World in Prayer

Sharing in God’s loving compassion for all

Be Still and Know: A Prayer for the Gaza Ceasefire, California Fires and a World in Whirl (January 16, 2025)

Writer’s note: Unexpectedly, I am to write this week, with my mind in a whirl of clamoring news and imminent events. If the eminent theologian, Rowan Williams, uses the prayer method of ‘I turn up, and shut up’, it will more than suffice for my need and hopefully yours. Let us journey together under the […]

Gather Us In: Prayers for Israel and Lebanon, Haiti’s Elections and Storm Boris (September 19, 2024)

“How do you choose which news to include in the prayers?” That’s a common question those of us who take turns writing the weekly prayers get asked. Sometimes, it’s more pointed: “Why did you mention this, but not that?” But there’s neither magic nor malice involved – we are all too human. We gather news, from a […]

God of Rest, God of Renewal: Prayers for Kenya’s Protests, the Pantanal Fires and Hajj Heat (June 20, 2024)

God of rest, God of renewal, we come to you seeking to be renewed by your presence in our lives. So many of us work so very hard, and it can feel like we cannot afford to take time to rest. Too many are struggling to make ends meet, to survive, to go on for […]

Help Us to Learn to Love Again: A Prayer in Verse for Iran, Gaza, and the Texas Wildfires (February 29, 2024)

Loving God, Help us to learn to love again, To care as we did way back when. May we care as children do in simple ways. Give us some calm amidst the chaotic days. God, we are in a moment when we need time; We need your presence in order to overcome this climb. We […]

Love Come Down: Prayers for Gaza, Ukraine, Pakistan, and a Groaning Earth (February 8, 2024)

God of Love, As we turn from the light of Epiphany towards the shadowland of Lent, may we, your beloved, take comfort in the profound story of Love Come Down. Comfort in a Jesus who left the mountaintop of Transfiguration and came down into the low places of suffering and pain, power and violence, came […]

A Prayer on the International Day of Peace: Libya’s Flood Dead, Manipur, and Ukraine (September 21, 2023)

Bless the Lord, O my soul, and all that is within me, bless his holy name. Psalm 103:1 Holy One, We long to be faithful stewards of your love – to know, love, and serve you and each other with humility, wisdom and love, but God, at times, our world is full of despair that […]

Beloved One, Interrupt Us: A Prayer for Pakistan’s Churches, Maui’s Wildfires, and Silenced Women (August 17, 2023)

Jesus left that place and went away to the district of Tyre and Sidon. Just then a Canaanite woman from that region came out and started shouting, “Have mercy on me, Lord, Son of David; my daughter is tormented by a demon.” But he did not answer her at all. And his disciples came and […]

Fire, Earth, Water, Air: A Prayer for a Scorched Planet and the Amazon Rainforest (August 10, 2023)

*The framework for this week’s prayer is drawn from “The Four Elements and the Creation of Man,” written by Vladimir Moss, an Orthodox Christian theologian and historian.  https://www.orthodoxchristianbooks.com/articles/453/-four-elements-creation-man/ FIRE. “‘God is a consuming fire,’ says the apostle (Hebrews 12.29). And of the created angels who are filled with the Spirit of God it is said […]

The Story of Interconnection: Prayers for Typhoon Mawar and Uganda’s Anti-Gay Law (June 1, 2023)

Creating, Sustaining, Redeeming One – Through the dance of your interwoven union, we are continually directed towards the heart of the cosmos which is the beating pulse of Love. We look through global headlines, in our communities, our homes, and our very bodies and at times find it impossible to sense the unitive thread of […]