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World News This Week in Prayer – Thursday, March 4, 2021

As most of you know, World in Prayer is written by a team whose members take turns writing the prayers. And I, who am writing this week – I ran out of words a long time ago. Trapped in what seemed like near-isolation by the pandemic; anguished by its resulting ever-growing number of deaths and illnesses, poverty, homelessness, job loss and starvation; drained by the constant threats to human rights throughout the world, I ran out of words in which pray.

A nature photographer by avocation, I fled, desperate for the solace of distraction, to spend long hours in solitude at nearby wildlife refuges. For long months, it felt as if I’d lost the ability to pray. It took even longer for me to realize that the images seared into my mind and camera, of sunsets and migrating waterfowl, winter-bare trees and the early hints of spring, had been heart-felt prayers for the world all along.

As the sun sets, the sandhill cranes return from foraging in the fields to settle in quiet shallow ponds where they will be safe from night predators.

Holy one, your glory shines forth in the sunset and the sunrise. Open our eyes, that we will see with awe every person, every place we encounter each day; that we may find safe places to rest, and healing for our hearts. Fill us with joy – joy such as imbues the viral video of Gurdeep Pandher of Yukon, Canada,  who was so happy to get his Covid-19 vaccination that he went to a frozen lake to dance Bhangra on it “for joy, hope and positivity, which I’m forwarding … for everyone’s health and wellbeing.” May we all dance with such joyous abandon!

When the leaves are gone, all you can see are the bare bones – and strength.

The Covid-19 pandemic has stripped away so much that we thought we needed, O God. It has brought us back to the realization that family, community, connections between one another, the basics of touch and hugging and face-to-face communication – those are our roots and our strength. Bring us back together, across borders, languages and economic divides. As more vaccines are approved and enter production and distribution, please, dear God, hasten the day when we can share birthdays and weddings, comfort the ill, grieve together with the dying, take comfort in common worship, and rejoice in common meals. As the pandemic eases, let us not forget our roots. Hold us fast, above all, to love.

Thousands of geese migrate through and over-winter in Central California.

What can we learn from your geese, O God? They cover the fields, nibbling and gossiping. Then one, then another, leaps into the air. At first small clumps, then with a rush, nearly all take off, milling uncertainly in the air until one takes the lead and they head out in the classic “V” formation. Watch closely, and you’ll see that it is not a single leader who leads the group the whole way, but rather an intricate weaving that moves the birds from one position to another, so that none get overtired, and the whole flock is preserved. How do they know whether the first to take flight is foolhardy or wise, and whether the few that remain behind are greedy for one last bite, or accurately discerning that there was no real danger in the first place? How do they know when it’s time to move on, and where to go next?

Guide us wisely, as leaders and as followers, and as we move back and forth between those roles. Enable us to put the needs of the human “flock” above our own desires and inclinations, and the wisdom to choose leaders who will do the same. Grant us the courage to change, when change is needed, to stand up against oppression when endangered, to maintain that which is good – no matter the pressures against us. Inspire us to take our turn, to share in the responsibilities, of weaving our communities together. Especially this week, we pray for:

  • El Salvador, after this past Monday’s legislative elections. President Nayib Bukele’s Nuevas Ideas party appears to have achieved the 2/3rds majority needed to pass laws, appoint the next attorney general and members of the supreme court. Although his promises to the nation were popular, this would eliminate all checks and balances over his power, and observers warn of the possibility of the country becoming an authoritative dictatorship.
  • United States, as many leaders in the Republican party continue to spread the lie that the election was stolen from former President Trump, and appear more determined to consolidate power than to work for policies that polls show are highly popular among their own constituents.
  • The many countries that consistently block internet access during protests or elections – thereby also blocking millions of people from working, studying, accessing health care, getting vital information about the pandemic, or buying essential goods or making payments. Among the worst offenders in 2020, according to a report just released by Access Now, were India, Yemen, Belarus, Myanmar, and Bangladesh.

Help us to know when to wait, when to rise, whom to follow, and where You are calling us to go. Help us to be the flock you are calling us to be.

So many different species sharing a narrow spit of land!

Dearest One, you give us so many models of different species existing cooperatively together. A raft of many kinds of waterfowl. A stream where egrets, herons and sandhill cranes are fishing scant feet from one another. A utility pole with hawk eating its noonday frog – while smaller birds crowd the wires to and from the pole. How can we not pray for our lives to be rebuilt to make gracious space for all your people?

