World News This Week in Prayer – Thursday, May 1, 2025

I am about to create new heavens
      and a new earth;
the former things shall not be remembered
      or come to mind.
But be glad and rejoice forever
      in what I am creating…
– Isaiah 65:17-18

Behold the newness of the season – the flowers bursting forth, younglings being born, the Easter joy resounding. Truly a new earth is being born.

Come, Risen One, and sing new life and hope into your creation.

Even as the old ways of corruption and incompetence still rear their ugly heads

• In the U.S., where President Donald Trump removed Mike Waltz from his post as national security adviser for mistakenly adding a journalist to a chat group where sensitive military plans were discussed, and nominated him instead as ambassador to the United Nations
• In South Africa, where President Cyril Ramaphosa has announced a judicial inquiry into allegations of political interference in the prosecution of apartheid-era crimes. The Truth and Reconciliation Commission, set up in 1996, uncovered apartheid-era atrocities like murder and torture, but few of these cases progressed to trial

Come, Risen One, and sing renewed justice into your creation.

Even as the human predilection to seek power and solve problems through violence still reigns

• In Kenya, where a member of parliament was shot dead in the streets of the capital Nairobi by gunmen on a motorcycle in a suspected assassination.
• In Tanzania, Fr. Charles Kitima, a prominent Catholic priest and government critic, has been violently attacked amid rising political tensions ahead of elections due in October.
• In Pakistan, where officials claim the country has “credible intelligence” that India intends to launch a military strike within the next 24 to 36 hours.

Come, Risen One, and sing new reverence for all human lives into your creation.

Even as we try to reconcile the enormity of God’s love with the sometimes immense destructiveness of nature

• In the Democratic Republic of Congo, where torrential rains and floods have killed at least 33 people in its capital of Kinshasa
• In Peru, after a glacial lagoon in the Ancash region overflowed into the Casca River, causing a landslide that killed two
• In central Israel, where fires that ravaged large areas since Wednesday have largely been extinguished

Come, Risen One, and sing new strands of healing into your creation.

Even as protesters and authorities clash

• In Turkey, where hundreds of people were arrested in Istanbul, with 50,000 police officers deployed to the city as authorities attempt to crack down on May Day protests.
• On the streets of Gaza, more and more Palestinians are expressing open defiance against Hamas, the armed group that’s ruled the strip for almost 20 years. Many hold Hamas responsible for plunging the tiny, impoverished territory into the worst crisis faced by Palestinians in more than 70 years.

Come, Risen One, and sing new bonds of community into your creation.

• The U.S. has signed a deal to share profits from the future sale of Ukraine’s mineral and energy reserves
• North Korea has begun construction of its first road bridge to Russia, scheduled for completion by mid-2026
• India and Bangladesh imposed tit-for-tat trade restrictions, with businesses in both countries bracing for the impact
• Businesses in China are actively looking for new markets, to avoid the extreme U.S. tariffs

Come, Risen One, and sing a new fabric of cooperation into your creation.

Even as we see hope and promise in human intervention for endangered species

• A lynx born in a zoo in Cornwall could become the first United Kingdom zoo-born cat to be successfully released into the wild. Animals born and raised in zoos are rarely considered for release because they either don’t have the survival skills or have become too used to human interaction. But a shortage of female lynxes in the European breeding program led to the request for this one to be brought to Germany‘s Black Forest to be evaluated for possible release
• One of the world’s most endangered amphibians, the Mexican axolotl, has thrived after being released in artificial wetlands, scientists have discovered. In a study that provides hope for the long-term future of a creature that was pushed to the brink of extinction, scientists released 18 captive-bred axolotls in restored and artificial wetland close to Mexico City, where they survived and foraged successfully at both sites

Come, Risen One, release us too into newness of life.