Nigeria

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 This Week in Prayer – Thursday, April 23, 2020

Praying with Psalm 116 in this time of pandemic*

We love you, O God, because you have heard the voice of our supplications,
because you have inclined your ear to us whenever we called upon you. (Psalm 116, v. 1, adapted)

Because you have been faithful to us, O God, from time immemorial, bringing us time and again out of despair into hope, out of death into new life, yet even now in the time of the COVID-19 pandemic shall we trust you.

The cords of death entangled us;
the grip of the grave took hold of us;
we came to grief and sorrow. (v. 2, adapted)

The count of the dead, and the ill; the endangered; the closed-in, the unemployed or out-of-business or unable to provide for their families – the numbers are beyond our comprehension.

San Marino, Belgium, Andorra, Spain, Italy, France, St. Marten, United Kingdom, Netherlands, Sweden, Isle of Man, Switzerland, Channel Islands, Ireland, United States, Luxembourg, and Monaco are all reporting more than 100 deaths per 1M population. That’s 2,714,942 confirmed cases worldwide and 190,395 deaths reported so far – but we know those counts are likely to be way underreported, since testing for the virus is basically unavailable in many developing countries. And the first wave of the pandemic hasn’t even peaked yet. (Statistics as of today from https://www.worldometers.info/coronavirus/#countries).
Handwashing with soap and water is crucial to preventing the spread of COVID-19. Yet in sub-Saharan Africa (that’s 46 countries), 63 per cent of people in urban areas lack access to handwashing. It’s 22 per cent in the urban regions of Central and South Asia, and 28 per cent in Indonesia. Even many health care facilities don’t have basic sanitation.
The International Labour Organization this week reported that more than 4 out of five workers globally live in countries affected by full or partial lockdown measures. In the U.S., nearly 27 million people have lost their jobs and filed for unemployment since the crisis began. Half of the private sector workers in France are now unemployed. The United Nations is predicting 195 million jobs will be lost worldwide due to the virus.
Severe famine “of Biblical proportions” is likely to hit 30 or more under-developed nations due to the labor shortages and supply disruptions caused by the pandemic, according to reports released this week by the United Nations. The greatest worry is for people living in conflict zones and those forced from their homes and into refugee camps, especially in northeastern Nigeria, South Sudan, Syria and Yemen.

We can’t even name, let alone mourn, that many lives lost, so many countries locked down, so many people trying to shelter in place, so many families disrupted, so many at risk of starvation. We are buried in our grief and shock; tangled between our desire for life to return to normal (soon, if not even sooner) and fear-filled and realistic prudence (that warns it may be months or years before we can safely end our social isolation).

The sheer numbers are beyond our stunned comprehension. Yet you, O God, have known and adored us before we are even born. You count the hairs on every head. You accompany every person who dies, and comfort every person who grieves. You restore the trembling nations. Even now, we shall trust.

Then we called upon your holy Name:
“O God, we pray you, save our lives.” (v. 3, adapted)

And we see your saving hand at work, not through a sudden magic snap of your fingers, but in so many large and small daily items:

Thousands of scientists, researchers, doctors and other health professionals across the globe, sharing ideas and data across national boundaries in the rush to find a vaccine, a cure.
An overwhelming number of people in Spain stepping in to foster the pets of those who have fallen ill
Eric Kim, an Oregon, U.S., high school student who is making clear face masks so the hearing-impaired can communicate while protected.
Ireland pledging to quadruple its pledge to the World Health Organization. and last Saturday’s “One World: Together At Home” concert in the U.S. that raised $127.9 million for WHO’s COVID-19 Solidarity Response Fund.
Restaurants and bakeries and food trucks in many places donating meals to health care workers and seniors, and individuals and agencies donating money so these businesses can buy more food and pay their employees.
People posting on the internet, “If anyone near me can’t afford food or medicine, message me, and I’ll help.” And then doing so – for strangers.
The factory in Kenya that – overnight – transformed from making gardening clothes, to assembling 30,000 surgical masks a day. And what this change symbolizes for the workers there. Josephine Wambua, 24, who never went to school, said, “To sit here and do something that is useful to the world is a dream. I never thought I would be part of something that has the potential of saving millions from dying.”

You, O God, are the one who gives us life, and gives it abundantly. Even now, we shall trust.

We will walk in the presence of God,
In the land of the living. (v. 8, adapted)

We celebrated Earth Day on April 22, marking the 50th such annual celebration. Even from within our COVID-19 restrictions, we could look out and know the presence of God…in a flower, a hummingbird, the stars, the wind….in the face of a loved one here with us, or online, or in our memories…in the commitments we make, to made this a life-giving planet…

For you, O God, have entrusted us with this your world, and with one another – your beloved children.

