World in Prayer

World News This Week in Prayer – Thursday, Sept. 5, 2019

Kindle a flame to lighten the dark and take all fear away.
~ John L Bell and Graham Maule*

When nations are being riven by fear, lies, lack of trust in political, business
and so many seeming to seek leadership positions for their own aggrandisement rather than the common good:

Kindle a flame to lighten the dark and take all fear away, so justice and truth prevails.

When all efforts have been made to cope with natural disasters:

  • Hurricane Dorian, devastating the Bahamas and threatening east coast states of the USA;
  • Severe ice cap melting in Greenland, the Antarctic and Arctic – threatening low lying communities and countries throughout the world;
  • Bird migrants arriving at their usual time in northern countries (e.g. the UK and Scandinavia) to find food sources already flowered and unavailable due to climate change

Kindle a flame to lighten the dark and take all fear away.

When people are exhausted from the struggles against injustice and terror:

  • 1.9 million people facing losing their citizenship in Assam, India; 
  • Those detained, disappeared or tortured in Kashmir;
  • Starvation, violence, lack of medical care and hopelessness experienced by millions in Yemen, and in stateless camps throughout the Middle East, Libya, Sudan and so many other countries;
  • The fear of so many in Afghanistan where the  US -Taliban deal does nothing to stop bombings and the use of children as suicide bombers;
  • Increased xenophobic riots in South Africa leading to deaths, injuries and boycotts;
  • Thousands of economically disadvantaged groups left without education or medical care after Christian and Muslim schools and health centers were seized by the government in Eritrea;
  • The desperate and often life-threatening experience of refugees in the US, Mexico, Sweden, the European Union, Canada, India, Bangladesh, Turkey, Australia and so many other countries

Kindle a flame to lighten the dark and take all fear away.

When people seek to care for their fellow human beings in need:

  • Over 1,000 people in the Central African Republic have become foster parents, like Henriette and Jean-Philippe Idjara. Despite having 4 children, and having lost 5 others through illness, they adopted 2 teenage boys who had seen their father executed by rebels. Alone and in fear of their lives, the boys had fled and walked 150 miles in a week, before being found exhausted and rescued by the Idjaras.
  • We give thanks for all who open their hearts and homes to brothers and sisters in need of any sort, without checking their balance sheet first.  Help us to dare to trust in You, our shield and our defender.
  • We give thanks and remember all who act as carers (paid or unpaid), ambulance workers, medical staff, police, firefighters, military personnel, ministers and priests of all faiths, and those who keep our communities clean and safe with often little thanks. We pray for their protection and support, praying especially for their mental health dealing with the sights and situations we so often prefer not to see..  Throughout the world, the silent loss of way too many of those helpers of us all, their high rates of suicide and mental and physical illness from so much stress, is a scandal and source of shame..

Kindle a flame to lighten the dark and take all fear away. Bless and strengthen them by your loving spirit and help us provide them with the care and support they need.

When families are changing, new life is being formed and others prepare to leave this earthly life:

Give us all a sense of thankfulness and proportion as to what is real or imaginary;
help us nurture truth rather than deceit;
humility rather than hubris;
tenderness, love and compassion rather than aggression, hatred and division.

Despite all we like to think, we are not in charge. You are.

O God, save us from ourselves, from double standards and divided hearts, and give us light and life in Jesus Christ our Lord.
Amen.

               

*©1987: Heaven Shall Not Wait, WGRG, Iona Community, Glasgow, Scotland

 

World News This Week in Prayer- Thursday, July 25, 2019

He has shown all you people what is good.
And what does the LORD require of you?
To act justly and to love mercy and to walk humbly with your God.
Micah 6:8 NIV

Let us pray.

We think of the 45 People beaten by organized thugs in Yuen Long, a far northwest metro station of Hong Kong. There is worry of collusion and payments being made to criminals to actually disrupt public safety as citizens are peacefully protesting. An extradition bill that sparked the civil protest has been suspended. Comfort the families of the injured. We ask that you bring clarity to leaders and especially the police as they sort out right action to address the turmoil. Bring justice where there is violent behavior and help us to show mercy where impoverished people seem to turn toward crime. Oh Lord, we hear of these horrendous things and bow our heads. Help us to walk humbly.

We remember the Paradise fire and morn the loss, loss that killed 85 people and devastated a small city. “Ahead of the Fire,” reported by the Arizona Republic (USA) and USA Today reflects and analyzes the fire and the human risk for people living in the west, and what and where prevention can happen to avert catastrophe. Help us to hear the Good News months later as wild fire specialists and other scientists sort out the over 500 high-risk western US communities like Paradise. We pray for the disabled, the elderly, the poor who may not have cell phones to hear an Amber alert, who live in housing that is substandard and fire prone. Bring compassionate services to them. We remember fires around the world that devastate communities leaving people with nothing. We pray that this report will inform policy and opportunities for just and equable action. Help us to live humbly and work for justice. 

