New Zealand

World News This Week in Prayer – Thursday, July 11, 2019

Lord in your mercy
Hear our prayer

Lord, there is so much happening in our world we hardly know where to direct our attention and can only be grateful that you see all and answer the prayers of all your people. So we place in your hands our concerns for our environment from the high temperatures in Alaska to the increasing destruction of the Amazon rain forest in Brazil –
Lord in your mercy
Hear our prayer

When we celebrate the small step for man, the giant leap for mankind and Jodrell Bank becomes a world heritage site help us to remember we have only one world. As New Zealand increases it’s effort to eradicate invasive plant and animal species which threaten the extinction of most of it’s native ecology while scientists announce the identification of the seeds most likely to survive and adapt to climate change –
Lord in your mercy
Hear our prayer

With grief we read of the preventable deaths and suffering in Yemen; with shared sorrow we hear of the forcible detention of Uighur and children separated from parents in China; with mourning we learn of mass graves of migrants in Texas –
Lord in your mercy
Hear our prayer

For all in positions of power and those who hold authority, in church and state, industry and technology, for our politicians and government employees, civil servants, and judiciary –
Lord in your mercy
Hear our prayer

For the unexpected mercies that often don’t make the news, such as 2 major earthquakes in California without loss of life and with opportunities for scientists to study, we give thanks. For the small mercies of walking with friends, human and canine, for the gift of families and neighbours, for the enjoyment of our fragile blue planet we give thanks and praise.
Amen

World News This Week in Prayer – Thursday, April 25, 2019

Holy One,

Your Name is above all names, it is so high that we cannot attain it, yet still we seek it. And when we cannot find you, when we do not understand what is happening, when our hearts quake with fear and our spirits tremble with unknowing, when we stumble and search and seek after your face, a beloved face that seems so far from us, that is when YOU call us by name. As you did with Mary on Easter, you pierce through the mystery and call us, claim us, love us. As you did on Easter, you reveal that you are not removed from the world, but that you are here, with us, through death and life, in the tomb of decay and the garden of growth, you are with us here in the world.

Reveal yourself to us today.

Where we see violence and destruction in the bombings of churches throughout Sri Lanka, where we watch the aftermath of shootings, as in New Zealand, reveal the wings of your comfort, the shelter of your arms, the balm of your care.

Where we see vigilante militias along the United States border treat refugees and asylum-seekers as criminals, reveal the power of your justice, the commitments of your love, and the renewal of your protection.

Where we see the violence in Libya where hundreds are dying and over one thousand wounded in the battle for control of the capital, Tripoli, reveal your compassion and wisdom to bring these fighting factions to achieve peace for the country’s people.

Where we see the brutality of domestic abuse and the secrets of family pain, as with the family found in the cave in Spain, reveal to us how you grieve the loss of your children, how you rage at the ways we abuse each other or do not to see the abuse of each other, how you call us to commit again to caring for your vulnerable ones.

Where we see political protests in places around the word, like Sudan and Hong Kong, reveal how you lift up the lowly and bring down the mighty from their thrones. We know that not all shouting voices should be given the megaphone, yet we also know that what we think of as power and might, will pass away as grass in your sight.

Where we see the erosion of environment and the increasing anxiety over resources, with loss of rainforests in Brazil and months of drought in Australia, reveal how you have poured your care into every aspect of Creation, and how you demand that we more faithfully steward this world entrusted to us.

Where we see tragedy and death this week from the natural elements in the Philippines from earthquakes, landslides in Columbia and floods and mudslides in South Africa, reveal your consoling arms to surround these victims and their bereaved loved ones in love and strength to endure their loss.

Where we need to see your face, Lord, we pray that you will show up before us and remind us again that nothing, not even death, will separate us from you.

You have called to us before. Call to us now.

Amen.

World News This Week in Prayer – Thursday, March 28, 2019

Holy One,

In the dark of the night when tears become our prayers, we believe the Spirit intercedes for us, breathing through our lament.

In the light of the day when fears hushes our voice, we believe that Christ listens to all that we carry in deep within our hearts.

