Prayers for Somalia

Drought across the Horn of Africa, food insecurity, and famine return again and again in the prayers for Somalia, together with conflict, evictions, and families displaced within the country and beyond it. Teachers working in hard conditions and Somalis met with travel bans abroad are remembered too.

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 […]

Beyond All Boundaries: Prayers for a Locust Plague in East Africa, Justice for Ahmaud Arbery, and Mothers (May 7, 2020)

Creator, Redeemer, Sustainer, we come to you in prayer today, longing to see and sense your presence in these uncertain times. We pray for your world, as we seek to understand and find a way to stop the spread of COVID-19. Bring comfort to those who grieve, remembering especially those in India who died or are suffering […]

We Are Listening: Locust Swarms in East Africa, Floods in Uganda, Earthquakes in Puerto Rico (February 6, 2020)

Will you love the “you” you hide if I but call your name? —Will you quell the fear inside and never be the same? Will you use the faith you’ve found to reshape the world around, through my sight and touch and sound in you and you in me? “The Summons” (Traditional Scottish song, words […]

A Prayer at the Turn of the Decade: For Nations at War and Hearts in Despair (January 2, 2020)

Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above. James 1:17 Oh Lord, there are many things that concern us and call us to prayer. We open our hearts to you in gratitude and wonder. We pray for those who rage and are quick to anger, for those who seem to be eaten up […]

Nurture Them, Shelter Them, Love Them: Prayers for 70 Million Displaced People and Juneteenth (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. […]

Safe in the Shadow of the Lord: A Prayer on Cheap Goods, Fake News, and Religious Persecution (March 7, 2019)

“Safe in the shadow of the Lord beneath His hand and power, I trust in Him, I trust in Him, my fortress and my tower.” – paraphrase of Ps 91 by Timothy Dudley-Smith Heavenly Father, Your word and being is of compassion, merciful care and everlasting love to all, regardless of merit. The response […]

Teach Us to Touch the Earth Lightly: Sectarian Violence, Deforestation and Zimbabwe’s Rangers (May 10, 2018)

Lord, we come before you Prayer is communication that invites at-one-ness with You, the source of our being. We call you God, and as revealed in the flesh, Jesus. We ask for empowerment. Transform us with the life-giving force of the Holy Spirit. Make us channels of the your Eternal Love, Light, and Grace. Help us to […]

A Prayer for Lovers: The Greatest of These Is Love, from Jerusalem to Myanmar to Zimbabwe (January 18, 2018)

Prayer for Lovers “Faith, Hope and Love Abide. But the greatest of these is love.” (1 Corinthians 13:13) Holy and Loving God, Your voice is so clear. Your message unavoidable: to love. We confess, Loving God, that we fall short despite your best efforts to teach. We heard your still small voice to Elijah. […]

Comfort, O Comfort My People: An Advent Prayer After the Travel Ban and Delhi’s Toxic Air (December 7, 2017)

Comfort, O comfort my people, says your God. Speak tenderly to Jerusalem, and cry to her that she has served her term, that her penalty is paid, that she has received from the Lord’s hand double for all her sins. (Isaiah 40:1-2, NRSV) God of comfort, we live in a world that increasingly reveals its disconnection from […]

A Reformation Litany at 500 Years: Prayers for Disaster Recovery, Iceland’s Forests, and Raqqa (October 26, 2017)

A 500th Anniversary Reformation Litany (Adapted from the writings of Lutheran reformers) Note: 31 October 2017 marks 500 years since the monk and priest Martin Luther nailed a series of statements calling for reform in the Catholic church to the door of the city church in Wittenberg, Germany. This action unwittingly set off the German […]