World in Prayer

Sharing in God’s loving compassion for all

Prayers of Contrast: Bombings in Istanbul and Jakarta, and Flint’s Poisoned Water (January 14, 2016)

Your love is steadfast, O Lord, but how fickle we are. We are never satisfied. In our dissatisfaction we destroy that which we do not understand and devastate that which satisfies as if there is never enough. Our prayers are prayers of contrast as we recognize political, financial and economic pressures are very different across […]

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 […]

Let There Be Light: Prayers on Secret Trade Deals and Mexico’s Disappeared (October 9, 2014)

In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was with God in the beginning. Through him all things were made; without him nothing was made that has been made.  In him was life, and that life was the light of all mankind. The light shines […]

Wind Who Makes All Winds That Blow: A Pentecost Prayer for the Church and a Groaning World (June 5, 2014)

Wind who makes all winds that blow, gusts that bend the sapling low, gales that heave the sea in waves, stirrings in the mind’s deep caves: aim your breath with steady power on your church, this day, this hour. Raise, renew the life we’ve lost, Spirit God of Pentecost. Loving God, Creator God, your children are […]

With Ashes on Our Foreheads: A Lenten Prayer for Freedom, Hunger, and Human Rights (March 6, 2014)

Morning Psalm I open my heart, Loving God… I place myself in your hands… I breathe in the beauty of the rising sun… I savor the gift of another day of life. Wherever this day leads, let me rest in the assurance of your presence with me, in me, around and under me. Let me […]

We Pray the Promise: An Ash Wednesday Prayer for Ukraine, South Sudan, and Syria (February 20, 2014)

First, a story. The first time I came to an Ash Wednesday service – in a time when churches were still very clear as to what the not-yet-baptized could participate in – I hadn’t thought to ask beforehand if I could receive the ashes.  So I rather uneasily followed the line forward, and the Rector paused, hesitated, when […]

Home by Another Road: A New Year Prayer for a World Still Broken After Christmas (January 2, 2014)

World in Prayer This Week – January 2, 2014 “And having been warned in dream not to return to Herod, they [the Wise Ones] left for their own country by another road.”  Matthew 2:12 (NRSV) God of dreams and desires, in this sacred season you reach to the world in rhythms beyond the rational.  An […]

God of Many Names: A Prayer for Ancient Hatreds, Burning Churches, and New Hungers (November 25, 2013)

“God of many Names,” we sing in our hymnbook. Holy God, we come to you from many places with many needs, calling upon you by many names depending on our needs. When all around us is injustice and oppression, we need you as Judge.  When all is broken and shattered, we need you as Reconciler […]