In the midst of life’s cacophony, we believe that you draw us close, even when we struggle to draw close to you.

Not a word is on our lips that you do not know completely. And yet we must pray. We must offer up the yearnings and desires of our heart. We must pray for the world as it is and name the world that we long to see, the one that lives and moves and has its fullness in You, in your love and grace, peace and justice.

Thus, hear our prayers, oh loving, living Lord. Imperfect and incomplete as they might be, hear our prayers and make your presence known to us now.

Hear our prayers for the southern parts of Africa living with the aftermath of Cyclone Idai. We lift up to you all those who are struggling with flooding and fires, devastation, disease, and death. Be with the people of Mozambique, Malawi, and Zimbabwe as they strive to rebuild their homes, their lives, their sense of well-being. Be with aid workers, doctors, civilians, and all those who are working alongside each other to bring healing help.

Hear our prayers for those living within tumultuous and transitioning political systems around the world, including Britain, India, and Venezuela. Where people are driven by anxiety, bring forth signs of your hope. Where rage and hatred seem to have the last word, speak again your astounding word of peace. We pray for those who are mighty in power and privilege, who are making decisions for those who are the lowly, the lost, and the least among us.

Hear our prayers for those living in the aftermath of the shootings in Christchurch, New Zealand. We pray for all those who step into their mosques, synagogues, and places of worship with trepidation. May all places of prayer become safe spaces for those who need them. We pray for those whose daily lives have been upended by violence in the past week, including in Yemen, Iraq, Gaza, and Israel. Be with parents, children, students, and civilians who live in the midst of gun violence, from villages in central Mali to subdivisions in the United States.

Through all these prayers, we rediscover again that we are not the saviors of the world. You are. We lift up our hearts to you, praying that our hands and feet might further the work of your kin-dom, today, tomorrow, now, and forever.

Amen.

World News This Week in Prayer- Thursday, March 21, 2019

Loving God,

We know you as a trusted source of direction and purpose. Sometimes we think our thoughts are your thoughts. Sometimes we pray that they are.

But today we pray for the sensory awareness of how you feel. We hope that it will guide us and how we feel about refugees who have experienced the recent Cyclone Idai in Mozambique. Malawai, and Zimbabwe. Whatever would it be like to try to carry everything precious, for skin to protest rough surfaces, for skin to give up, blister, and tear. Whatever would it be like to smell the gradually and then rapidly decomposing bodies of those who did not survive, to hear the cries of those who mourn, to see the struggles of those attempting to find a place of safety, a place of comfort with friends? We pray not just for the strength to be aware in our senses but also for the conviction and creativity it will take for the victims and from us who are not this time victimized

We pray for the insight to respect the loss of generations of family farms in the flooding in the American Midwest. There is deep meaning in a farm that was cultivated by your parents and your grandparents and your great-grandparents and more. Grant us, we pray, vision to see beyond what help can be given by the so-called “social safety net”. Show us more, larger ways to care for them and for all of us.

Open our senses, our minds, our hearts to include the whole world. We need to admit the shame and the pain of the massacre in New Zealand. We do not need to wordsmith and dillydally with how to improve the situation that allowed that catastrophe. You have never asked us, and we should not ask ourselves, only for perfect solutions. You ask for better ones, and so we give thanks for the rapid and compassionate actions of the government of New Zealand banning semi-automatic and assault weapons. As airplanes crash and killers destroy, we try to make every effort to protect our own. Let us not shrink from the truth that we should do better than that. We pray for the courage to do better than that.

God in your glory, raise us up to be the people you need doing the work that needs to be done. Amen

World News in Prayer – Thursday, 14th February 2019

Creator God,

It doesn’t seem enough to say we thank you for the beauty of your creation. When we think of all that happened from the growth of our planet, its place in the solar system and the most we can say is “thanks”. You know the gratitude of our hearts, the deep meaning we want to place on these words, you accept and understand. Thank you, our God.

This week Lord, the doomsayers have been out in force: the increasing loss of the icecaps and glaciers; the effect of insecticides, even those long banned, on all insects; the threat to wildlife from dogs and domestic cats turned feral. Then a sliver of good news: NASA satellite data shows an increase in leaf area on plants and trees across the amazon; India and China are planting major areas with trees.