  • In Afghanistan, talks resumed this week between the Taliban and the government, with the Taliban maintaining that they want a political resolution and denying responsibility for the increasing spate of targeted assassinations of judges, journalists and activists.
  • In response to escalating allegations of human rights violations against Uighurs being detained in Xinjiang camps, the Chinese government is mounting a public relations campaign to discredit the female witnesses.
  • Before the pandemic started, Thailand had millions of migrants from Myanmar and Cambodia, who were the primary breadwinners for their families back home and who worked in areas as diverse as manufacturing, agriculture, and domestic work. Many are now stranded, unemployed and penniless; unable to find jobs in either their native lands or in Thailand.
  • As part of its efforts to wind down a Trump-era policy that required asylum-seekers to remain in Mexico while waiting for their U.S. immigration court hearings, the Biden administration on Friday admitted the first group of 25 migrants. The group included people from Honduras, Peru, Nicaragua, Guatemala and Cuba. Plans call for the pace to increase next week to up to 300 people per day. Instead of being held in detention centers, the migrants will be referred to local shelters and groups like Jewish Family Service for temporary housing during their Covid-19 quarantine period, before being released to join family or friends elsewhere in the U.S.

God, you have given us a vision of the human family, your beloved family, all gladly living side-by-side. Yet the logistics of finding enough shelter, jobs, and resources are daunting. Give us a vision of those details, too! Make it possible for every single human being to have a place to call home.

I was expecting to watch birds, when a river otter delighted me by climbing onto the bank and taking an ecstatic and wriggly mud bath.

Surprise us, O God, by your presence when we least expect it. Surprise us with more stories like those of 32-year-old Yenenesh Tilahun, who opened a beauty salon in the largest red-light district of Addis Ababa, the capital of Ethiopia – to aid sex workers who would not seek other help out of shame. But while styling their hair, they talk, and she has been able to keep many from being trafficked, while providing practical help and guidance to others.

Surprise us, O God, by your presence in those who care and help, who honor us with their stories, who walk beside us. Surprise us by your presence in those who mourn, and in those who dance with joy. Delight us, O God, in your ecstatic and wriggly presence.

Almost buried amid the rapidly growing spring grass, the tiny flowers were less than 1/2″ each.

Dearest One, it’s so easy to forget how much we need one another, to forget that the flowers need the bee every bit as much as the bee needs the flowers. And yet, as winter turns to spring, we take hope. We take hope as we hear that the research the led to the Covid-19 vaccines has also pointed the way to a promising malaria vaccine – the first in the world. We take hope as we learn that the state of Kerala, India, has started a program to install solar panels on 75,000 homes, in a way that will make them affordable for even the most impoverished. We take hope when we read about coffee farmers’ cooperatives in Nicaragua that are taking the lead in helping the farmers diversify, reforest, and improve the soil in response to the 2020 hurricanes that destroyed 10-40% of the coffee crop.

We take hope at the news that African countries have committed to restoring 250 million acres of degraded soil – an area the size of Egypt – by 2030. And that international investors have committed over $14 billion to restore the Sahel. In Niger and Burkina Faso alone, thousands of farms have regreened more than 12.5 million acres.

We take hope from the many across the world who are committed to making sure that the lessons of this pandemic do not go to waste. That inequities and injustices in health care, infrastructure, education and economies revealed by the crisis do not get swept under the rug again. That we remember that issues that we had long thought to be insoluble, in light of the urgency of the pandemic have already proven to be both immediately necessary and thoroughly possible.

Dearest One, we take hope from the lessons of the tiny flowers and the bee, the sunset and the still pool of water, the barren tree, the soaring geese, the resting ducks, and the unexpected otter. You are our teacher, our strength, our guide, our hope.

Blessed be your name, forever and ever.
Amen.

Filed Under: Weekly Prayers

World News This Week in Prayer – February 18, 2021

I have decided to stick with love… Hate is too great a burden to bear.  Martin Luther King

Oh Lord, your house is built with understanding and compassion – it is our quiet center.  If only we could grasp its power. In small agitations and overwhelming calamities, during times of lament and great injustices help us to turn toward Love.

We pray for the people of Myanmar as the military coup places tanks in the major cities shutting down free speech and the internet. We see photos of monks wearing surgical masks, silently holding signs. The world is watching as journalists are incarcerated and the State Counselor and Foreign Minister Aung San Suu Kyi is held incommunicado. We continue to pray for the Rohingya people who have suffered genocide, displacement, and many horrors. Help us to stick with love.

Create in us a yearning for justice as we read and watch and digest the impeachment trial proceedings and their conclusion in the United States this past weekend. Help us to understand the power of our words. We continue to pray for the police officers who defended the US capitol at great cost. Support their families and communities as we continue to discern what happened.

We hear of heightened extrajudicial killings taking place in the Philippines during the pandemic as reported by Human Rights Watch. We pray for our elected leaders around the world.

The U.S.A. news heralds the release of Joe Ligon, 82-years old, sentenced as a juvenile in 1953 at the age of 15 to life imprisonment. “I like to be free,” he said. His attorney worked for his full release without parole after serving 68 years. Lord we ask you to protect those who defend justice. Walk with those who transition from incarceration to community. Sustain those who prepare the way of re-entry with compassion and forethought. Protect our children of color. Help us to dismantle racism and white supremacy that is pervasive in our institutions and world. Open our eyes to the over 2,121,600 men, women and youth imprisoned in the USA – the highest in the world.[i]

Lord you witness families, states and countries divided even as a pandemic ravages and has killed 2,418,543 people[ii] across 192 nations. How much suffering can we endured? We see persons of color, women as essential workers, the impoverished, those with disabilities and the imprisoned carrying a disproportionate burden. We pray especially for the people and healthcare workers of Mexico and Yemen where the death per case diagnosed with COVID-19 ratios are the highest in the world.

