World in Prayer

Sharing in God’s loving compassion for all

Prayers for France

Attacks and their aftermath, heatwaves, floods and storms, strikes and protest, and unsettled elections all appear in the prayers for France. Refugees and children at the Calais camp are remembered, along with justice for those harmed by people in trusted positions, and thanks is given for the climate agreement signed in Paris.

Father Earth and Mother Sky: Prayers for Indianapolis, Tigray, and India’s Oxygen Crisis (April 29, 2021)

Oh God, Our Father Earth and Mother Earth, Help us to center our hearts, our thoughts, our yearnings, to let go of past wrongs and uncertain futures, to let the air out and take a simple breath in – here in the present of your eternal time. We acknowledge the lands of our ancestors. We […]

They Shall Mount Up with Wings Like Eagles: Prayers for Myanmar’s Coup and India’s Farmers (February 4, 2021)

“Have you not known? Have you not heard? The Lord is the everlasting God, the Creator of the ends of the earth. He does not faint or grow weary; his understanding is unsearchable. He gives power to the faint, and strengthens the powerless. Even youths will faint and be weary, and the young will fall […]

Though I May Speak: Prayers for a Walled World, Famine, and the Storming of the US Capitol (January 7, 2021)

Editor’s note:  World In Prayer needs a few more writers and editors!  Our team consists of 12-15 volunteers, from several different countries and continents. Each week, one person writes the prayers in response to international news. A second person then edits and posts the prayers online.  Because we rotate who writes and edits, you would end up serving […]

A Different Kind of King: A Christ the King Prayer for Afghanistan, Ethiopia, and Tigray (November 19, 2020)

In 1925, Pope Pius XI established the Feast of Christ the King, also known as Christ the King Sunday, as a corrective to a major worldwide shift toward nationalism.  This feast day is included in the Revised Common Lectionary and is celebrated by most mainline Protestant denominational groups. O Christ, what can it mean for […]

Your Peace in Place of Our Violence: Prayers for Walter Wallace Jr, EndSARS, and Syria (October 29, 2020)

We meet you in prayer this day, asking for hope and guidance during these times of great uncertainty. We lift our hearts in prayer for all those protesting police brutality: In Philadelphia, PA, U.S., where Walter Wallace, Jr., a black man experiencing a mental health crisis, was shot and killed by police. In Nigeria amid […]

Be Strong and Courageous: Prayers for Nigeria’s Protests and Western Wildfires (October 22, 2020)

“I hereby command you: Be strong and courageous; do not be frightened or dismayed, for the Lord your God is with you wherever you go.” Joshua 1:9 Dear God, Our world is changing in ways that we never imagined.  We are in need of your unwavering love. We live in a world which holds so […]

Teach Me Your Way: A World Teachers Day Prayer for Kyrgyzstan, Storm Alex, and Yemen (October 8, 2020)

Editor’s note:  World Teachers’ Day has been celebrated internationally on 5 October each year since 1994, commemorating the anniversary of the adoption of the 1966 ILO/UNESCO Recommendation Concerning the Status of Teachers, which establishes standards for teacher rights and responsibilities, as well as teacher preparation and support.  This year’s theme, “Teachers:  Leading in Crisis, Reimaging […]

May You Be Well: Prayers for Farmworkers, the Moria Camp Fire, and Sudan’s Floods (September 10, 2020)

May you be well, And all whom you love, And those you work with, And all who eat of the crops you handle. That has been my prayer/mantra at least one afternoon a week for the past month, as I joined with other volunteers to prepare 100,000 Covid-19 prevention kits to be given to agricultural […]

Kitten-Shaped Prayers: Ethiopia’s Oromo Protests, Hong Kong’s Security Law, and a Myanmar Landslide (July 2, 2020)

The World in Prayer team member who wrote this week’s prayers has spent the past 6 weeks catching, taming, and finding homes for a litter of feral kittens. It has, she says, definitely affected how she understands God, and how she prays for the world. “You’ll have to forgive me,” she writes, “if these prayers […]

Is There No Balm in Gilead: Prayers After George Floyd, for Cyclone Nisarga and a Grieving World (June 4, 2020)

Is there no balm in Gilead? Is there no physician there? So why has the healing of my dear people not come about?  ~ Jeremiah 8:22 Is there no balm in Gilead, Holy God? For we, your people, desperately need a balm, a healing, a sense that the desperate pain we are feeling will come to […]