World in Prayer

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.

World News This Week in Prayer – Thursday, January 10, 2019

And a voice came from above, “You are my beloved child; I love you.” – Luke 3:22

Baptized in water, sealed by the Spirit, marked with the sign of Christ our king:
Born of the Spirit, we are God’s children; joyfully now God’s praise we sing.
                                                    Michael Saward, tune: BUNESSAN

 Holy One, you who love us beyond measure, you who regard each of us as your own beloved child, we come to you thirsty for the Good News; thirsty for forgiveness, thirsty for justice, thirsty for healing for this earth and all its peoples. Open our eyes, minds, and hearts to the realities of the world in which we live, that we might be filled with your compassion for all those who are in need or in pain, those who are lonely or in danger, those who are without a voice, and those for whom daily living is a trial beyond belief.
Hear us, Gracious God; your mercy is great.

We pray for all those for whom home has become a dangerous place: for the refugees fleeing to the United States from Central America; for Rahaf Al-Qunun, a young Saudi woman who has been granted refugee status by the United Nations and is being welcomed by Australia; for people from South Sudan, Yemen, and Syria who have been forced to flee home for their very lives. May they find a home in your compassionate love, and may we do our best to provide that love in our own lives and neighborhoods.
Hear us, Loving God; your mercy is great.

 We pray for all those for whom justice has become a fleeting dream: for the people of the DR Congo, where the presidential election is still in dispute; for Nazanin Zafhari-Ratcliffe, the British-Iranian citizen who has been held in an Iranian prison for 1000 days and is being denied medical care; for the countless numbers at the southern border of the United States who long to have their requests for asylum heard; for those caught up in the United States criminal justice system for minor crimes and misdemeanors. Grant us courage to speak up and speak out when we see such injustices; grant us the awareness to see these people as our sisters and brothers, your own beloved children.
Hear us, Just God; your mercy is great.

We pray for those for whom freedom of speech is at risk, especially for the people of Venezuela and Guatemala. When they need someone to speak for them, let us not turn away but speak out in ways that are both daring and healing, that the leaders may know that their citizens have sisters and brothers in other places who care deeply.
Hear us, Courageous God; your mercy is great.

 We pray, with thanksgiving, for the ways in which the schools of Capetown, South Africa, are making welcoming accommodations for transgender students, letting them know that they are of value, telling them with actions that they are God’s beloved children. Open our hearts to reach out to those in our own countries, in our own neighborhoods, in our own families, who need our hospitality and our acceptance, even as we need yours.
Hear us, Welcoming God; your mercy is great. 

All of this we pray in the name of the One who Loves, the One who Comes, the One who calls us each sister or brother. Amen.

World News This Week in Prayer- Thursday, January 3, 2019

Even youths will faint and be weary, and the young will fall exhausted;

but those who wait for the Lord shall renew their strength,

they shall mount up with wings like eagles,

they shall run and not be weary, they shall walk and not faint.

Isaiah 40:30-31

Heavenly God,

How can we ever thank you? How can we thank you for another year of life.  Another year of blessings. Another year of your presence in our lives, whether we choose to hold on to you or not. Here we stand, Lord, at the beginning of a new year of life remembering this past year and thinking ahead to the next. While there is so much to consider, worry and look forward to in the next year, there is still so much to remember from the last. Help us, God, to gives thanks for the good and send us comfort for all the things which brought your people hurt, distress, and sadness in the last.

Lord in your mercy;  renew our sense of gratitude.

Lord, we lift up all who have struggled this past year, in particular those who have been left behind after their dear ones have gone to be with you in their new heavenly homes.  We lift up the many who have and continue to suffer and die in Yemen.  We lift up your children in all war-torn places who continue to suffer due to conflicts, wars, and crises which cover so many places and yet about which little is known in other parts of the world.  We ask that you walk alongside your dear children. May your strength wash over them as a blanket of healing.

Lord in your mercy;  renew our strength.

While this next year may bring pain and heartache to some of your children, may we find hope in knowing that you will always walk with us regardless of what may happen.  We ask that you be with the many families who are still separated from their little children at Mexico’s border.  While so many of us will never understand this kind of separation, we know that your presence is so necessary for your terrified children and their devastated parents.