Sometimes it feels like we are in this alone, powerless, cowering in some place without direction. In these moments bring your understanding. Forgive us for the things we should have done, might have done, the “if only” we toss about. Help us to consider the times when we remained silent, the places in our heart where we indeed nurtured hatred. Justice is hard work, awkward and sometimes painful. We stray, we recommit, we reconsider, we vow. It does feel like sacrifice. We feel the pressure of time. We ask ourselves how long? Return us to the quiet center that we may discern your will to work among the most vulnerable and those that need our collective voice in the world.

We are glad of heart as the Great Backyard Bird Count took place this past weekend around the world. We observe the ancient great migrations, journeys that transcend borders and boundaries and hemispheres! We take delight in our bird feeders, yet we are witnessing extinctions, habitat destruction, and the attack of the Migratory Bird Treaty Act itself.

As we entered Lent in worship on this past Ash Wednesday, we are reminded of our physical needs our need for heat and electricity, shelter and food, safety and access to rescue services. We are reminded of our vulnerabilities in conflict, pandemic, and climate disruption. And we are so very aware of how much we have lost this past year, given up, or had taken away from us — Lord have mercy. We are also compelled to look at what we cling to needlessly, harbor at great cost and burden. Help us, Dear God, to let go of what is no longer of use to us, to hold close the treasure of one another, and in all things to stick with love.

Amen.

[i] https://www.statista.com/statistics/262961/countries-with-the-most-prisoners/
[ii] https://coronavirus.jhu.edu/map.html

Filed Under: Weekly Prayers

World News This Week in Prayer – Thursday, 7 January 2021

Editor’s note:  World In Prayer needs a few more writers and editors!  Our team consists of 12-15 volunteers, from several different countries and continents. Each week, one person writes the prayers in response to international news. A second person then edits and posts the prayers online.  Because we rotate who writes and edits, you would end up serving approximately once every five or six weeks.

Due to life changes, some of our team members need to cut back. So, we’re looking for people who deeply care about our world, see God’s hand at work throughout all creation and all persons, and are inspired to help write and produce these prayers.  If you are interested, please send an email to worldinprayer@aol.com.

 

 

Though I may speak with bravest fire,
And have the gift to all inspire,
And have not love; my words are vain;
as sounding brass, and hopeless gain.

 Though I may give all I possess,
And striving so my love profess,
But not be giv’n by love within,
The profit soon turns strangely thin. [i]

Our shining Child,
Out of the Nativity you call to all nations, all peoples.

Yet nations build walls, lay mines and militarize their borders. Watchtowers are built and billions in electronic surveillance deployed. O little town of Bethlehem, a beloved carol, is today a town suffering, partitioned.  Help us to reconcile these injustices as land is taken, houses destroyed and people’s movement severely restricted. Walls comprise a growing Border Industrial Complex in 2021. We pray for the peoples in Israel where six walls exist; in Morocco, Iran and India each having three walls; South Africa, Saudi Arabia, United Arab Emirates, Jordan, Turkey, Turkmenistan, Kazakhstan, Hungary and Lithuania each with two walls, and all countries who violate human rights in this new and growing apartheid.[ii] We pray mightily for the peoples of Syria nearly surrounded as five nations have put up walls for a people utterly displaced and ravaged. Lord have mercy. Christ have mercy.

We pray for those who seek asylum and are “neither here, nor there.” We pray for those who have traveled unbelievable distances and through unimaginable harms to be turned away, silenced, detained and imprisoned. Be with us in this complex suffering. It feels so upside down.  We pray for those from Honduras, Guatemala, and El Salvador the so called Northern Triangle where so many have fled due to record levels of violence, torture and death. Our spirits long as we hear how severe the terror must be for parents to send their children alone to flee.[iii] They cross into Mexico and the US. We pray for the Rohingya in Myanmar escaping genocide and now displaced in Bangladesh. Guard them. Sustain them. We pray for the leaders in all of these countries.

We pray for those who grow, harvest and transport food that we may take for granted in these times where shelves are stocked and gas seems plenty, … and in these same times where COVID and famine and war keep house together in Yemen[iv] and now South Sudan, Burkina Faso and northeastern Nigeria, and where 16 other countries are entering famine where children are the first to silently suffer and die. Though I may give all I possess.

We pray where reports of war, political instability, civil war, humanitarian strife and years of occupation are endured. We call out in prayer for peace in Syria, Yemen, Afghanistan, Iraq, South Sudan, Somalia, Venezuela, Mali, Lebanon, Democratic Republic of Congo, Central Republic of Congo, the US and Iran relations, the India and Pakistan conflict, North Korea, between Israel and Palestine, the terrorizing by the Boko Haram in Nigeria, the criminal violence in Mexico, the enmity of Turkey and Kurdish troops, Egypt, and Ukraine.  Lord have mercy.

