Pray for Peace

Thursday, February 24, 2022

We ask that you hold the people of Ukraine in your prayers.
May peace return swiftly to the region.
God, hear our prayer.

A Prayer for Ukraine from the Church of Scotland 

The news can be difficult to listen to and to read.
When that news relates to faces we know
and to voices familiar to us,
it becomes all the harder to hear.
Lord God,
We ask you to hold the people of Ukraine deep in your heart.
Protect them, we pray;
from violence,
from political gamesmanship,
from being used and abused.
Give, we pray,
the nations of the world the courage
and the wisdom
to stand up for justice
and the courage too,
to dare to care―generously.
Lord, in your mercy,
take from us all
the tendencies in us
that seek to lord it over others:
take from us those traits
that see us pursuing our own needs and wants
before those of others.
Teach us how to live in love
and dignity
and respect―following your example.
In your name and for your sake,
Amen

―Issued by Lord Wallace, Moderator of the General Assembly of the Church of Scotland, and the Very Rev. Dr. Susan Brown, convener of the Faith Impact Forum, Church of Scotland

(Source:  United Church of Canada website)

 

Statement on Ukraine from the World Council of Churches

The World Council of Churches, with its member churches throughout the world, urgently appeals for peace for the people of Ukraine.

The World Council of Churches, with its member churches throughout the world, urgently appeals for peace for the people of Ukraine. As we follow the news of the mad progression towards war, we plead for a different logic than one based on geopolitical competition – a logic that considers the death and suffering that any armed conflict would inevitably visit on the children, women and men of Ukraine. We pray for a change of hearts and minds, for de-escalation, and for dialogue instead of threats. God’s people – and members of the ecumenical fellowship – find themselves on both sides of the current confrontation. But our God is a God of peace, not of war and bloodshed. Though the things that make for peace may be hidden from the eyes of those driving the march to war, we pray that they may yet be opened, and that peace may yet prevail.

Rev. Prof. Dr Ioan Sauca
Acting General Secretary
World Council of Churches 

(Source:  World Council of Churches website)

 

Categories: General News