World in Prayer

Sharing in God’s loving compassion for all

Let Us Go Across to the Other Side: A Prayer for Those Fleeing Syria and for Our Own Storms (September 3, 2015)

When evening had come, Jesus said to his disciples, “Let us go across to the other side.” And leaving the crowd, they took him with them in the boat, just as he was. And other boats were with him. And a great storm of wind arose, and the waves beat into the boat, so that […]

Well May the World Go: A Prayer of Anguish After the Charleston Church Shooting (June 18, 2015)

Well may the world go, The world go, the world go, Well may the world go, When I’m far away. — Pete Seeger (c. 1973) For months now, this has been my wake-up song, a conscious choice to spend my first moments of each day letting go of all I can’t control, of all I cannot […]

Your Kingdom Grows in Day and Night: Prayers for China’s Children and Canada’s Schools (June 11, 2015)

Gracious Lord, we seek your Kingdom, which grows during both day and night. Help us, even when we do not know how, to remember that when things seem dark you are still at work in the world.   We pray for   China where the mass migration of parents looking for work have left millions […]

Love the Least of These: Prayers for Migrants Drowned Off Libya and for Chapel Hill (February 12, 2015)

As we prepare ourselves for the holy season of Lent, let us reflect in prayer on the words of our Lord Jesus Christ: that when we love the least of these, we love you, Lord. Help us to love the least of these in prison. We pray for prisoners throughout the world. We pray that […]

Free to Be Children: Prayers for Freed Child Soldiers in South Sudan and Mexico’s Missing Students (January 29, 2015)

He cried out, “I know who you are, the Holy One of God.”  Mark1:24b (NRSV) Surrounded by the presence of the Holy One of God, let us pray together. Holy One, we gather in worship this morning seeking your presence, your grace and your wisdom. Humbly we gather to hear your words of hope and […]

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 […]

What Does This Love Look Like: Prayers for Malala’s Nobel Prize and Boko Haram’s Captives (October 30, 2014)

One of them, a lawyer, asked him a question to test him. “Teacher, which commandment in the law is the greatest?” He said to him, “‘You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind.’ This is the greatest and first commandment. And a […]

Trusting in Your Power and Grace: Prayers for Ebola’s Orphans, the Nepal Avalanches, and Kobane (October 16, 2014)

“Give to Caesar what is Caesar’s, and to God what is God’s.”    –Matthew 22:22 NRSV God of majesty, your glory and wonder fills all of creation. In all corners of your world, beauty, truth and wonder abound. Sadly, there are times when we seem to forget that you, and you alone, are the great Creator […]