The news of the world is on our radios, TV, laptops, phones, newspapers and word of mouth. We hear of protests in streets. We hear of the breaking of curfews and mass gatherings as during a rave in France.  We hear of rage and violence in the US, including the shocking invasion of the US Capitol by reactionary factions, who have been goaded on for months by the words of elected officials.  Help us to remember and live out the truth that, in the words of U.S. Senate Chaplain Barry C. Black, “…words matter, and the power of life and death is in the tongue.” The news tolls of the police shooting of Andre Hill in Columbus, Ohio, USA as Casey Goodson, Jr. was being laid to rest after a sheriff’s deputy shot and killed him at the doorstep of his Columbus home earlier this month. We grieve and are angered, we march, we lay flowers and light candles.  Help us to discern right action lest – My words are vain; as sounding brass.

The news tolls the deaths from COVID19, the overflow in hospitals, surge upon surge. We pray for the teams that know no border at the bedside, vaccine clinic, lab or as first responders. We are hopeful for the multitude of COVID vaccines coming to communities. We call for equity in vaccine distribution as developing nations manifest such a great need. May the wealthy countries dig deeper to stave off further crisis. Unify us in this time of horrendous loss of life and the devastation that has reached in some way into each of our homes and neighborhoods and circles the globe. Protect those in severe economic insecurity from further debt and eviction.  Help us to universalize health care access. We pray in gratitude as increased access to women’s health care in Argentina is manifested. Comfort the grieving in every nation, in every town and village. Our spirits long.

We pray for the journalist teams that film, write and publish with risk of death as they give voice and document the injustices around the world. Help us to listen as they lift these tentative voices to the world’s stage.  Help each of us to find our voice, and remind those of us with public platforms of our deep responsibility to speak the truth in love. Magnify the Good News. May it stream through all of these spaces – guide every deed.

Help us to honor the multitude of indigenous peoples[v] who keep the land and guard it’s teachings. We pray that the pressures of extraction that degrade rivers, displace tribes and communities, and cultivate institutional racism can be acknowledged for what they are – social and environmental and climate injustices – as they have been through the ages.  The marginalized are among us and in the news daily. These transgressions trample our relationship to you, your kin-dom, and all of creation. Help us to hear and heed their warnings. Repair these wrongs. Reconcile us to right action. Come spirit.

Bring us to a new accounting and clarity in these opening days of 2021.  Forgive us for the deeds done that cannot be undone, the sins and trespasses and willfulness that did not serve. Open our hearts to inward love, to one and other, nation-to-nation in a new way – in the Good News you gave to the world–of Christ’s birth, his baptism, journey to the cross and resurrection. Help us to forgive one another as we are sheltered and made whole by this great love. Help us to repair, restore and amend what is ours to do. Lord in your great compassion hear us.

Come, spirit, come, our hearts control,
Our spirits long to be made whole,
Let inward love guide every deed;
By this we worship and are freed.[vi]

Amen.

 

[i] Words: Hal Hopson, based on 1 Corinthians 13. Music based on an English Folk Tune Copyright 1972 by Hope Publishing Company, Carol Stream, Il. 60188. All Rights Reserved.

[ii] https://www.tni.org/en/walledworld

[iii] https://www.wola.org/analysis/children-fleeing-violence-central-america-face-dangers-mexico/

[iv] https://www.nytimes.com/2021/01/02/opinion/sunday/2020-worst-year-famine.html

[v] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_indigenous_peoples

[vi] Hopson

Filed Under: Weekly Prayers

World News This Week in Prayer – Thursday, September 24, 2020

God of Our Ancestors,

Since before we were born, you have knit your people into a great reimagining of purpose and life. You call us by your mercy and claim us with your truth. Even in these days of protest and pandemic, show us what it means that you are the Creator, Christ, and Comforter. Show us how to believe that you have made each of us in your image. Show us what it means that even now, your kingdom is breaking into the world. Even in these days, show us how to sing and praise and pray to you.

Lord, in your mercy, hear our prayers.

God of Our Present,

In Christ, we recognize our reality as people called to join you in the journey. Teach us how to follow you. Make yourself known to us. Make yourself known to those fighting and fleeing wildfires on the West Coast of the United States, as well as those who are living with the aftermath of devastating flames and red skies of smoke. Make yourself known to those grappling with COVID-19, whether they are at home or in hospital beds, prison cells or nursing homes, science labs or health institutes or non-profit organizations. We give you thanks for those within the African Union, New Zealand, and other regions where communities are collectively, compassionately working so well to contain and curtain the virus in their midst. We pray for guidance for those in the United States, India, Brazil, and Mexico, as they all grapple with severely high mortality rates. This week our heart breaks as the United States pass 200,000 dead. This week also we lift up the family and colleagues of Justice Ruth Bader Ginsberg, after her death in Washington, DC, last week. Shower mercy upon all those who grieve. Be with us in our present moments. Reveal yourself in ways that we might taste and touch and see and hear and know, deep within our flesh and bones.