This week, a teenager in Ohio, USA has used technology to research vaccinations and has now received them. Teenagers in Bristol, England have researched the bus boycott of 1963 and discovered their missing history. For the power of the internet for good we give thanks.

This week, emergency supplies pile up and rot in Hudayah, Yemen and on the Columbia / Venezuela border, we pray that warring politicians will see the harm they do in power struggles and the power of the internet will become good for their countries.

This week as more warnings about dams holding toxic sludge emerge and other industrial mining problems become widely known we pray for the people of Brazil and the open cast mining areas of Appalachia, USA.

This week, Lord, help us to understand what we have done to our planet and how we need to make changes in our lives. Wild fires have burned across Tasmania, Australia and New Zealand; the effects of last autumn’s fires still devastate lives across California, USA; floods across Chile and Northern Australia; from Cincinnati to California, USA we recognise the multiple environmental crisis across the world.

We give thanks for the many small steps being taken by individuals and groups across the world to highlight and tackle this. Machynlleth, Wales has become the first town in Wales to declare a “climate emergency”, following the example of others globally. It is focussing on measures to dramatically reduce its carbon footprint. Villagers in Jenjarom, Malaysia are fighting to have the government close illegal factories dealing with Western rubbish poisoning their land, water and air.

The heavens declare your glory, God. Help us rediscover the sacred in our world and environment which you have made so we “touch the earth lightly”*.

Thank you for hearing our prayer and for your answers.

Amen

*”Touch the Earth lightly” – (New Zealand), Lyrics: Shirley Erena Murray Music: Tenderness – Colin Gibson

World News This Week in Prayer, Thursday, June 28, 2018

Dear Lord,

In the Northern Hemisphere, we expectantly “roll out those lazy, hazy, crazy days of summer…”* but there is a parent and grandparent duty. We plan exciting activities for little ones in our care, for camps and vacations and community programs. In this season of school year endings we watch and wait for exam results with our teenagers and give thanks for the achievements of adult graduates. Yet we weep with parents separated from their infants and children by borders and systems for achingly interminable periods. We pray for their reunion and an end to this unnatural separation and detention in the U.S. Open the hearts of guards and administrators to their moral duties in this humanitarian crisis.

In the Southern Hemisphere, celebrating, with the PM of New Zealand, the birth of a daughter who, she says “will be brought up by the international community.” We pray for those who do not understand the idea of extended family. For those extended families of great grandparents, grandparents, godparents, foster parents, cousins, aunts and uncles, nephews and nieces, brothers and sisters all, raising children to wonderful achievements, we give thanks.

In all corners of this world, we pray for those who live and grow in what society calls dysfunctional families, for those stressed by life’s circumstances, for those caught in the waiting and busyness, for those who cannot even see a future. We know that for as many as are well-rounded personalities there are also those for whom things go badly wrong and their suffering is great; may the Christian family extend it’s care and compassion and bring the Hope which arises from Your Great Love of each and all. We pray for those who thought life would include a better day. May the Holy Spirit bring a gentle lightheartedness and may those “lazy, hazy, … days” settle about them.

We pray for those battling the expanding wildfires on Saddleworth Moor, England, especially those for whom the area brings up memories of the horrific murders fifty years ago of children and youth. Lord have mercy.

We pray for the twelve boys and their soccer coach lost in the Tham Luang Cave, Chiang Rai Province, Thailand; for their families and the many rescue workers and divers. May we heed the words of the governor exhorting rescuers to care for them as if they were their own. Lord illumine their paths.

We pray for the Rohingya as more information emerges about the part played by Myanmar officials in their expulsion.

We pray that the ceasefire agreed in South Sudan will happen and will hold.

As the football world cup continues in Russia we pray for all who have hospitably opened their homes to visiting fans and for those who seek to use the game to bring communities together, especially in Sydney, Australia.

