North Korea

World News This Week in Prayer – Thursday, August 15, 2019

There is a Love that is deeper than love,
that fills the world,
that fuels the world.

O, give thanks and sing.

From Genesis 18:16-23 (Paraphrased):

The Lord, having heard much outcry about the sins of the two cities, was prepared to destroy them, and all the people in them. But Abraham challenged the Lord: ‘Suppose there are 50 righteous within the city; will you then sweep away the place and not forgive it for the 50 righteous who are in it? Far be it from you to do such a thing, to slay the righteous with the wicked…Shall not the Judge of all the earth do what is just?’ And the Lord said, ‘If I find 50 righteous in the city, I will forgive the whole place for their sake.’ Abraham answered, ‘Suppose five of the 50 righteous are lacking? Will you destroy the whole city for lack of five?’ And he said, ‘I will not destroy it if I find 45 there.’ “What if there are 40?” asked Abraham. “Or 30? Or 20?” And each time, the Lord conceded. Then Abraham said, ‘Oh do not let the Lord be angry if I speak just once more. Suppose 10 are found there.’ He answered, ‘For the sake of 10 I will not destroy it.’

Holy one, can we – dare we – become like you, willing to be swayed when we want to wipe out an entire group of people?

In today’s world, where Saudi Arabia just declared that all atheists are terrorists,
and two charity-operated boats full of rescued migrants remain off the coast of Italy,
overcrowded and in unsanitary conditions, unable to disembark because of feuding between Italian leaders,
while Kashmiris are once again caught between the territorial claims of India and Pakistan,
and North Korea again refuses peace talks with South Korea…

Holy one, can we – dare we – welcome those who speak with the bravery of Abraham, calling even those who seem as powerful as gods to rediscover their better natures?

We watch as 16-year-old activist Greta Thunberg of Sweden sets sail across the Atlantic on a hyper-efficient yacht, to draw attention to climate change. We read of the court in Belgium that is investigating an orphanage for alleged abduction and trafficking of children from the Democratic Republic of Congo, taking young children from their parents in the guise of giving them a holiday and instead illegally sending them out of the country for adoption. We hear calls for Google to better police the ads they accept, as studies show that Google Maps is overrun with as many as 11 million false business addresses and ads per day.

Holy one, can we – dare we – love like you, forgiving all if there are even a few righteous among them?

When the Israeli Women’s Under-19 Lacrosse team noticed that their opponents from Kenya were slipping all over the field because they didn’t have shoes with cleats, they didn’t have them removed from the game (even though playing without cleats is against the rules). Instead, they purchased shoes for every single member of the Kenyan team, and delivered them with hugs and friendship.

A group of Palestinian Authority young men wrote a moving message to the family of a 19-year-old Israeli student, after he was killed in a stabbing attack by Hamas-linked terrorists earlier this week.

A man with no family lost his wife in the El Paso, Texas, U.S., shooting two weeks ago, so he invited the public to her funeral – and more than 1000 have said they will attend in support.

Holy one, how can we ever doubt that there are righteous among those near and far to us, among both our friends and foes?

There is a Love that transcends the deepest love,
that fills the world,
that is ready to heal the world.

O, give thanks and sing.

World News this Week in Prayer – Thursday, August 1, 2019

My soul cries out with a joyful shout that the God of my heart is great,

and my spirit sings of the wondrous things that you bring to the ones who wait.

You fixed your sight on your servant’s plight, and my weakness you did not spurn,

so from east to west shall my name be blest. Could the world be about to turn?

Canticle of the Turning/ Irish traditional tune

O, God, who sees and hears the plight of your children, your beloved ones, in every place, in every land, we ask that you hear the voices of the forty-four pro-democracy protestors arrested in Hong Kong; for the families of the two young mothers killed in a drive-by shooting in Chicago, U.S.A. as they were part of an anti-crime street vigil; for those arrested in Moscow, Russia, for protesting over the lack of free elections. You have given us the desire to work and fight and speak for justice; empower those who dare to live into this desire and grant them peace of heart and mind. Empower us, even as we sing:

My heart shall sing of the day you bring. Let the fires of your justice burn.

Wipe away all tears, for the dawn draws near, and the world is about to turn.