How shall we repay God
for all the good things done for us?

We will lift up the cup of salvation
and call upon the Name of God.

We will fulfill our vows to God
in the presence of all people. (v10-12, adapted)

Even now, we trust.
Amen.

*Portions of Psalm 116 will be read this coming Sunday in all churches that use the Revised Common Lectionary. Verses here are adapted from The Saint Helena Psalter. Since we are all so physically isolated these days, it seemed appropriate to change the language of the psalm from a personal, first-person prayer, to one prayed by and for all of us.

World News This Week in Prayer – Thursday, April 9, 2020

Yet this I call to mind and therefore I have hope: Because of the Lord’s great love we are not consumed, for his compassions never fail. They are new every morning; great is your faithfulness.
~ Lamentations 3: 21b – 23

[Early on the first day of the week] Mary Magdalene went and announced to the disciples, “I have seen the Lord”.
~ John 20: 17

This journey through Holy Week is a journey of discovery in a totally unfamiliar world – at least for most of us. Now we experience what those on the margins – those with severe disabilities or illness, the migrant, the refugee, the homeless, the poor, the jobless, the voiceless, the powerless, victims of violence, those with mental illness – all experience as their “normality”: uncertainty, fear; lack of food, money; without access to basic necessities and for too many, healthcare, clean water and sanitation.

Jesus, Light of the World: Pierce the darkness of our world and understanding.

For many there is the added trauma of grieving the loss of loved ones while separated by ‘social distancing’, quarantine, or lockdown. Words are useless at times like this, but we meet the Christ within – in the still centre in each one of us whether we lay claim to faith or have none.

Jesus, Light of the World: Come in your loving compassion; pierce the darkness of our world and understanding.

We celebrate and give thanks for the kindness of so many rediscovering the joy of sharing and the joy of loving those who are our neighbors.

In Italy, the Rainbow in Every Street movement leaving food for those in need. “If you don’t have food, please take. If you have, please give.”
Two Nigerian software engineers fixing faulty ventilators for free at the University of Jos teaching hospital.
The gangland truce in Capetown, South Africa’s townships helping to provide food instead of killing each other and hurting the community in lethal turf wars.
We rejoice in the inventiveness of so many individuals and companies across the globe trying to solve the critical shortage of medical equipment and personal protective supplies.

Jesus, Light of the World: Heal our selfishness and help us reset our values where every one of us truly looks out for each other as one family under God.

You went through the evil of the hatred, injustice, cruelty and a degrading tortured death, to overcome evil once and for all in our stead. As we go through our own Good Friday experience during this pandemic, may we come out to the reality of new life for us all if we choose to follow you. Forgive us, Lord, for seeking to shield ourselves behind illusory masks which hide our true selves. You know us are we really are and you love us with an everlasting love.

Lord, have mercy. Christ, have mercy. Lord, have mercy.

Help us to travel the road to freedom to live in your Light, and be open to the promptings of your Holy Spirit, made possible by your descending into Hell and rising again on the Third Day through love for each one of us. May we enfold and uphold each other to God’s Healing Light and Love – today and always.

Jesus, Light of the World: May we joyfully cry out, “Christ is risen. Come let us worship.”

World News in Prayer – April 2, 2020

Nobel Peace Laureate Ellen Johnson Sirleaf (President of Liberia from 2006 to 2018, including during the Ebola crisis) writes:

Dear fellow citizens of the world,

… It does not mean that we are on our own, every country for themselves. On the contrary, it is the sign of a communal response, that border closures make a difference. Her letter concludes:
I have full faith in the relentless spirit of the individual, a conviction that leaders emerge in times of crisis at every level of society, and that our religious and communal differences pale in comparison to our collective belief in the power of prayer, and our respective faith in God.

As we all hunker down in the next few weeks, I pray for the health and well-being of our global citizens, and I ask that everyone remember that our humanity now relies on the essential truth that a life well-lived is a life in the service to others.
[Note: you can hear her read part of this letter on https://www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/w172x1gdf07d89j from about 05:30 to 09.00. The unedited text (also on the BBC website) includes: ]

Lord, all-seeing, always present, you call us to live in community.

In this year when the community of Oberammergau, Germany would have celebrated their decision to lock down to stop plague spreading, we give thanks for that understanding of community which is about keeping one another safe. We give thanks for visionaries such as the community of Eyam, United Kingdom, the Nobel peace prize winner, Ellen Johnson Sirleaf and the Governor of Ohio, Mike DeWine.

In our prayers we remember those from whom the eyes of the world have moved:

The people of Yemen starving as many air raids strike Sanaa this week,

The displaced and the dispossessed especially those in refugee camps. We give thanks for those refugees, in groups like Help from Refugees in Switzerland, who put their much-needed skills at the disposal of their new communities.