With three rescue ships full of migrants and one finally allowed to dock in Malta, with borders being closed and calls for automatic deportation of those who think they have reached sanctuary we pray for all who work in border control; migration and volunteer aid agencies. For those who live on the margins and those who witness and tend to them, bring Your strength.

Lord, hear these prayers.

For your world and all that we appreciate, care for and love,

We pray in your name.

Amen.

* Lyricist Charles Tobias

World News This Week in Prayer – Thursday, July 6, 2017

Lord, time after time the news reflects what has happened; this week’s events reflecting what has already happened. So we pray for those for whom the news is also “olds” – for they remember the pain, the trauma, the fear, the deep changes in their lives.

We pray for those caught in the fire in a multi-story building in Johannesburg, South Africa and for those still suffering trauma from earlier fires.

We pray for those who watch the North Korean missile firings with horror and remember.

In the US Fourth of July celebrations of thirteen American colonies adoption of the Declaration of Independence, proclaiming citizens’ right to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness, in every announcement of liberation we pray also for the people of Mosul, Iraq and Raqqa and Idlib, Syria.

As Canada celebrates 150 years since the 1867 Constitution of Canada allowed for the merger of 3 colonies. We pray for Indigenous people across the world, and especially for the First Nations, Inuit and Metis of Canada, the Native Hawaiian, American Indian and Alaska Natives of the US, the Indigenous Peoples of Brazil, the Māori Tribes of New Zealand and the Indigenous Australian Peoples.

Following the arrest of Ebtisam al-Saegh, a human rights activist in Bahrain and the peace-and-love celebration in Malheur National Forest, Oregon, USA where there were 15 arrests and 2 deaths, we pray for those who peacefully demonstrate remembering especially those who protested in Washington DC, USA in January and still face legal charges.

We pray for the life of baby Charlie Gard and his parents, as the legal case in the UK has ended and now others try to intervene. We also pray for other bereaved parents in their grief.

Lawrence Moore, a church mission and discipleship consultant who also attends Worsley Road United Reformed Church in Salford, England, prays:

“O God,

There are many who pray far more desperately for the coming of your Kingdom than I do.

They beg you for daily bread because they go to bed hungry.

They pray for deliverance from oppression and exploitation.

They long for people who look and behave like you –

who see their desperation and are moved to tears of compassion or

a burning anger that will not let them rest while things stay as they are.

Fill me with your Holy Spirit, I pray,

that my heart will overflow with your compassion,

that I will find the courage to stand up against injustice,

that I will make a Jesus-shaped difference to my world.

Grant, by your grace, that I will be the answer to the prayers of the very least

and proclaim with my life as well as my mouth

that Jesus is the Messiah.”

Amen.

World News This Week in Prayer – Thursday, April 27, 2017

Amen.
Yes.
So be it.
It will certainly be like this.
May it be so.
This is the truth.
On this we can depend.
Amen!

Compassionate and loving God, as we watch events unfold across our world, our emotions often cannot be translated into words. So we call out to You with a word You gave us through Your holy Word and on the lips of Your Word made flesh: “Amen”. Amen, we say, at once pleading, celebrating, and hoping for the coming of Your kingdom into our world of laughter and tears, fear and faith.

Although our news is often filled with suffering and hate, we know that Your love is evident all around us, O God. Our amens are joyful as we celebrate the small glimpses of Your kingdom that we can see in this world. We rejoice at the humanity of Syrian photographer Abd Alkader Habak, who put down his camera to rescue a child who was injured in a car bomb explosion in Aleppo, Syria. As we commemorate the World Health Organization’s World Malaria Day this week, we delight in the development of the world’s first malaria vaccine, which will be distributed throughout Ghana, Kenya, and Malawi beginning in 2018. We are glad at the news of a newly-discovered coral reef in Brazil, where scientists may find new species of plant and animal life. As we observe all the ways Your gifts of love and talent are present in our world, our amens become a celebration of Your promise to be with us always, and so we shout with joy:

Amen! On this we can depend.