Lord, in your mercy, hear our prayers.

God of Descendants,

Your story does not begin and end with us. You who loved our ancestors are also preparing the way for our children. Nurture the lives of all young people around the world who are living with the uncertainty of economic prospects, the stress of climate change, the unanswered questions around truths of human dignity. Bring forth in them a new energy for purpose-seeking, meaning-making, and community action, as they lead us forward into the future.

Lord, in your mercy, hear our prayers.

God of Our Every Ending and Beginning,

We pray these things because you have come among us, as human, as Word Made Flesh, as God with us. In Christ, we have been shown the kindness of your touch, the fierceness of your grace, the perseverance of your covenant, the power of your peace. How glorious it is to rise in your grace, to pray in your name, to rest in your Spirit. Thanks be to you, Triune God.

Amen. 

Filed Under: Weekly Prayers

World News This Week in Prayer – Thursday, July 16, 2020

This week’s prayer contains excerpts from The [Episcopal] Book of Common Prayer.

Lord God, today we gather in Your name, though most of us not in the indoor spaces that have come to symbolize gathering spaces for those seeking truth, justice, and faith. Many of us struggle to feel the sacred or even simple connection through a computer screen. And yet, here we are, gathering and struggling and trying to find holiness. Give grace to your servants, O Lord.

Almighty God, you proclaim your truth in every age by many voices: Direct those who speak where many listen and write what many read, that they may do their part in making the heart of this people wise, its mind sound, and its will righteous. Give grace to your servants, O Lord.

O Lord, we pray for the countries where COVID-19 cases are increasing, notably the United States, India, Mexico, South Africa, Colombia, Argentina, Iraq, Indonesia, and Oman. (Click on the link above, then scroll down below the map to see the statistics for each country, and, if you wish, to pray by name for every country currently being affected by the virus.) Give grace to your servants, O Lord.

Mother God, we come to you full of grief. We find ourselves going through the stages of grief—denial, anger, bargaining, depression, and acceptance—many times each day. Grant us the grace and space to grieve for our own losses, and the grace and space to allow others to grieve theirs: the displacement of children from their schools and playgrounds today and the displacement of Black children for generations, the isolation of the elderly today and of the marginalized throughout history, the power of protest or silence. Give grace to your servants, O Lord.

Lord Jesus, when you came among us, you proclaimed the kingdom of God in villages, towns, and lonely places. Have mercy upon all who live and work in rural areas. May their far-flung health care providers receive the training and resources they need to save lives. Give grace to your servants, O Lord.

O God, behold and visit the cities of the earth. Renew the ties of mutual regard which form our civic life. Send us honest and able leaders. Enable us to eliminate racism and violence so that men and women from different cultures and with differing talents may find with one another the fulfillment of their humanity. Give grace to your servants, O Lord.

God our Father, whose Son had nowhere to lay his head: Grant that those who live alone may not be lonely in their solitude, but that, following in Jesus’ steps, they may find fulfillment in loving you. Even though so many of us around the world right now are never alone, we feel lonely. We miss communing, and we also miss conversations with strangers. We have sacrificed anniversaries and graduations and weddings and birthdays and birth plans in order to keep our communities safe. Give grace to your servants, O Lord.

We pray for our religious leaders and essential workers.
We pray for ourselves as we grapple with the lies of omission from our history lessons.
We pray for health care workers and death care industry personnel.
We pray for the unemployed.
We pray that scientists not be at war with politicians.

Give grace to your servants, O Lord. Help us to grieve so that we may heal. Amen.

Filed Under: Weekly Prayers

World News This Week in Prayer – Thursday, 25 June 2020

(Many thanks to Evangelical Lutheran Church in America pastor/author, Nadia Bolz-Weber, for some of the prayer petitions.)

God who is called by many names, God of this earth and all its peoples, today we are crying out, how long, O Lord?

How long until we can touch our parents and beloved elders? (even as we thank you for each day we have with them.)

How long until we can have things on our calendar to look forward to that don’t involve staring at a computer? (even as we thank you for the abundance of celebrations and movies and live music and meals with friends that we have been granted up until a few months ago….even as we thank you for the gift which electronics can be to us.)

How long until we can gather together again to sing your praise? (even as we thank you for calling an assembly in the streets to overturn the tables of injustice and racism.)

How long until the dying ceases, the brutality ends, the anxiety abates?

How long until justice rains down like waters?

How long, O Lord?

How long until the coronavirus pandemic stops holding our lives and our world in the thrall of fear? (even as we are aware of the increasing numbers of both cases and deaths in Brazil, Mexico, India, Pakistan, and the United States.)