We seek courage of voice to declaim abuses in Sudan, as reported by the BBC this week, where the Rapid Support Forces have been accused of a massacre in which more than 120 people were killed and many of the dead dumped in the River Nile in early June. This quasi-ruling power in Sudan, fueled by its gold mining in Darfur, sends its gold to Dubai, United Arab Emirates. Sudanese militiamen are now fighting in Yemen with the UAE and “policing” the border to Libya, extracting bribes, ransoms and levies. We shutter at the expanding web of war and the millions suffering in famine in Yemen. Lord, show your mercy; restore our sanity and resolve to take just action. Help us to speak with courage.

And help us to remember that through the work of the UN, 12 million refugees around the world have received essential supplies and 92,400 refugees have been resettled in 2018. Help us to live with thanks.

May we show devotion in all seasons, times of the day and spaces. We take out the garbage, fix a meal, lend a hand, soothe a baby, read to a child, fold the bedding, close a tent flap to shelter from rain, or linger a moment to look at the stars. Eternal One, you are with us in all these moments. May we feel your Holy Spirit even in the darkest of times. May Christ’s words to love infuse our hearts, minds and hands. Help us, indeed, to love mercy and to show mercy.

We close with the words of St. Francis of Assisi, For it is in giving that we receive.
It is in pardoning that we are pardoned.

Amen

 

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, June 20, 2019

Holy One,
Our hands reach out, our voices call forth, our hearts lift up, and in the act of praying, once again, we discover you. Our words are but a small measure of the world’s great need, yet as we draw close to you, you draw close to us.
We pray to you, O Lord.

Comforting One,
We hold up those in Yemen, Venezuela, and Somalia, those whose lives leave them trembling in the dark, whose situations leave them hungry in the day. We pray for the 70 million displaced people worldwide, two-thirds of which come from the countries of Syria, Afghanistan, South Sudan, Myanmar, and Somalia. Hold these, your children. Nurture them, shelter them, love them. We give thanks for those who are doing the work of resettling them. No matter where the spotlight of the world’s attention shines, you see those who are struggling, in every city, every village, every alcove, around the world.
So, we pray to you, O Lord.

Righteous One,
We hold up those in the streets in Sudan, Haiti, Malawi, and Hong Kong – those protesting non-violently around the world, and those who find themselves losing hope in justice. As for those who have come to believe that violence is the only way to get things done, we pray that you soften their hearts, strengthen their spirits, and reveal your steadfast work in the world. Break apart all prisons of tyranny, shake loose all dominions of greed, bring forth your reign of mercy and righteousness, here on earth.
We pray to you, O Lord.

Almighty One,
When we confront events of the past, pain and questions can blossom in our hearts. Walk with all those who are reliving moments of trauma in recent weeks. Walk with those in Kenya, as four young men are charged in connection with the 2015 militant raid at a university. Walk with those in Rwanda, as the nation acknowledges the twenty-fifth anniversary of the 1994 genocide. Walk with those in California, Puerto Rico, Texas, (USA) the coastlines, and other areas affected by natural disasters, as they face another hurricane and wildfire season. Walk with those celebrating Juneteenth this week in the United States, as well as those who are pausing to acknowledge the 400th anniversary of documented slaves arriving on the shores of the American colonies.
So, we pray to you, O Lord.

Jesus our Christ,
Your power is not our power, your healing is not our healing, your love is not our love. At the end of the day, at the end of our lives, we turn all that we are, and all that we hope to be, over to your receiving arms. Guide us, renew us, redeem us. We cannot do anything apart from you .
We pray to you. Lord have mercy.
Amen.

World News in Prayer – Thursday 18 April 2019

Holy One,

As Notre Dame Cathedral in Paris, France burned this week, so many millions of us were bound together in heartbreak. As Notre Dame emerged damaged but not fully destroyed, so many millions were bound together in hope. As we consider Paris and Notre Dame, we pray for fulfilling and fruitful work of healing and rebuilding; we pray that this rebuilding might continue to draw us all together in a community of care.

We realize that such unity is how you hold the world at every moment. You gaze upon us with such sorrow when we destroy the world that you created. You gaze upon us with such delight when we work to save and strengthen the kin-dom you promise . You hold us all in your embrace. We seek to be united as we were this week – but rather than united by bonds of horror-filled helplessness, we pray that we might be united by bonds of awestruck, peaceful rejoicing. Teach us how to care for this world that you loved so deeply that you died for it.

Lord, hear us and answer our prayer.

Teach us how to love this world through the bleakness of Holy Week and into the earth-shaking radiance of Easter morning.

Lord, hear us and answer our prayer.

As we read the Easter story, teach us how to care for women who are not believed when they tell their stories; for men who hide their fear and despair in order not to be seen as “weak”; for authorities who make decisions that send unseen ripple effects through the generations.

Lord, hear us and answer our prayer.

As we consider this world that you love, teach us how to care for those grieving after the bus accident in Madeira, Portugal for those affected by rockets in Tripoli, Libya; for those protesting in Khartoum, Sudan after political unrest; for those caught up in tension over the upcoming election in Ukraine; for those living with economic crisis in Venezuela, for those living with widespread violence in Yemen.