As we witness the pain of Your beloved children and the abuse of Your beloved creation, our amens turn to pleas for Your intervention. The consequences of humanity’s mistreatment of the earth continue to spread as more landslides plague Latin America and South America, including a landslide in Maniales, Colombia that left at least 17 dead, while victims of Cyclone Debbie in Australia and New Zealand continue struggling to recover from flooding and damage. Our abuse of one another reveals the sinfulness of our human hearts. As of now, 29 people have died during protests and counter-protests in Venezuela in the wake of a political struggle over separation of powers. A wave of violence in the Laikipia region of Kenya in recent weeks has left damage to property and people, including the shooting of well-known conservationist Kuki Gallmann. Decisions from the Supreme Court of the US have made way for a series of hurried judicial executions in Arkansas, including the first double execution in 16 years. As our hearts break at the suffering and injustice in our world, our amens become a reminder of Your promises of a just and joy-filled future, and so we cry out to You:

Amen! May it be so.

As we watch for signs of Your Spirit at work in the world, our amens ascend as hopeful reminders of Your loving presence and the seeds of Your kingdom that are being planted all around us. The provincial government of Ontario, Canada, is tackling poverty with a test program which gives poor people a basic income, an initiative similar to one launched in Finland earlier this year. The potential for compassionate and discerning governments can be glimpsed in Vietnam, where a hostage situation resulting from a dispute over land rights ended with the safe release of all hostages, along with a promise from local authorities to investigate and re-examine local land use policies. On Earth Day over 600 marches and protests took place around the world, as individuals and groups used their voices to highlight the importance of science for improving lives and protecting our fragile planet. As we witness these small ways that Your kingdom breaks into our world, our amens become a song of hope that love will prevail, and so we exclaim:

Amen! It will certainly be like this.

Hear the amens of our lips and our hearts this day and always, O God. Bring reassurance to those who plead, joy to those who celebrate, and comfort to those who mourn. In faithfulness to Your promise to hear our prayers, bring us help and hope as we cry, sing, shout, and pray without ceasing, in the name of Your Son, Jesus Christ.

Amen and amen.

World News This Week in Prayer- Thursday, April 6, 2017

The Scottish theologian, William Barclay, suggested using ‘the mind of God’ instead of ‘the Word’ for Jesus. And so John 1:1, 2-5, 14 reads

In the beginning was the mind of God,… 3 Through him all things were made; without him nothing was made that has been made. 4 In him was life, and that life was the light of all mankind. 5 The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it….. 14 The mind of God became flesh and made his dwelling among us. We have seen his glory, the glory of the one and only Son, who came from the Father, full of grace and truth.

Philippians 2:5 says: ‘Let the same mind be in you that was in Christ Jesus’.

Father/Mother God, as we try to come to rest before You, we come not alone but accompanied by the throngs of people near and far who impact our lives and consciousness. Help us to be still and put aside our need to fix things, sort out situations, come up with solutions, and allow Your Holy Spirit indwelling in us, to be freed to be…as You are.

God, indwelling in us, help us to be still and know, in the depths of our being, that You are God. May Your mind be in us as it was in Jesus.

From the throng surrounding us come people across the globe who are suffering from violent events in nature during this last week…

In particular we hold to Your light and loving care those killed and rendered homeless by floods, cyclones, landslides, droughts, famines and snow storms in New Zealand, Australia, Mocoa in Columbia, Catacaos in Peru, Somalia, Yemen, New England in the USA. As well as the immediate tragic events, the long-term consequences can be catastrophic.

Lord, you have given us humans custody of Your creation and as provision for our needs, but not our greed-bloated wants. Inspire and move us to do what we can now for those in great need, and to amend our lifestyle choices to provide a healthy legacy for our children and grandchildren. Give wisdom to lawmakers to provide protection for this, our shared planet, so richly endowed by you.

Lord God, may Your mind be in us as it was in Jesus.

We give thanks for the very promising progress by scientists in London, UK in making a working and cost-effective desalinization filter from graphene oxide. Almost 800 million people desperately need access to clean drinking water, the lack of which currently causes the death of 1000 children every day.

Jesus, You are the spiritual water of life. Help us to work together to provide water essential for physical life and health for our sisters and brothers throughout the world.