How long for the recovery of the people in six states in southern Mexico, hit by an earthquake this week, killing six people, and destroying many buildings? (even as we are grateful that the government’s alert system worked well, saving many more lives.)

How long until our LGBTQIA siblings in sub-Saharan Africa are free from criminal prosecution for their same-sex loving relationships? (even as the members of the lower house of parliament in Gabon have voted for decriminalization, a significant first step.)

How long until people dealing with cancer in Zimbabwe can get proper treatment, as the health care system has been compromised by the corruption of the health minister? (even as health care workers are making every effort to assist the sick and suffering.)

How long until the massive plume of dust from the Sahara Desert reaches the southeastern United States, bringing with it the possibility of multiple respiratory problems and straining an already-stressed health care system? (even as awareness is raised through technology and the efforts of the United States’ National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.)

How long until the wildfires in Arizona, United States, which have forced the evacuation of many residents, are brought under control? (even as we give thanks for the firefighters and first responders  working there.)

How Long, O Lord?

We’re not asking for a date. We’re asking for the faith that a date will come.

Amen.

Filed Under: Weekly Prayers

World News in Prayer – Thursday, March 25, 2020

Conversations will not be cancelled.
Relationships will not be cancelled.
Love will not be cancelled.
Songs will not be cancelled.
Reading will not be cancelled.
Self-care will not be cancelled.
Hope will not be cancelled. *

Beloved, how are we to pray in these times of pandemic, when country after country imposes stringent stay-at-home orders? When schools and restaurants and businesses are closed, and all public gatherings banned? When what we do to relax and let go of tension…when the ways we come together to celebrate birthdays and weddings and graduations…when what we rely on to grieve and reassure and comfort one another in funerals and hugs and touch….when these have all been closed off?  When life seems to be increasingly put on hold while we shelter in place, and even those who like long stretches of time alone are finding the walls starting to close in?

Breathe.
Lord have mercy.
Christ have mercy.

Beloved, how are we to pray when fears start to consume us? When we can’t shake our worries about our own safety and the safety of those we love? When we are daily reminded of the risks taken by health care workers and grocery clerks and delivery people and emergency service providers and all other essential personnel? When closed borders (between U.S. and Mexico, between Germany and the rest of Europe) leave migrant agricultural workers unemployed, while farmers lose their crops and food shortages threaten for lack of harvest labor? When too many are desperate for income as their work places are shut down and jobs eliminated?

Breathe.
Lord have mercy.
Christ have mercy.

Beloved, how are we to pray when the number of Covid 19 illnesses and deaths keep rising exponentially? When these stop being safely anonymous numbers, and start being stories about real people: the doctor in China who first recognized and spoke out about the impending epidemic; the priest in Italy who gave up his respirator so someone else might live; the nursing home residents in Spain who died alone after having been abandoned by their caregivers; the first known case in Zimbabwe; the first teen who died in the U.S., shocking those who thought only “old folks” were at risk; the relative – of a friend – of one of your online acquaintances, who is now on your prayer list…?

Breathe.
Lord have mercy.
Christ have mercy.

Beloved, how are we to pray when there are still those (even among our own families!) who believe and spread wild and provably-false conspiracy theories? When seemingly-rational adults claim they have a right to ignore the personal and public safety rules? When there are a handful of religious leaders who endanger those they are pledged to care for, by insisting on holding public worship services in the midst of the pandemic? When too many government leaders still deny the seriousness of the situation and refuse to act, or demand to put profits before human lives? When there is a real risk in other countries that temporary measures put in place for public safety will lead to cancellation of elections, extended government control, totalitarianism?

Breathe.
Lord have mercy.
Christ have mercy.

Beloved, how are we to pray when nearly every country in the world has insufficient Covid 19 tests, medical masks, respirators, ICU beds, morgue space? When many people lack access to even basic medical care, or can’t afford it? When we know it would take but a single spark to make the epidemic run rampant among the homeless, those in jail, refugee camps, or the many others in the world who simply can’t take the basic precautions of frequent handwashing or social distancing, because they don’t have access to soap and running water, or live in overcrowded conditions?

Breathe.
Lord have mercy.
Christ have mercy.

Beloved, how are we to pray when our prayer lives are so cramped by worries about the virus, that we can barely take in the fact that there was a major earthquake in Croatia? That the Great Barrier Reef in Australia has suffered another mass bleaching? When we know that there must be so much else going on in the world – both good and bad – that merits prayer, only right now neither the media nor we, ourselves, have the energy to focus on it?

Breathe.
Lord have mercy.
Christ have mercy.

Beloved, how are we to pray when hints of goodness and love creep into our tightly-closed-in lives? When governments in India, United Kingdom, and Canada promise payments to assist the poor, the self-employed and/or unemployed during this crisis? When banks and other lenders promise not to foreclose on mortgages and extend the time for monthly payments? When homes become festooned with Christmas lights, or candles or stuffed animals in front windows to cheer the neighborhood? When churches and synagogues and mosques learn to worship and minister to one another via the internet, and schools move classes online or send work home for their students? When free web-based courses in just about every subject, and virtual museum and park tours, and music, and dance performances, and amazing photography proliferate and go viral? When grandparents can meet their loved ones through closed windows, and we check in with one another with love, and clergy administer pastoral care (and even last rites) via phone?

