months to come.

May your love-come-down-among-us strengthen and steady our steps, telling us that we are not alone.

Amen.

World News This Week in Prayer – Thursday, 21 November 2019

Ever-present God,
as we come to the end of another liturgical year,
we remember and celebrate the present and coming kingship of Christ.

We anticipate the coming day
when the prophetic words of scripture are fulfilled
and we work, diligently,
to co-create a world where all people are loved and respected.

Yet, we are perplexed by the struggles,
the incongruity, the brokenness,
which is so virulent and rampant in the world.

It seems the stories of pain, violence, and despair
extend from the walls of our own homes
and into every corner of the world.

Our hearts break at the news of yet more shootings in the United States
in Santa Clarita, Fresno, Duncan, and other towns.

We are shocked to hear of 25 people discovered hidden on a ferry bound for the United Kingdom.

We are saddened to hear of the death of Boglaetch Gebre,
a renowned Ethiopian Women’s Rights Activist
who sought to end the practice of genital mutilation.

Our breath catches in our throats at the news
of the highest deforestation rate in a decade in the Amazon
with an increase of 29.5% over last year.

Uncertainty swirls in the aftermath
of protests-turned-violent in China at
Hong Kong Polytechnic University.

Fear rises with the death toll in Bolivia
following a contested election in October.

And many more personal griefs and fears:
friends undergoing amputations and broken limbs,
neighbors facing financial and legal trouble,
colleagues who do not see a way to retire with grace.

The fear, grief, and pain can feel insurmountable.

Yet, if we have the eyes to see
and the ears to hear,
there is hope on the horizon.

Infants are welcomed into the world,
bringing hope and change.

US citizen Kevin King and Australian citizen Timothy Weeks
were released by the Taliban after being held for three years.

France returned the sword of Omar Saidou Tall,
a west African ruler who led an anti-colonial struggle against the French in the 1850s,
to Senegal’s President Macky Sall.

Open our eyes,
Ruler of All,
so that we might see and sense your presence,
in the midst of grief and pain,
AND in the middle of joy and celebration.

Empower us,
Holy One,
to work for the wholeness and healing you promise,
as we proclaim the reign
of your son and our savior,
Jesus Christ.

In whose name we pray,
Amen.

World News This Week in Prayer – Thursday, March 14, 2019

[God] brought [Abram] outside and said, “Look toward heaven and count the stars, if you are able to count them.” Then he said to him, “So shall your descendants be.” ~ Genesis 15:5

God of abundance, we know that you are able to do immeasurably more than we can ask or imagine, and yet our prayers are limited by the boundaries of our human imagination. We pray for small mercies when you offer overflowing grace. We ask for minor alleviation of suffering when you offer true justice. We meekly request a reduction in violence when you offer universal and eternal peace. Help us to put our trust in you so that the shaping of our world might be guided by your wisdom and your love rather than our own limited human perspective. Make us bold to pray that your will be done in all ways and in all places in all of your creation:

Workers race to rescue school children trapped in the rubble of a collapsed building in Lagos, Nigeria, and the community of Suzano in Brazil mourns the loss and grief caused by a shooting in a local school. All 157 passengers and crew sadly lost their lives after a Boeing crashed just after take-off in Ethiopia and the death toll rises in heavy rains and flooding in Malawi. In the face of such tragedy, we pray for small signs of hope and individual miracles, forgetting that you are able to transform our world so that suffering and fear and hate of all kinds might cease. May your will be done so that grace and love might abound in our world.

The governor of California, USA, has placed a temporary halt on death penalty executions, and Cardinal George Pell has been sentenced to jail for sexual abuse crimes in Australia, but we fail to see a path toward true righteousness in our social systems and in our institutions. May your will be done so that your justice might guide us in our community relationships.

