World in Prayer

Sharing in God’s loving compassion for all

Love Never Fails: Prayers for Stranded Whales in New Zealand, the Oroville Dam, and Lahore (February 16, 2017)

Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. It does not dishonor others, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. It always protects, always trusts, always […]

Lord, In Your Tenderness: Advent Prayers After a California Fire and Indonesia’s Earthquake (December 28, 2016)

“Father in heaven, The day draws near when the glory of your Son Will make radiant the night of the waiting world. May the lure of greed not impede us from the joy Which moves the heart of those who seek Him. May the darkness not blind us To the vision of wisdom Which fills […]

Lord, In Your Mercy: Prayers for Mosul, Aleppo, Hurricane Matthew, and Thailand (December 28, 2016)

Once again, Lord, the voice of the prophets remains strikingly relevant through the centuries.  Joel 2:24-25a reminds us that: The threshing floors shall be full of grain, the vats shall overflow with wine and oil. I will repay you for the years that the swarming locust has eaten.  As we pray for people who are […]

The True Riches: Prayers After Storm Earl, Macedonia’s Floods, and Ethiopia’s Protests (August 11, 2016)

Loving God, Ancient of Days, so often we lift our prayers to you driven by our emotions. Frightened by the evident dangers- natural and man-made- which the world faces, we cry out clumsily like little children. Enraged by the evident injustices the world faces, we strike out verbally to establish our own opposition. Squelched by […]

Forgive Us Our Poverty of Spirit: Prayers After the Killings in Japan, Germany, and France (July 28, 2016)

‘Now this was the sin of your sister Sodom: She and her daughters were arrogant, overfed and unconcerned; they did not help the poor and needy’.  ~ Ezekiel 16:49 You, creator God, are merciful and just; loving all that you created and seeing that your works are good.   You draw all creation to you with […]

Lord, Have Mercy: A Prayer After Dallas, Baton Rouge, Istanbul, and Baghdad (July 7, 2016)

This has been one of those weeks, God…one of those weeks in which too many things have been happening- in my own life and in the lives of the rest of your children throughout the world. Here in the United States, we are reeling with not one, but two shootings of black men by police […]

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 […]

Let Us Go Forth: A New Year Prayer Amid Floods, War, and the Many Who Live on the Edge (December 31, 2015)

“Forgetting what is behind, and reaching towards what is ahead, I press towards the goal of the high calling in Christ”.     –Philippians 3:13-14 A new year, new resolutions, so often it is a new setting up of ourselves for failure and disappointment. As I sit here to the aural backdrop of Chinook helicopters trying to […]

Hear My Prayer: For Refugees Crossing the Mediterranean and the Chile Earthquake (September 17, 2015)

Mark 9:35: And Jesus said to his followers, Whomever wants to be first must be last of all and servant of all. We are not good at servanthood, loving God. We are not good at putting the needs of others first. We are not good at seeing through eyes of justice and compassion. Those are […]