Breathe.
Lord have mercy.
Christ have mercy.

Beloved, how are we to pray when we remember that You are with us always? That You are full of mercy – no matter whether we are angry, frustrated, fearful, sad or full of joy? When we believe – or so much want to believe – that “Love will not be cancelled. Songs will not be cancelled…Hope will not be cancelled”? When we trust that Your love for us will never be cancelled?

Breathe.
Breathe.
Lord, you are full of mercy.
Christ, you are full of mercy.
Lord, we are filled with your mercy.
Breathe.

 

*Excerpt from a 3/15/2020 blog post written by Jamie Tworkowski, founder of the non-profit “To Write Love on Her Arms,” https://twloha.com/blog/hope-will-not-be-cancelled/. Reproduced with permission.

Note: There are many, many churches that now have Sunday worship online, with many also offering weekday services. If your own church doesn’t offer this, or if you don’t have a church or are feeling isolated and would welcome this kind of support during this time of Covid 19 crisis, just do a Google search and you’ll find a wealth of options to choose from. And take heart – sampling the many services, as Bishop Megan Traquair (Episcopal Diocese of Northern California) joyously proclaimed last week, is “like hearing Pentecost take place right here in March!”

Filed Under: Weekly Prayers

World News in Prayer – Thursday, 12th March 2020

Every little thing is sent for something, and in that thing there should be happiness and the power to make happy. Like the grasses showing tender faces to each other, thus we should do, for this was the wish of the

Grandfathers of the World.   Black Elk, (1863-1950)

Oh God, we read these words from a holy man who lived not so long ago. We have heard in the Gospel of Matthew Jesus’s words to his disciples of certain strength in the meek. We are reminded of his teachings to care for the poor and the least or marginalized. We remember that Jesus came humbly and joyfully into Jerusalem on a donkey with her colt – not the horse a symbol of war.

The ways and acts of peace are tender. They seem fleeting and small. Help us like the very grasses to act with hearts shining toward each other. As we turn to each other we ask that we may we see the other.  Help us to pass the peace and love you have offered us through your son Jesus Christ.

We are grateful for the communication systems that connect each country through reporting and analyzing data to understand the nature of the COVID-19 pandemic. It is on our minds night and day. 

We are grateful for the common sense public health measures and call to action of simple hand washing not hand wringing. 

We pause in our hearts. We grieve for the families whose elders have been swept away by the virus. Replace fear during increasing lockdowns with focus and quiet action. Help us in unforeseen ways to grow in our understanding of our connectedness. Safeguard the emergency and health care teams and families exposed across the continents. We name them out loud thinking of the peoples in locked down regions…knowing the list will grow. 

Africa – Algeria, Nigeria, Senegal, South Africa

Americas – Argentina, Brazil, Canada, Chile, Dominican Republic, Ecuador,   

Guadalupe, Mexico, United States

Eastern Mediterranean – Afghanistan, Bahrain, Egypt, Israel, Palestine, Iran, Iraq, Jordan, Kuwait, Lebanon, Morocco, Oman, Pakistan, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Tunisia, United Arab Emirates

Europe – Andorra, Armenia, Austria, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Belgium, Bosnia, Croatia, Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Georgia, Germany, Gibraltar, Greece, Herzegovina, Hungary, Iceland, Ireland, Israel, Italy, Latvia, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Monaco, Netherlands, North Macedonia, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Russia (23%), San Marino, Serbia, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Ukraine, United Kingdom

Southeast Asia – Bhutan, India, Nepal, Sri Lanka, Thailand

Western Pacific – Australia, Cambodia, China, Hong Kong, Indonesia, Japan, Macau, Malaysia, New Zealand, North Korea, Philippines, Republic of Korea, Russia (77%), Singapore, Taiwan, Vietnam

In celebration of International Women’s Day this past Sunday there comes singing, clapping and dancing, tears and laughter. Help us to receive the wisdom from indigenous women of the Ecuadorian Tribal Nations of Kofan, Siona, Siekopai and Waorani peoples as we hear their voices: “We are at the forefront of our peoples’ struggles and victories against the exploitation of our natural resources of extractive industries. From monitoring our territories and confronting emerging invasions to leading sustainable economic alternatives to resource extraction and shaping a vision for the education of our children and grandchildren, we are creating solutions for the long-term protection of a forest we all depend upon for life. And now, we are also training to become journalists and filmmakers in order to share our stories and struggles from a female perspective.” Lord we ask you to amplify their words: “We come with love and peace, we, women from four indigenous nations of the Western Amazon in Ecuador, are fighting against the threats to our forest.” 