Lord, hear us and answer our prayer.

And this week particularly, teach us how to care for other sacred places under threat – for the 3 historic and historically black churches that were burned by a terrorist in Louisiana, USA; for the Al-Aqsa mosque that burned in Jerusalem, Israel; for synagogues after last fall’s mass shooting in Pittsburgh, USA; for the religious lands of indigenous people across the globe, which have been sacrificed countless times across the years for new developments and pipelines.

Lord, hear us and answer our prayer.

This week we acknowledge that darkness is real and that death will make a stand.

Lord, hear us and know that in the midst of such darkness and conflict, we trust in your light, love and power.

Yet this week we also declare with prayers and shouts, instruments and song, that death shall not have the final word. You are doing a new thing, even when all seems lost.

We pray these things because you are alive and with us. Living Lord, unseal the tomb, roll away the stone, and reveal to us how you are transforming the world.

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 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 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

© 1992 Hope Publishing Company, Carol Stream, IL 60188. All rights reserved.

World News This Week in Prayer – Thursday, February 7, 2019

Holy One,

We pray to see the world as you see it.

We pray to have our hearts rejoice with what delights you.

We pray to have our hearts break with what grieves you.

The world has wonder, but also pain. When our spirits are full of tumult and questions, we turn to you. You gather in all that we spill out. You hold all that we cannot grasp. We have so many emotions, you sit with us and we rest in your presence.

Loving Lord, gather us in. Gather us in as you do with all your children.

Gather in your children who are living with the rising unrest in Venezuela, who seek economic and political security, who worry about the next days food. Hold each and all of those who live in trepidation and instability around the world.

Gather in your children who are dealing with political frustration in Britain and France, as well as many other countries. Where a select few make decisions for a great many, offer a new vision that might lead to the flourishing of all citizens.

Gather in your children who live amid horrendous violence in Syria and Yemen. Where we see conflict that seems like an indiscriminate mess, you see each person who cries out for a home, for a safe place to rest their head, feed the hungry and for peace that will let them raise their young ones without fear.

Gather in your children who are hurt by racism and systems of oppression in the United States, particularly after the exposure of some Virginia, politicians’ past decisions and behaviors. When we mock an entire group of people and ignore history for the sake of frivolity, you see beautiful people, worthy of attention and the need for tough and honest conversations about racism, the need to build meaningful relationships through the work of justice. Show us the way.

Gather in your children who live in habitats filled with crisis, including those living in the aftermath of the 2018 California, USA fires and in Australia with its extreme heat and extensive brush fires. Bring to fruit in us a deeper understanding of your Creation, that we might be stewards of its resources and understand and address climate change in the same spirit, as you love this world.

Gather in your children who worry about where their next meal is coming from, how they will pay the bills. Gather in your children who wait for the doctor’s call or the test result or exam grade. Gather in the many whose wellbeing is always at risk and seems to hang in the balance.

Gather all of us.

We need your light, your love, and abiding grace.

Gather us, each one into your arms, all day, each day, until the last day.

Amen.

 

World News This Week in Prayer – January 31, 2019

But who can endure the day of his coming, and who can stand when he appears?
For he is like a refiner’s fire and like fullers’ soap; he will sit as a refiner and purifier of silver,
and he will purify the descendants of Levi and refine them like gold and silver,
until they present offerings to the LORD in righteousness.  ~ Malachi 3:2-3

Day after day, O God, we call to you for change and redemption in our broken world.  But Malachi reminds us that often change and redemption must begin with us, in the refining and purifying of our own lives and our own habits.  As we look at the news across the world this week, help us to see our own shortcoming reflected in the stories we read:

  • Remind us of the consequences of our abuse of the earth and our desire for lifestyles of convenience at the expense of your creation as freezing temperatures in the United States and record heat in Australia cause the deaths of people and animals.
  • Remind us of our responsibility to each other as unrest in Venezuela and Zimbabwe continues to disproportionately hurt vulnerable populations like women and those experiencing poverty.
  • Remind us of the effects of our desire for power and control as we watch millions of your children suffer in war-torn countries like Yemen, Syria, and South Sudan, where daily suffering is too often and too easily ignored.
  • Remind us of our power to effect change in our political systems, even as we watch with weary eyes as Brexit conflict continues in the United Kingdom, hateful and incendiary language continues to pour from government leaders in the United States, and countries around the world continue the trend of turning inward and denying their duty to care for the last and least of those you created and love.

Be with us, Holy One, as we look at the mirror that shows us who we truly are, facing with boldness the role that our sin plays in the suffering of our world and even our own friends and families.  Remind us that we can face our sinful selves without fear because we know that your purifying and refining grace have worked and will continue to work in each of us, transforming us into the people you call us to be so that we, in turn, might participate in your great mission of transforming the world.  Teach us to pray with deep conviction and purpose, God of love and redemption, so that we might learn that, in the words of Mother Theresa, “prayer changes us, and we change things.”

Amen.