Lord God, may Your mind be in us as it was in Jesus.

We hear again and again of gas attacks and hate-fueled violence in Syria, Russia, Chechnya, Pakistan, the UK, and so many other places, attacks on your children created in Your image, yet perpetrated by others made in Your image who have chosen to turn away from Your reality of truth, light and love. Lord, have mercy on the perpetrators and all of us who condone such evil by our silence and inaction. We give thanks for those medics and others who seek to bring help and care in the middle of such carnage and devastation. Help us to seek Your mind as to the way forward, to bring light into the darkness. Guide our political leaders to know Your mind as they struggle to deal with these situations, that they may not be guided solely by fiscal and trade benefits which seem to help our nations in the short-term. You are inviting us to live with the long-term infinite viewpoint which is Yours beyond time and space and is one of justice and righteousness.

Lord God, may Your mind be in us as it was in Jesus.

As we come to Holy Week, where we have the greatest evidence of love conquering evil, Archbishop Desmond Tutu reminds us in his prayer:

“Goodness is stronger than evil;
love is stronger than hate;
light is stronger than darkness;
life is stronger than death.
Victory is ours, victory is ours
through Him who loved us.”*

Lord God, may Your mind be in us as it was in Jesus. AMEN

World News This Week In Prayer, Thursday, March 30th, 2017

Are not five sparrows sold for two pennies? Yet not one of them is forgotten in God’s sight. But even the hairs of your head are all counted. Do not be afraid; you are of more value than many sparrows. Luke 12:6-7

In the glory of the changing seasons; in the beauty of the aurora; we bless you God our creator. In the care for each and every part of your creation we are comforted that there are neither too many nor too few for your attention. We confess that sometimes we are distracted by numbers:

How do we cope when there are 17 million Yemenis – almost two thirds of the population – critically food insecure and requiring urgent humanitarian assistance, the International Rescue Committee (IRC) said. That’s more than the total number of people affected by food insecurity in South Sudan (4.9m), Somalia (2.9m) and northeast Nigeria (4.7m) combined. Children are particularly at risk with two million children under the age of five acutely malnourished.
How do we cope when there are mounting deaths in the Iraq cities of Mosul and Raqqa and continuing deaths in the Mediterranean Sea and news emerging of deaths from meningitis in Nigeria?
How do we cope when 4 people and a terrorist are shot in London, U.K.?
What do we do when Cyclone Debbie causes havoc across Hamilton Island and across Queensland, Australia, yet some in authority are determined to deny the evidence of global climate change and repeal laws to curb this?
With an elephant killed by poachers “every 25 minutes” and zoos resorting to removing rhino horns for their protection, extinction is apparently inevitable – how can we save the complex ecosystem of our world and which we barely understand? Encourage our generosity as more than 25 zoos around the world are working to preserve rhino populations.
We are encouraged by the further discernment of the governor of Cross River State in Nigeria as a super highway design is being revised to circumvent impact on the pristine forest, indigenous communities and habitat for gorillas. There are other sparrows including the pangolins, forest elephants and chimpanzees that need our consideration.
Unusual El Nino storm patterns bring devastating floods in Peru, but snow in parts of the Canary Islands replenishes water supplies.

And yet, and yet there is good news. Extinction is not reversed but evidence has emerged that the Tasmanian tiger may still exist in parts of Indonesia. The South American Tagua seeds found in Panama and in the Andes of Ecuador, Bolivia, Columbia, northwestern Brazil and Peru, known as vegetable ivory or “plant elephant,” may be increasingly used in place of elephant ivory. Continuing study of the complex Kaikoura, New Zealand earthquake helps us unravel more of the marvels of our ecosystem. We learn to consider best practice for water storage and flood control. Strangely, we read that Tonga is giving chicks to communities in a fight against obesity. We read of the helping hands for an exhausted runner in the Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, U.S.A. half marathon “love run”.

All these are little things in the face of the huge problems the media talk about too little, it would seem, to make a difference. The thing is, Creator God, numbers and size don’t matter to you: one by one we make a difference because you make all the difference in the world. Amen