Investigators have found evidence of extreme ethnic violence in DR Congo, the world watches as North Korea once again represents a threat through their construction of rocket-launching facilities, and we watch and despair as persistent clashes continue to kill soldiers and innocents in Yemen and Afghanistan. Our prayers so often are limited to asking for an end to violence, but your vision for the world is one of peace beyond anything we can imagine. May your will be done so that your shalom of safety, peace, and unity might prevail.
A white supremacist attacked two mosques in Christchurch, New Zealand, killing 49. Live videos of the horrendous gun slaughter were aired around the world on social media. We wonder how many vicariously enjoyed the violence, how many want to imitate, how many deepened their commitment to prevent it. Even as our hearts break with those who have lost their loved ones, even as we pray, we wonder how a good God could fail, over and over, to stop this horror. May your will be done, so we can join you in bringing peace out of darkness, new life out of death, compassion out of bigotry.

Like Abram, O God, we question your promises, wondering if the coming of your kingdom is even possible. Give us the faith to follow you and trust in your covenant with us. Despite all obstacles, fill us with your vision of how the world ought to be so that we might be bearers of hope and small glimpses of that which is to come. As Abram prayed for a son but learned that your promises would exceed his imagination, so too may we learn to pray beyond our wildest dreams so that we can participate in the depth and truth of your plans for all of us and for all of creation. Amen.

World News This Week in Prayer – Thursday, November 29, 2018

Holy One,

When what we have is yours and what we receive is a gift from you, we offer up our words of prayer in the knowledge that you are the Word from whom all our prayers flow. We pray with grief for the things that have broken your heart; we pray with joy for the things that have made you dance.

We pray with awareness that we cannot fix the world, but, instead, we can learn to see and taste and touch and know this world as your Creation. In this time and space, we try to take our next step of faith and in so doing, we hope to discover you.

We pray for that which fills us with grief: the devastation from wildfires in California (USA); the violence inflicted on asylum-seekers at the Mexico-United States border; the ongoing conflicts in Yemen; the cruel treatment of the Rohyinga in Myanmar; all who care for someone who struggles with addiction and mental illness; all who wait and watch and weep at the bedsides of loved ones this week.

We pray for that which fills us with fear: the unfolding havoc of climate change around the world; the flaring tensions between Ukraine and Russia; the continued fallout from the murder of Saudi journalist Khashoggi; the precariousness of a Brexit deal; the rise of raging, hate-filled political rhetoric in countries near and far from us.

We pray for that which gives us strength: the compassion of strangers who care for migrants in the Mediterranean and in Central America; the rise of women leaders in Ethiopia; the energy of students who fight gun violence in the United States; those who believe we belong to each other; those who live as if we belong to you.

Lord, teach us how to love what you love. Show us how to nurture what you nurture. Reveal to us how to speak your Word, today and in the days to come.

Amen.

World News This Week in Prayer – Thursday, 1 November 2018

Then the angel showed me the river of the water of life, as clear as crystal, flowing from the throne of God and of the Lamb down the middle of the great street of the city. On each side of the river stood the tree of life, bearing twelve crops of fruit, yielding its fruit every month. And the leaves of the tree are for the healing of the nations. Revelation 22:1-2

And wherever the river goes, every living creature that swarms will live, and there will be very many fish. For this water goes there, that the waters of the sea may become fresh; so everything will live where the river goes. Ezekiel 47:9

Dear God our Creator and Redeemer,

Help us to live in awe in this world, this day and in this moment. Help us to understand with new eyes how you spoke the world into being and as it unfolds, even now, in this season, as wind and water move over earth. Help us to hold sacred the lands. Are we stewards or despoilers? Help us to understand how you restore and renew the world. Help us to see your grace at work. We read of TheKofan people of Sinangoe in the Amazonwhoprotecting more than 79,000 acres of primary rainforest in their ancestral homeland in Ecuador. Theyhave won a landmark legal battle to defend one of its’ largest and most important rivers from mining claims.

And when will peace come like fresh water flowing through the many rivers of Ethiopia where 1.4 million of its 100 million people are displaced? Help us to hear Ambassador Shalework Zewde’s words, “When there is no peace in country, mothers will be frustrated. Therefore, we need to work on peace for the sake of our mothers.” Help us to see your grace at work as the two Houses elected their first female head of state. Sustain this ancient land, stop the bloodshed and renew its peoples.

Be with the people and lawmakers of Sri Lanka, Germany and Brazil as leadership is changing and uncertainty grows.

