World in Prayer

Sharing in God’s loving compassion for all

Prayers for Syria

Syria appears here mainly through the long war and its displacement, with families scattered into neighboring countries and beyond, health care and shelter in short supply, and religious minorities among those held in prayer. Chemical weapons, ceasefire talks and repeated negotiations are named plainly, along with thanks for those who help.

Teach Our Eyes to Smile: Prayers for Chernobyl’s Wildfires, Front Line Workers, and Nations in Crisis (April 30, 2020)

Dear Lord, Sometimes we feel so alone and unprepared and exhausted. Sometimes we feel forgotten and stepped upon. Lord, remind us to breathe, to look outward and to look inward. Lord, remind us that in praying we are doing your will. Help us to examine ourselves and to prepare for each day, knowing you are […]

Praying With Psalm 116: A Pandemic of Grief, Lost Work, and Famine of Biblical Proportions (April 23, 2020)

Praying with Psalm 116 in this time of pandemic* We love you, O God, because you have heard the voice of our supplications, because you have inclined your ear to us whenever we called upon you. (Psalm 116, v. 1, adapted) Because you have been faithful to us, O God, from time immemorial, bringing us […]

Come, Lord, Take Our Fear Away: Tennessee Tornadoes, Floods, and Children at the Borders (March 5, 2020)

Then I acknowledged my sin to you, and I did not hide my iniquity; I said, “I will confess my transgressions to the LORD,” and you forgave the guilt of my sin. … (God said) I will instruct you and teach you the way you should go; I will counsel you with my eye upon […]

Your Kingdom Come: Prayers for Drought in Zimbabwe, Violence in Cameroon, and War in Syria (February 20, 2020)

World News in Prayer – Thursday, February 20, 2020 We offer our prayers for the growth of God’s kingdom in our world today, uniting our voices with Christ, who perfects our prayers. Let us pray. Holy Rock, when our world trembles and quakes, when plagues of locusts take over, and when drought and wildfires wreak […]

One Ecosystem: Prayers for a Calving Antarctic Glacier, Locust Swarms, and Syria’s Displaced (February 13, 2020)

Ah, Lord God, our creator, our father.   The world is changing.  Again. It’s difficult to realize, as I write when the sky is wall to wall blue and a plane suddenly adds a tracery of white, that that interesting line is part of what is changing our world. As another huge iceberg calves from […]

One of Those Sleepless Nights: A Prayer for a World That Will Not Let Us Rest (January 16, 2020)

Dear Friends in Prayer, Did you ever have one of those sleepless nights? When, after three hours of perfectly wonderful, refreshing sleep, you are suddenly awake, wide awake, for no apparent reason? And when, despite watching a couple of shows on your Kindle Fire (or whatever you resort to during wakeful hours), your mind is […]

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 […]

The Prince of Peace in a Weary World: A Christmas Prayer for Refugees and the Poor (December 26, 2019)

As we approach the end of another year, we tend to reflect and look back over the last year or decade but unless this informs our choices and behaviours going forward it is in danger of being an empty and futile activity. So many have expressed frustration, anger or disconnectedness with the political process in […]

Be Gentle With Us: Prayers for the Kurds, Typhoon Hagibis, and Lebanon’s Wildfires (October 17, 2019)

Be gentle with us, O Lover of Souls. Be gentle with us, for surely in this fractured and fracturing world, that above all is what we need: To (re)learn to be gentle with ourselves. To be gentle with each other. To be gentle with our planet. Be gentle with those – especially with those – […]

I Have Called You by Name: Prayers for Hong Kong, Iraq’s Protesters, and the Turkey Syria Border (October 10, 2019)

[Yay, our website is finally back up!  If you subscribe to the email edition of World in Prayer, we apologize that you’re getting last week’s prayers again.  Unfortunately, we have no way of telling the email service to skip a post that we’ve already sent out manually.] But now thus says the Lord, he who […]