We love you, Lord, and we’ve heard your voice… calling us to make you real and known in the world to all whom you place in our path, undergirded by prayer.
How do we pray and for what? Do you hear us? Or are we asking for the wrong things? Are we too impatient or too prescriptive, almost telling you what to do? Or should we be more like Rowan Williams, former Archbishop of Canterbury, who said, “When I pray, I turn up and shut up”?
God of creation, ever creating and transforming,
sometimes we long for stability over changes.
Help us trust your unchanging nature of love, faith and justice.
In so many situations where those in power dehumanise those suffering through no fault of their own,
injustice, exclusion, misogyny and hatred scapegoat those trying to protect and care for their families and friends.
We too often choose to not see or hear their cries for help and justice.
Petrostates and others who are economically seen as valuable to our interests are nurtured and supported despite human rights abuses of women, children, LGBQT+, indigenous peoples, dissidents and foreign workers. We name Kuwait, Saudi Arabia, United Arab Emirates, Iran, Iraq, Egypt, Israel, Palestine, France, USA, UK, India, China, Australia and so many other places in your world.
God of day and night, dusk and dawn,
sometimes we see only binaries.
Help us to notice the diversity of your people.
The dehumanising of refugees – whether children, pregnant women, families or individuals desperately trying to survive and avoid starvation, persecution and even death in the travesty of ‘honor killings’ – all are portrayed as numbers and not people, like each one of us, made in your image. In Christ we are all inter-connected. In one of so many actions across the globe epitomising this hostile approach, a junior UK government minister ordered the painting out of Disney cartoons at a UK refugee centre for traumatised refugee children travelling alone as ‘too welcoming’.
But Jesus said, “Let the children come to me. Don’t stop them! For the Kingdom of Heaven belongs to those who are like these children.” (Matt.19:14 NLT)
God of sun and moon, stars and comets,
sometimes we are stuck on the next big problem or debate.
Help us to pay attention to the not-so-little niggles of daily injustice and struggle.
The too many homeless or living in grossly substandard housing often with little access to safe water, sanitation, food, education and healthcare – never mind jobs and security – are too often blamed for their predicament. And no country in the world is free from this horror experienced by our brothers and sisters.
Yet Jesus said: For I was hungry and you gave me something to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink, I was a stranger and you invited me in, I needed clothes and you clothed me, I was sick and you looked after me, I was in prison and you came to visit me…. Truly I tell you, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers and sisters of mine, you did for me. (Matt. 25: 35,36,40)
God of sea and sky, horizons and margins,
sometimes we yearn to stay safe in the centre.
Help us to go out to the edges of your community.
We pray for those dealing with the devastating effects of climate change: floods in Himachal Pradesh, India and northeastern USA, deadly heatwaves in China and southern Europe, drought in central and southern Africa and Australia, heating of sea water affecting fish and other sea life off parts of the UK.
God of trees and flowers, bushes and shrubs,
sometimes we are determined to categorise.
Help us to move beyond easy words and assumptions.
We give thanks for all those who seek to be your hands, ears and hearts to care for our neighbours in need. For thereby we so often are healed of brokenness and isolation in ourselves as we reach out in love to others.
God of hawks and dolphins, of puffins and penguins,
sometimes we close our ears to new ideas.
Help us to come into dialogue with each-other,
hearing stories,
meeting other realities,
ready and willing to change our minds.
Amen
*Responses adapted from ‘Justice and Peace’ by Alex Clare-Young,
Member of the Iona Community at Community Week September 2021,
at the Prayers for Justice and Peace.
©️ The Iona Community, Glasgow, Scotland
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