Holy One, Source of all peoples, you call us to rejoice with those who rejoice and to weep with those who weep. Hear us now, as we bring you the week’s sorrows and its small, stubborn joys. Lord, in your mercy, hear our prayer. We weep with the people of Iran, Kuwait, and the Gulf […]
Unknown, Unnamed, Un-prayed For: Prayers After Mass Shootings and Protest Deaths in Tanzania (April 23, 2026)
Unknown. Unnamed. Un-prayed for. This morning began with the news of a mass shooting at a mall in Louisiana, U.S. And of a special balloon release at a preschool, to commemorate two of its students who were killed over the weekend in another mass shooting, along with six siblings, also in the U.S. Yesterday, an […]
Let God’s People Go: A Prayer Remembering the Slave Trade and All Held Captive Today (August 22, 2024)
Editor’s note: 23 August is recognized by UNESCO (United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization) as the International Day for the Remembrance of the Slave Trade and its Abolition. This date was chosen as an acknowledgement of the revolution in Saint Domingue, today the Republic of Haiti, that began in late August 1791 as a […]
For Childhood Lost: Prayers for Children in DR Congo, Gaza, Ukraine and Forced Labor (July 4, 2024)
Holy one of fire and transformation, O lord, upon us is the unfolding travesty begun more than fifty years ago with the U.S. intervention and destabilization in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. The news today reports of the world’s largest humanitarian crises as fighting and defending the mineral extraction industry in the east by […]
A Wideness in God’s Mercy: A Confession for the Global Water Crisis (March 23, 2023)
World in Prayer- Thursday, 23 March 2023 “There’s a wideness in God’s mercy like the wideness of the sea”… so goes the old hymn. And we, your created ones, created to be co-creators with you, cling to this truth, Gracious One, often as a way of letting ourselves off the hook for our failure to […]
We Didn’t See Them, But You Did: A Prayer to End Human Trafficking and Forced Labor (January 12, 2023)
On the dawn of a new year, we pray for the strength of convictions to the common good for leaders beginning new terms, especially President Lula da Silva of Brazil, whose government faced an overthrow attempt last weekend, and the new leadership in the House of Representatives of the United States. For courage for our […]
World in Prayer Is on Vacation: An Invitation to Join Our Volunteer Prayer Writers (July 28, 2022)
World in Prayer is on vacation this week. Sort of. The truth is that our extraordinary prayer writers and editors are all volunteers, and by sheer chance, it turns out that several are facing family/job/life changes simultaneously. Which left us without anyone able to write the prayers for this week. But that also makes this […]
Turning the World Upside Down: Prayers for the Uttarakhand Dam Disaster and a Wounded Creation (February 12, 2021)
There has been an unexpected glitch preventing the prayers being edited and posted as usual yesterday for which we apologise. Here they are now. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . […]
God of Peace, Make Us Whole: Advent Prayers for Tigray, Workers, and World AIDS Day (December 3, 2020)
In this second week of Advent, we light the candle of peace. What does it mean for us to seek God’s peace? Is peace a lack of conflict, or is it more? The word so often used for peace in the Bible can also be translated as wholeness. May we seek God’s wholeness this week. […]
Help Us to Hear These Voices: Prayers for Housekeepers, Child Soldiers, and Beirut (August 6, 2020)
Dear Lord, help us to hear these voices. I pray today that my knees and back hold up. I pray that my mom and children are ok in our two-bedroom apartment while I work at a hotel and clean 15 rooms each day. I pray that my paycheck will be enough, that my car holds […]