We end this weeks prayers for the hungry – the over 820 million people who have suffered from hunger in 2018, the greatest number since 2010 as reported by the World Meteorological Organization released this past Wednesday.

We ask for your mercy in these times.

Increase our compassion. 

Sustain us in doing your will. 

Amen. 

Filed Under: Weekly Prayers

World News This Week in Prayer – Thursday, 5 March, 2020

Then I acknowledged my sin to you, and I did not hide my iniquity; I said, “I will confess my transgressions to the LORD,” and you forgave the guilt of my sin. …

(God said) I will instruct you and teach you the way you should go; I will counsel you with my eye upon you….  ~. Psalm 32:5, 8. (NIV)

Lord, in the busyness of our lives and at times overwhelming news and pressures, we want to curl up and close out all that disturbs or scares us. But you call us out to follow you, where you want to lead us.

Come, Lord, come and take our fear away; replace it with your love.

The fear of the Covid19 virus affects all aspects of our life wherever we are in the world: industry, supply of medicines, travel, social get-togethers, work and especially for those in the high-risk groups often those most vulnerable and on the margins of society. We remember especially the millions in the already overcrowded unsanitary conditions of refugee camps with very little access to clean water or health care. We give thanks for those caring for the sick, and those researching how best to combat and defeat this virus.

Come, Lord, come and take our fear away; replace it with your love.

For those suffering from climate related disasters: tornado devastation in Tennessee, USA; flood victims in the UK, Australia, Brazil, drought continuing in Yemen; ice-melting in Greenland, Antarctica, the Arctic. We give thanks for those trying to combat climate change before it is too late, and we pray for foresight and action by those in positions of power who can effect such urgently needed change. May we too consider and adapt our own style of living to be less resource-depleting and re-learn how to live in harmony with nature and each other since you have provided the Earth and its munificence for all. 

Come, Lord, come and take our fear away; replace it with your love.

For migrants and refugees experiencing continuing violence, rejection, abuse and even death as they seek – as you did in your incarnation a refuge from violence and the ability to live and provide for their families. We remember the migrant children penned up in Lesbos, Greece, on the Mexican/US borders, in so many in Central and South America, Turkey, Syria, Iraq and across Africa and Europe.

Come, Lord, come and take our fear away; replace it with your love.

Lord, forgive us for looking to the lowest part of our natures rather than looking to you, the author and giver of life.

Lead us from darkness to light.

Wars and rumours of wars, rape and torture, insecurity online and in databases storing so much of our personal details, convenience and complacency taking precedence over justice and equity. Politicians and other so-called leaders think lies are acceptable means of communication if said with enough conviction and repeated loudly and often enough.  Just like the Nazi propaganda minister, Goebbels.

Lord, your kingdom is one of justice and joy. Forgive our gratuitous violence to each other in thought, word, deed and inaction.

Lead us from darkness to light.

We give thanks for the billions of people who buck the publicised trend and live a hidden life of love and service. In silence, we hold them in gratitude to your healing and empowering love and light.

Help us remember that whereas some sections of the media are skewed and biased or even untruthful, Your essence is truth and light.

Lord, as we look to You for inspiration on the way to go, lead us from darkness to light.

May we rejoice in you always, however challenging our life may be.  For we know in the deepest part of our soul where we encounter you, that there is no darkness where you are if we walk by faith and not by sight. We rest on your promised faithful presence as you lead us from darkness to light. AMEN

Filed Under: Weekly Prayers

World News This Week in Prayer, Thursday, February 13, 2020

Ah, Lord God, our creator, our father.   The world is changing.  Again.

It’s difficult to realize, as I write when the sky is wall to wall blue and a plane suddenly adds a tracery of white, that that interesting line is part of what is changing our world.

As another huge iceberg calves from the Pine island glacier in West Antarctica, as we trace the causes of the desert locust outbreak across South Asia and East Africa we have to admit our world is one ecosystem.

When zoos, such as Chester in the United Kingdom team up with other organizations half a world away, such as nuns protecting axolotl in Mexico, it’s hard to accept that our very interest in a global village doesn’t help protect our whole vulnerable environment.

With the death toll rising and researchers rushing to find a vaccine for the Covid 19 Coronavirus we are concerned that shutting down the economy in China may bring disaster for businesses and nations world wide.

The integration of our vast world has progressed to the point that we cannot imagine how to unravel the threads to this web, the histories, wars and strife and our collective lives.  We confess we have become so used to it that we seem immunized by the fighting in Syria that the news that more people have fled in the last 10 weeks than in the previous 9 years has no effect.   We take news of earthquake and storm and disaster as the daily norm.

Even in this there is good news for you, our Creator and Father, share your graceful gift of creativity with every child.  We hear from the Zaatari camp in Jordan how emergency shelters are recycled and mattresses can be used to grow crops.   Good news might be in short supply in our media and never in your good hands and so we give thanks.  For all the rescuers; all the acts of kindness all that expresses you are our parent.  Praise to you, creator God.

Amen

Filed Under: Weekly Prayers

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