Lord in your mercy;  renew our hope.

As we reflect on this past year, we remember all those who will no longer be a part of our lives in the coming days and months. We already know that our lives will not be the same without them, and yet we know that their memories will live on with us even though their presence feels so far from us. We particularly pray for the many who have died and the many still missing because of the volcano eruption and landslides in Indonesia.  May you bring solace to those overcome with worry because of their still missing loved ones.

Lord in your mercy;  renew our memories.

God, while it may seem that this year will be the same as the last, help us to cling to you and have the courage to share your hope and divine love with everyone we meet as we re-imagine our lives as not only our own, but as your own blessed children. For this and for your hope, we give thanks.  May you continually nurture our voices that we might share your love with all. Hear these words, Lord, that we might continually draw near to you.

Lord in your mercy;  renew your people.

Amen.

World News This Week in Prayer – Thursday, November 29, 2018

Holy One,

When what we have is yours and what we receive is a gift from you, we offer up our words of prayer in the knowledge that you are the Word from whom all our prayers flow. We pray with grief for the things that have broken your heart; we pray with joy for the things that have made you dance.

We pray with awareness that we cannot fix the world, but, instead, we can learn to see and taste and touch and know this world as your Creation. In this time and space, we try to take our next step of faith and in so doing, we hope to discover you.

We pray for that which fills us with grief: the devastation from wildfires in California (USA); the violence inflicted on asylum-seekers at the Mexico-United States border; the ongoing conflicts in Yemen; the cruel treatment of the Rohyinga in Myanmar; all who care for someone who struggles with addiction and mental illness; all who wait and watch and weep at the bedsides of loved ones this week.

We pray for that which fills us with fear: the unfolding havoc of climate change around the world; the flaring tensions between Ukraine and Russia; the continued fallout from the murder of Saudi journalist Khashoggi; the precariousness of a Brexit deal; the rise of raging, hate-filled political rhetoric in countries near and far from us.

We pray for that which gives us strength: the compassion of strangers who care for migrants in the Mediterranean and in Central America; the rise of women leaders in Ethiopia; the energy of students who fight gun violence in the United States; those who believe we belong to each other; those who live as if we belong to you.

Lord, teach us how to love what you love. Show us how to nurture what you nurture. Reveal to us how to speak your Word, today and in the days to come.

Amen.

World News This Week in Prayer – Thursday, November 22, 2018

Note: Words in italics are from Ps 8 (NRSV)

O Lord, our Sovereign,
    how majestic is your name in all the earth!

As cosmologists view a “ghost galaxy” hidden in sight…
You have set your glory above the heavens.

As the UN tries to recruit more women to be Blue Helmets peacekeepers, Mali has the grim distinction of being the deadliest active peacekeeping deployment in the world…
Out of the mouths of babes and infants
you have founded a bulwark because of your foes,
to silence the enemy and the avenger.

As astronomers announce the discovery of a planet around our nearest neighbor star…
When I look at your heavens, the work of your fingers,
the moon and the stars that you have established;

As a U.S. federal judge blocks an order issued by President Trump to deny the possibility of asylum to migrants crossing the southern border illegally…
what are human beings that you are mindful of them,
mortals that you care for them?

As environmentalists battle to protect the only place in the world where orangutans, rhinos, elephants and tigers still co-exist in the wild (the Leuser Ecosystem in Sumatra, Indonesia) from destruction by companies producing palm oil…
Yet you have made them a little lower than God,
and crowned them with glory and honor.

As spurious health claims about diseases carried on clothing are used against the providers of humanitarian aid in Mediterranean Sea…
Lord, what are human beings that you are mindful of them,
mortals that you care for them?

As children search for food in the rubbish of the streets of Yemen; while marine life dies as it engulfs plastic instead of food; as wildfires still smolder; as a volcano erupts in Guatemala; as Vietnam floods; as El Nino triggers severe weather in South America…
You have given them dominion over the works of your hands;
you have put all things under their feet,

all sheep and oxen,
    and also the beasts of the field,

the birds of the air, and the fish of the sea,
    whatever passes along the paths of the seas.

O Lord, our Sovereign,
    how majestic is your name in all the earth!