The rough sleepers with no safe space to obey the rules of lockdown in Lagos, Nigeria, and many cities worldwide.

The migrant workers, especially those in India where a lock-down was imposed at 4 hours notice, and Nepalese are stuck at the border.

The people who are more persecuted than ever because of the perception that no one will notice; especially the Palestinian community of Khirbet Ibziq in the northern Jordan Valley. Their existing community clinic and generator were demolished by the Israeli army and building supplies for an emergency field clinic destroyed or confiscated.

We pray for those who think no one will notice when they pilfer hospital supplies, buy up and hoard goods needed by carers, nurses, doctors, ambulance crews and others. We give thanks that those called to work in all these essential areas still work despite knowing they are unprotected and will probably be taken ill. Remind us that it is not enough to call them heroes but to do what we can to support them. We give thanks for donations of real equipment from film sets, as from the sets of “Casualty” and “Holby City” in England.

We pray for those who are harmed, such as those caught in the shelling in Tripoli, Libya, as warring factions seek to hide the lack of a ceasefire while the eyes of the world turn inward.

For farmers and growers, the world is not standing still, for researchers too. As crops are planted with no knowing if there will be hands to harvest we pray for the springtime and the harvest. As news breaks that a blood test is being developed to determine early signs of cancer we give thanks that people still go about the work despite fear, sadness, and anxiety.

Remind us that while the sound of silence, the sound of bird song, and the sound of the wind and the rain, beguile us in the newly revealed quiet; our environment is still not safe. Birds, wildlife, and plants need our continuing protection and care.

All things praise you, glorious Lord,
great Creator, powerful Word,
omnipresent Spirit, now
at your throne, we humbly bow,
lift our hearts in praise to you:
so we praise you, Lord, anew.
[George William Condor – 1821-1874]

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.

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 The Week in Prayer- Thursday, May 30. 2019

(6/1/19 Apologies to our readers. Due to my own sheer stupidity – aka, forgetting to restart the emails after changing a setting – the prayers didn’t email on schedule this week. Mea culpa! -Andee, World in Prayer founder)

Holy One,In our prayers, we seek you and in our praying, we feel the air stirred by your Spirit.

Our spirits rise to meet you, and even in the rising, we find you descending as a dove to meet us.

Our hearts drop into disappointment, and even in the falling, we find your wings beneath us, lifting and carrying us forth.

Reveal your Spirit to all who need your presence. Carry us forth to pray for the world.

Reveal your Spirit to those who live in Israel, Britain, India, and other places contorted by frustrations with leaders and wounded by political maneuverings.

Reveal your Spirit to those who live in Nigeria, as they pass the 4 year anniversary of the kidnapping of the Chibok girls and as kidnapping blooms as a business.

Reveal your Spirit to the family and friends of Terrill Thomas, who died of profound dehydration in a United States jail cell, after officials turned off his water supply; reveal yourself to all those who care of someone being held in prison or a detention center—and reveal your Spirit to the prisoners themselves.

Reveal your Spirit to those in Bangladesh riven with despair, anger, and grief over the death of Nusrat Jahan Rafi and the sixteen men charged with killing her.

Reveal your Spirit to those negotiating and debating over the increasingly tense relationship between Iran and United States, Israel and Gaza, and other places of fear, loathing, and historic violence.

Reveal your Spirit in the walking and the words of Hyppolite Ntigurirwa, a genocide survivor, as he walks through his country of Rwanda, hoping to unite the country in remembering and healing from the 1994 genocide.

Reveal your Spirit to those people whom we do not name or even know, but who are held by love in your heart.In all these places, make your presence known.To all these people, reveal your self.

Bear each beloved child on the wings of your abiding Spirit, until all might realize that, no matter what happens, you will never let them go. We need you, O Holy One. So we pray. Amen.

World News This Week in Prayer – Thursday, May 16, 2019

“I give you a new commandment, that you love one another.
Just as I have loved you, you also should love one another.
By this everyone will know that you are my disciples,
if you have love for one another.” – John 13:34-35 (NRSV)

Loving God,
Jesus commanded the disciples to love one another.
But loving is so very hard!
Sometimes I am wounded by the words of others.
Sometimes I am abused by others.
And, it is so very hard to love when I’m hurting.

Jesus commands us to love as we have been loved,
sacrificially,
unconditionally,
radically.

Help me,
help us altogether,
help us each,
to proclaim,
to embody,
to incarnate,
your love for the world,
your love for our neighbors,
your love for ourselves.

