World in Prayer

Sharing in God’s loving compassion for all

Prayers for Venezuela

Hunger, inflation and economic collapse run through the prayers gathered for Venezuela, along with protest, contested elections, and the millions who have left in search of work and safety. Drought and regional tension appear here too, as do the quiet efforts made toward negotiation and return.

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 […]

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. […]

Grant Us Wisdom, Grant Us Courage: Prayers on Tiananmen, D-Day, and Protests in Nicaragua and Sudan (June 6, 2019)

“God of grace and God of glory on thy people pour thy power… Grant us wisdom grant us courage for the living of these days.” (Hymn, Harry Emerson Fosdick) Holy God, we sing our hymn of faith with faith, sometimes in the spirit of the modern proverb to “fake it ‘till we make it”. Our […]

Awaken in Us Compassion: Prayers for Midwest Floods, Cyclone Fani, and Ebola Health Workers (May 9, 2019)

Oh God, you who are always listening to us; you who hear the bird singing in the topmost branch against the blue, blue sky; you who know of the sobbing deep in the rubble after a bombing or the utterings of the newly-born. You, who are the heart of compassion, who gave your son Jesus […]

After Notre Dame Burned: A Holy Week Prayer for Sacred Places Under Threat (April 18, 2019)

Holy One, As Notre Dame Cathedral in Paris, France burned this week, so many millions of us were bound together in heartbreak. As Notre Dame emerged damaged but not fully destroyed, so many millions were bound together in hope. As we consider Paris and Notre Dame, we pray for fulfilling and fruitful work of healing and […]

Bless Our Mouths With Kindness: Prayers for Cyclone Idai, Venezuelans on the Move, and Rwanda (April 11, 2019)

God said, “See, I have given you every plant yielding seed that is upon the face of all the earth, and every tree with seed in its fruit; you shall have them for food. 30 And to every beast of the earth, and to every bird of the air, and to everything that creeps on the earth, […]

I Am About to Do a New Thing: A Prayer in a Time of Fear and Change (April 4, 2019)

“Do not remember the former things, or consider the things of old.  I am about to do a new thing…”  ~ Isaiah 43: 18 – 19a. (NIV) “For now my place is in him, and I am not dependent upon any of the self-achieved righteousness of the Law. God has given me that genuine righteousness […]

Tears Become Our Prayers: For Cyclone Idai’s Survivors and the Christchurch Mosques (March 28, 2019)

Holy One, In the dark of the night when tears become our prayers, we believe the Spirit intercedes for us, breathing through our lament. In the light of the day when fears hushes our voice, we believe that Christ listens to all that we carry in deep within our hearts. In the midst of life’s […]