And when will peace like the rains that come to Gaza in winter bring reconciliation and an end to the bloodshed and deprivation for the near 2 million Palestinians? We mourn for the 210 killed and more than 18,000 wounded in the past 6 months during the weekly Friday protests along the Israeli border. We pray for the brokering by Egypt for peace as refugees live with undrinkable tap water and only a few hours of electricity a day. Only your mercy can cause these and other injustices to fall away. In these days and weeks to come may your truth be known and received.

We watch and pray as the United States government has been ordered by the International Court of Justice in the Hague, Netherlands to halt sanctions that it had placed on the exporting to Iran of medicine and medical devices such as incubators, food and agricultural commodities such as wheat and spare parts and equipment necessary to ensure the safety of civil aviation. Open our eyes and hearts. Help us to bend and bow to your commandment: to love you and to love one another.

Awaken us from the suffering and deep misery, the horrible loss of opioid addiction and death so prominent in both the United States and Canada. We pray that the US legislation signed into law this week known as the Substance Use-Disorder Prevention that Promotes Opioid Recovery and Treatment (SUPPORT) for Patients and Communities Act will indeed work swiftly, prioritizing children, adolescents, and families as this public health crisis continues to unfold. We call on the Holy Spirit to guide our discerning as neighborhoods, towns, schools and workplaces find new resources to turn around this epidemic. We lift the tens of thousands who have experienced loss of loved ones. Lord have mercy.

Shed your mercy on the grieving families and their community in Louisville, Kentucky, United States as an attempted break-in at a church and murder of two people raises the alarm of violence so often fueled by hate. Forgive us for our sins Lord.

We weep, we grieve, we shake our heads and we come together once again. The world watches as a young man’s ashes are laid to rest twenty years after a hate crime ended his life. Again we despair, we groan and grieve as eleven worshipers at The Tree of Life Synagogue in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, USA are murdered and six are injured. Guide us in these dark days where fear and hatred seem so common. Will this violence end? Help us to continue our resolve for peace making amid such hate and deadly force. In this time of mourning may we comfort each other as you have comforted us. In the days to follow may we commit to the words of Micah, “He has showed you, O man, what is good. And what does the LORD require of you? To act justly and to love mercy and to walk humbly with your God.” Help us to take those steps no matter how hard it seems and how impossible the way.

And as this day becomes night let us remember your tender power amidst all the little things: the birds in migration, the little ones yet to be reunited with their families, the least of these, the forgotten, the unnamed, the isolated and imprisoned, those on the road and in hiding, the many suffering – we pray for these and call to You. Hear our prayers.

Amen.

World News This Week in Prayer – Thursday, March 1, 2018

Holy One,

You are a God of Might and Majesty, Tenderness and Vulnerability. You are the one who casts stars into the heavens and who brings forth the first green shoots from the fertile ground.

All of Creation cannot hold your glory; and yet you cradle us in gentle wings of mercy. All this is too wonderful to understand, too marvelous to quantify.

Cradle the prayers we offer up, for ourselves and for the world.

Cradle your children in Europe, who are caught in the snows without shelter or heat. Equip governments to be responsive and citizens to be patient and compassionate.

Cradle the families of those who have died in the Turkish forces in northern Syria, as well as those who have died around Damascus. Break the stranglehold that violence has upon the region. Shatter the shackles of terror that imprison the hearts of those officials who wield weapons against citizens.

Cradle the students and families of Stoneman Douglas High School (Florida, United States) as they return to classes this week. Guide teachers, parents, and administrators to care for these young people. Give political leaders the power and courage to stand up for these students, even if it means standing against special interests and money.

Cradle the citizens involved in tenuous political processes in places like Venezuela, where the presidential election has been postponed, and China, where presidential term limits were abolished. Give those who dissent protection and perseverance to work for their sense of justice. Give those in power the wisdom and imagination to listen to the voice of citizens.

Cradle the citizens of Ethiopia, which has just declared a state of emergency. When no leaders or answers emerge, reveal what new plan, what next step you have for those with power and commitment to the welfare of the country.

All of these prayers we offer up because you want to hear them. All of these words we offer up, because you invite us to share the deepest joys and concerns of our hearts. All of ourselves we offer up, because you are the Lord Almighty, who treasures the smallest sparrow and lily.

We give thanks to you.

Amen.