O God of peace and justice, you who call us to be peacemakers and to work for justice, we ask that you bring your healing touch of peace to the ongoing tensions between Israel and Palestine over the Israeli razing of Palestinian buildings; to North Korea where there have been additional tests of short-range missiles; to the attempts of the U.S. peace envoy for Afghanistan to establish talks with the Taliban; to the offer of Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammed Javada Zarif to talk with Saudi Arabia. And as our hearts break over the shooting in California, U.S. which killed three and injured more than a dozen; over the more than 900 children separated from their families at the U.S.– Mexico border this year, in spite of a court order against such action; over Italy denying admittance to 116 African asylum-seekers, we fall to our knees, even as we sing:

From the halls of pow’r to the fortress tow’r, not a stone will be left on stone.

Let the king beware for your justice tears ev’ry tyrant from his throne..

The hungry poor shall weep no more, for the food they can never earn;

there are tables spread, ev’ry mouth be fed, for the world is about to turn.

O God of love, who never fails to accept and comfort us, even when we fail and fall, we ask that you keep us ever-mindful that, even in the midst of a world which seemingly filled only with pain and heartache and injustice, there are good and beautiful and wonderful things happening: the increase in the previously endangered tiger population in India; the faithful members of the ACLU (American Civil Liberties Union) working tirelessly at the southern U.S. border in behalf of the asylum-seekers there; the young woman, Rachel Oehlert, who has used her struggle with dyslexia to allow her to begin a small charity, Truly Make Believe, which has volunteers who read to children in children’s hospitals who are far from home. And so, with tear-filled eyes and thankful hearts, we sing:

My heart shall sing of the day you bring. Let the fires of your justice burn.

Wipe away all tears, for the dawn draws near, and the world is about to turn.

Hear our prayers for our world this day, Most Holy God. Amen and 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, April 11, 2019

God said, “See, I have given you every plant yielding seed that is upon the face of all the earth, and every tree with seed in its fruit; you shall have them for food. ³⁰And to every beast of the earth, and to every bird of the air, and to everything that creeps on the earth, everything that has the breath of life, I have given every green plant for food.” –Genesis 1:29-30

What my grandparents did, we are doing now, not leaving footprints. You westerners must see what we are. We came to ask you to respect our culture. We came to ask you to come to our territory, if you respect us you will come. We do not want war as our ancestors did; we only want to be heard. We want peace, compassion and understanding. – Excerpt of Waorani women’s song in a courthouse in Ecuador to halt illegal oil drilling on their forested lands.

OH, God, our creator, you are listening to singing in this world. You hear crying and our pleas as well. You know our tears and feel our deep suffering. We call for your mercy on the many horrors of war, famine, displacement, imprisonment and inequality.

The movement of the wind across dry lands that thirst also carries Spirit. Nourish and protect the people of North Korea where one-third of the rice paddies have dried up in a 100-year drought. Give them hope. Call us to action in Puerto Rico where fresh water access is jeopardized and being rationed and in India where its population of 1.3 billion people will endure extreme water stress as ground water moisture is not being replenished. Awaken us to the drought in Sao Paulo, Brazil as people may be forced to flee, as de-forestation of the Amazon and long-term pollution of water leaves little to drink. Help us to discern a way through this global crisis. Help us to hear the words of our elders, teachers and wise-ones.

The movement of people where violence and economic deprivation require all manner of assistance. Holy Spirit dwell among the humanitarian partners receiving over 4.9 million people of which over 1 million are children as they are fleeing Venezuela coming to Brazil, Colombia, Ecuador, Guyana, Panama, Peru, Trinidad and Tobago. We call for your mercies especially for unaccompanied children, for pregnant and nursing mothers. We pray that communities accept the foreigner, the stranger, the homeless and hungry. May loving acts transcend policies of closed borders.

The flight of people from the floods from Cyclone Idai and the extreme damage it has wrought is overwhelming. Sustain those providing humanitarian aid for the hundreds of thousands of people in the port of Beira, Mozambique as contaminated water spreads cholera. Sustain the Ministry of Health as infrastructure is severely disrupted. Bring an end to suffering, calm the anxious, the lost, the grieving, those that feel all hope is gone. Shelter the homeless of Zimbabwe and comfort the suffering of Malawi as the waters recede and the dead are grieved.

We pray for the Rohingya peoples fleeing Myanmar, many now forced by human trafficking cartels into cages in makeshift prisons in Malaysia and Thailand. Bring justice to these places and times, shield the suffering captives from further harm. We learn of the rapid rise in the building of prisons in China where over one million Muslims are thought to be imprisoned in the guise of re-education. Oh how troubled and in need of your mercy are we as a global community.