Lover of Peace, turn our hearts from anger, strife, discord, and hatred, and let us pray at this time for those countries suffering at the hands of war and violence; to Burkina Faso where gunmen killed six people during Mass at a Catholic church; to Sudan where another six were killed in political protests and Sri Lanka where revenge attacks on Muslims are taking place in the aftermath of the Easter bombings. Let your love reign amongst and between us and be a shining example for us to emulate.

Seeker of the Lost, open our eyes to see those around us, and around the world, who are all-too-often overlooked.
Healer of the world, prod us to reach out to the unclean, vulnerable, and abandoned.
Resurrected Lord, remind us again of your transformative presence with each, and all, of us.

Let us thank you Lord, for the relief to the families of the 54 women and children in Nigeria who have been freed from Boko Haram this week and for the many charities dedicated to supporting and working for the many countries in dire need of emergency aid, especially in North Korea where up to ten million are in urgent need of food assistance in their worst drought in 37 years.

May the world know us,
May the world know you,
Because of the love you have for us,
Because of the love we have for you, for one another, and for ourselves.
—Amen

World News This Week in Prayer – Thursday, May 2, 2019

This week’s prayers begin with music. Music composed in the late 18th century by an Austrian composer, using an ancient Latin text. Music sung, this past Sunday, by a touring Russian ensemble, at the beginning of worship in an Episcopal church in California, U.S.

But perhaps a bit of background is in order. The members of the World in Prayer team who take turns writing the prayers come from two continents, and half a dozen different denominations. And I, the writer for this week – my week began with music. The St. Petersburg Men’s Ensemble had performed at our church last Saturday. And when we booked the performance, they had asked – asked! – if it would be ok if they also sang during worship Sunday morning, so that in that way they could celebrate their Easter. (Don’t worry if you’re a bit confused – in the Eastern Orthodox churches, Easter occurs the Sunday after Easter in churches that follow the Western Christian calendar.) As they sang Mozart’s Ave Verdum Corpus, I was transported…into a place where the differences between us in language, culture, nationality, politics all fell away. Where even the words of the text didn’t matter. Where the music itself caught us up into a place so very near to God…

And I thought, “If only we could recognize every stranger as the bearer of amazing gifts.”

Listen.
And then let’s pray.

Mozart’s Ave Verum Corpus, performed by the St. Petersburg Men’s Ensemble on their “Live in Newport” DVD. Copyright 2014. Reproduced with permission. (If you have difficulty viewing the embedded video, you can also access the recording by going to https://youtu.be/EblcqRqLV0Q )

Holy One, give us eyes to see every approaching stranger as one bearing amazing gifts.

As United States President Donald Trump proposes charging a fee to those seeking asylum in the US,
As practical, along-the-way support dries up for those in the latest migrant caravan crossing Mexico,
As Pope Francis donates $500,000 to the migrant caravan,
As the number of migrants and refugees reaching Europe – Spain, Greece, Italy, Malta and Cyprus – by sea so far this year exceeds 12,000,
As the United Nations warns of a worsening humanitarian situation facing civilians across northwest Syria, with rising casualties, and “waves of displacement” due to intensifying conflict,

Give us eyes to see past fear and exhaustion, past seemingly-overwhelming numbers and unending needs.
Give us eyes to see the beauty that they bring.
Give us eyes to see the hidden, extraordinary gifts each stranger has to offer.

Risen One, give us ears to hear the music that unites us.

As Israel paused this week to for the annual remembrance honoring victims of the Holocaust,
As a young man spouting Christian hatred toward Jews attacked a United States synagogue,
As an attack on a Protestant church in Burkina Faso kills six,
and 40 Christians were reportedly killed in Nigeria on Easter,

Give us ears to hear beyond the burgeoning hatred and fomented distrust.
Give us ears to hear past religious divisions.
Give us ears to hear that all faiths that proclaim love, sing the song of the One God who draws us.

Beloved One, give us wisdom to succor every endangered being.

As Cyclone Fani makes landfall on the Eastern coast of India, where nearly 1,000,000 people were evacuated yesterday,
As the same cyclone endangers hundreds of thousands of Rohingya refugees still living in tents in Bangladesh, with no place to go and no resources to get there,
As Mozambique and Comoro struggle through the continuing downpours to try to begin recovery from the two devastating cyclones that hit there in the past six weeks,
As we learn that what was once the second largest breeding colony of Emperor penguins in Antarctica has completely disappeared due to climate change,
and the United Kingdom Parliament declares a climate change emergency earlier this week,

Give us wisdom to hold out our hands to all in danger.
Give us wisdom to share our knowledge.
Give us wisdom to heal our aching world.

Holy One, so fill us with the music of the spheres, that we can do nothing else than joyously sing the song of your unending love.
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.