World in Prayer

Sharing in God’s loving compassion for all

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.

For God So Loved the World: A Lenten Prayer of Wonder and Hope (March 12, 2015)

 World News in Prayer for March 12, 2015   For God so loved the world… Gracious and holy one, God of all creation, God of all people everywhere, it is so easy, as we journey through this season of Lent, to get lost in the wilderness of pain and sorrow we see in the world […]

Renewing the Rainbow Covenant: Prayers for Malawi’s Floods and a Warming World (February 5, 2015)

The story has it, God, that only a few generations after you created the world and pronounced it “Good”, you looked down and saw that it was filled with wickedness. So much so, that you decided to wipe out every living creature. Except for the family of one righteous man – Noah – and a […]

Light in the Darkness: A Prayer After the Charlie Hebdo Attack (January 8, 2015)

There is no wisdom, no insight, no plan that can succeed against the Lord. Proverbs 21:30 The rich and the poor have this in common, the Lord is the Maker of them all. Proverbs 22:2 Lord, when will You tear the heavens apart to make Your will known and show Your might?   Yes, I […]

Black Lives Matter: A Prayer Against Violence and Modern Slavery (December 4, 2014)

Oh. Dear. God. No.  Not again. I thought I knew what I was going to write for tonight’s prayers. And then I turned on the computer, and read that in the United States, yet another unarmed Black man had been shot, dead, by a police officer. Jesus. I am speechless, beyond shock. Everything I could […]

Thy Will Be Done: Prayers for Ferguson, Ukraine, and Kashmir’s Floods (September 4, 2014)

O God of every tradition, we pray thy will be done. We are assaulted second by second throughout the 24-hour news cycle by words and images that describe so many ways in which it is not done: Nation and would-be nation bargain over beheaded journalists in the Middle East Nation and nation rattle sabers over […]

For the Healing of the Nations: A Prayer for the Children of Syria (July 31, 2014)

Is anything too hard for the Lord?  Genesis 18:14 Healing of the nations.  I watched a documentary on BBC TV called “The Children of Syria,” which followed children for several months from all sides in the war. Watching them parrot the hate for their former friends as taught them by their adult family and community […]

Be Still, for the Presence of the Lord: A Prayer for Meriam Ibrahim (June 26, 2014)

“I will create a pathway in the wilderness and rivers in the desert.” Isaiah 43:19 Beloved Holy One, Amidst the muted roar of nighttime and early morning traffic on highways, the stench of diesel and gasoline, the noise of human living, You are here. YOU ARE. Praise be! Whatever our situation – in town, village, […]

All Shall Be Well: A Prayer with Julian of Norwich for Refugees, the Chibok Girls, and Mothers (May 8, 2014)

This week in the liturgical churches, we commemorate the death of Saint Julian of Norwich and her “Revelations of Divine Love”, the first known book in the English language written by a woman. And Sunday is sometimes called “Good Shepherd Sunday”, reminding us of God’s unbounded providence and grace. In the United States, it is […]

Searching for Olympic Goodness: A Prayer for Sochi, the Mogadishu Bombing, and UK Floods (February 28, 2014)

Creativity God, we search for wholeness because your energy within us desires such. With this in mind, we see the incessant news from our world that seems to portray more brokenness than ever before. A week ago, those in the United States were reminded by one Olympic national news correspondent that “…no amount of Olympic glory […]