Prayers this day and into the night are like the lights that come on at evening, as darkness descends around the world. Bright of day clarity shifts to soft silhouettes as we tire, help up us to set down our burdens and worries, to give them to your powerful ways. May we remember to be grateful for what is and what is not, Oh, Lord, Father, Mother…Great One, Protector of all.

Help us to know you in our darkest nights and in the blinding glare of midday. We pray for the victims of genocide in Syria where 500,000 are dead and where the UN has documented evidence of mass killings and the targeting of Syrian children by its own government for brutal torture and slaughter. We pray too for the people of Libya where dozens, including civilians have died and nearly two hundred wounded in recent days in rebel fighting in the capital Tripoli. So much anguish and misery, deep unendurable loss, and yet we find our way forward with prayers for reconciliation and peace. We honor the 800,000 dead remembering the violence of Rwanda twenty-five years later. As nations stood by, terror and genocide born out of hate speech rolled over the land. We grieve in this world of sorrow. Teach us to love, to forgive. We call upon you, Oh Lord; to bless our mouths with words of kindness, give our hands energy for healing and tenderness. Console the orphan and widowed. Bring wisdom to our leaders such that these atrocities do not happen. Open our eyes to the cost of anger, fear and hatred.

In our grasping and avoiding of Your Will, remind us that indeed Your Work is to be done here on this earth as in the heavens. May we hear in this moment, in this Lenten season your eternal call to us to love as Christ loved us, as he taught us to turn the other cheek, to befriend the widow, visit the prisoner and cherish our children. Awaken us to what it means to receive Living Water. Deepen our will to serve and love one another. Amen.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

World News This Week in Prayer, Thursday, February 28, 2019

Longing for light, we wait in darkness.

Longing for truth, we turn to you.

Make us your own, your holy people,

Light for the world to see.

Christ, be our light! Shine in our hearts.

Shine through the darkness.

Christ, be our light! Shine in your church gathered today.

Words and music by Bernadette Farrell

Tune: Christ, Be Our Light

O God, there are days when the light seems dim, when our hearts are torn apart, and so we come to you in prayer for:

those within the United Methodist Church in the United States whose hearts are breaking over the decision to continue to forbid same-sex marriages and the ordination of LGBTQIA clergy;
those whose lives are breaking due to toll that clergy sex-abuse within the Roman Catholic and Southern Baptist churches has taken on them;
and those who continue to use your Name and Word to bludgeon others into submission to their way of believing.

For all these children of yours, we pray for your light to shine and grant them hearts of compassion and peace;

God of grace, hear us.

O God, there are days when the light seems almost gone, when our hearts are confused and angry, and so we come to you in prayer for:

the leaders of the United States and North Korea who are meeting in Vietnam to discuss denuclearization;
the parliament of Britain as they struggle with a decision regarding Brexit;
the government of Venezuela, as they destroy humanitarian aid at the border with Brazil, preventing it from reaching their people who are in desperate need;
the governments of India and Pakistan, as animosity and military action between the two countries escalates.

For all these children of yours, we pray for your light to shine and grant them hearts of wisdom and justice;

God of grace, hear us.

O God, there are days when the light begins to shine again and our hearts are filled with hope, and so we come to you in prayer for:

the House of Representatives of the United States voting to invalidate the emergency declaration regarding border security;
the on-going work of the American Civil Liberties Union to prevent further separation of families at the U.S.-Mexico border and to re-unite families already separated;
the courageous young people, continuing the March for Our Lives Movement and the countless women worldwide in the #MeToo movement, all working to shine the light on the need for gun control and on sexual abuse.

For all these children of yours, we pray that your light continues to shine to grant them hearts of courage and daring;

God of grace, hear us.

For all these people and situations, we pray, confident in your hearing, healing presence in our lives and in our world, as we sing:

Many the gifts, many the people,

Many the hearts that yearn to belong.

Let us be servants to one another,

Signs of your kingdom come.

Christ, be our light! Shine in our hearts.

Shine through the darkness.

Christ, be our light! Shine in your church gathered today.

Amen. Let it be so.

World News This Week in Prayer – Thursday, July 5, 2018

This week’s prayers are adapted, with permission, from a prayer written for U.S. Independence Day 2018 by Leslie Barnes Scoopmire.

(Inspired by the Preamble to the United States Constitution)

In peace, we pray to You, Lord, God:
from our rising to our resting
we give You thanks and praise for all your blessings.

We give you thanks for the 12 boys and their coach found alive after being trapped in a cave in Thailand by rising waters, for the divers who reached them with food and supplies, for all who are working to rescue them, and for the millions throughout the world who have held them in prayer during the search.
We give you thanks for the breakthrough in-vitro fertilization technique that may save the Northern White Rhino species – now down to two surviving females and no living males– from extinction; for all the gifts of this Earth, and all who work to protect and preserve them.

May we seek to form a more perfect union
with You and with each other,
loving our neighbors as ourselves,
sharing each other’s burdens,
seeking to relieve each other’s wants.

We pray for an end to the posturing and tit-for-tatting in the tariff wars started by U.S. President Donald Trump against Mexico, Canada, China and the European Union. We pray for sanity, caution, compassion and courage among U.S. leaders as Trump threatens to pull out of the World Trade Organization and violate its rules with impunity. We pray for all whose livelihoods are at stake.
We give thanks that all 329 municipalities in Bangladesh have agreed to join the United Nation’s Making Cities Resilient Campaign. Low-lying, densely populated Bangladesh is one of the world’s most disaster-prone countries, hit every year by cyclones that are becoming more frequent and more intense due to climate change. The UN Campaign will develop local action plans and improve infrastructures to prepare for disasters.

May we establish true justice as our foundation,
justice that builds and creates
rather than subjugates and destroys,
and work for an end to oppression, poverty, and prejudice,
remembering always the many mercies
we ourselves have received.

We pray for those who would want to make national criticism illegal. We pray for Poland, which has reduced the penalties in its controversial law against accusing the Polish nation of complicity in the Holocaust. In response to international pressures, jail time is no longer among the penalties.
We pray for the five people killed in a shooting at the Capital Gazette newsroom in Annapolis, Md. (U.S.), and for the courage and commitment of the remaining staff in getting out that day’s newspaper anyway. We pray for the countries where a free press is banned, for those who spread fake news and inflame the public against the media, and for all truth-seekers and truth-tellers everywhere.
We pray for the day when ethics will outweigh profit-making in every business venture. We give thanks that Kenya’s public prosecutor has ordered the arrest of two farm managers and several government officials over a dam which collapsed and killed more than 47 people in May. The dam had been constructed by unqualified staff and also broke environmental laws.
We pray for the day when compassion will universally be valued more highly than conformity. We pray for North Korea, where a high-ranking military officer was executed for giving out extra rice and corn rations to his troops.

May we ensure tranquility
by defending and protecting each other
in compassion and mercy,
that true liberty may be a blessing for all
grounded in our common life together.

We pray for the success of the peace agreement signed this week between South Sudan and rebels, where the past five years of fighting have displaced one in three South Sudanese from their homes. We pray that the promised ceasefire holds, that safe passage is indeed provided through which food, water and medicines can reach those in desperate need.
We pray that Russia, the U.S., and Jordan will use their influence to broker an immediate end to the fighting in southwest Syria – as they did last in persuading the Syrian government and rebels to create a de-escalation zone along the Jordanian border.
We pray for the eventual safe home-coming for the Rohingya people, still trapped in exile in the no-man’s-land between Myanmar and Bangladesh. U.N. Secretary General Antonio Guterres visited the camps earlier this week, hearing “unimaginable” accounts of atrocities.

May we work for the welfare of all
by giving of ourselves in unity, gentleness, and sacrifice,
rooted in God’s love,
grounded in the call to welcome and protect
those who turn to us for help or refuge,
and protecting the least among us always.

We pray for those whose homelands are no longer a place of safety. We pray for those from Africa trying to reach Europe, for those from South and Central America trying to reach the United States, for the many refugees trying to find someplace – anyplace – where they will be welcome.
We pray for the countries in the European Union that have reached a deal in principle on how to handle African refugees and migrants, but differ sharply on the implementation details, with no country yet willing to set up the “secure migrant processing centers” called for in the agreement.
We pray for the families separated by the U.S. “zero-tolerance” policies against would-be immigrants and asylum seekers. We pray for the children – some as young as toddlers – expected to represent themselves in immigration court.
We pray for all who have settled into new countries, only to find that those, too, are not places of safety. We pray for the 3-year-old refugee in Boise, Idaho (U.S.) who died after a man with an extensive criminal background stabbed her, five other children and three adults at her birthday party. We pray for all migrants who face distrust and anger, and all who harbor suspicion and hatred towards them. We pray for all who want to live together in peace.

May we secure the blessings of life, liberty, and happiness
and free ourselves
from all that chains us-
fear,
want,
suspicion,
jealousy,
division,
injustice-
and fully embrace and celebrate each other
in all our diversity.

Bless us and keep us, O God,
that we may dwell in peace, equality, and security all our days. AMEN