Friday 6 November 2020

Prayers For Peace

 

LNC PRAYERS FOR PEACE 2020

 

A Reading: from Isaiah 11:6-9 (NIV)

The wolf will live with the lamb,
    the leopard will lie down with the goat,
the calf and the lion and the yearling together;
    and a little child will lead them.
The cow will feed with the bear,
    their young will lie down together,
    and the lion will eat straw like the ox.
The infant will play near the cobra’s den,
    and the young child will put its hand into the viper’s nest.
They will neither harm nor destroy
    on all my holy mountain,
for the earth will be filled with the knowledge of the Lord
    as the waters cover the sea.

 

 

You are invited to share a few minutes with us as together we hold before God:

- our collective sadness for the wars that rage across this earth

- our shared remembrance for the wars of the past

- our firmest hopes for peace

- our dream to see an end to all violence

- our longing to see renewed dialogues that cross every boundary

 

 


 

Our collective sadness for the wars that rage across this earth

Even now there are people and places around the world where war and strife are a daily part of life. Places where generation after generation have fought the same enemy. Places where generation after generation children are raised to prepare for war.

At this time we hold before God, Armenia and Azerbaijan and the Nagorno-Karabakh border conflict.

We hold before God Syria.

We hold before God Yemen.

We hold before God the places whose conflicts are unknown to us, or are at this time relatively quiet.

 

We also hold before God the conflicts that happen within nation states.

Conflicts rooted in cultural identities.

Conflicts shaped by history.

Conflicts waged over resources and people.

 

In the silence we hold all this before God.

 

silence is kept

 

Lord in your mercy

Hear our prayer


 

Our shared remembrance for the wars of the past

As we look back on the wars and conflicts of the past, we recognise the complexity of history and we recognise that we see the events of the past from a very different perspective to those who fought in the midst of those conflicts.

We remember before God those wars waged as a response to acts of aggression by different nation states.

We remember before God those wars waged due to ideological and theological differences.

We remember before God those wars waged in the name and for the benefit of wealthy elites.

We remember before God that those who suffer as a result of war are by and large the marginalised, the poor – the ordinary people.

We remember before God those people and places that we hold close to us, people and places that have suffered due to war.

We remember before God those who have lived through wars and still carry the emotional and physical scars of those conflicts.

 

In the silence we hold all this before God.

 

silence is kept

 

Lord in your mercy

Hear our prayer


 

Our firmest hopes for peace

We bring before God our firmest hopes for peace.

Peace for those places and peoples currently consumed by war.

Continuing peace for those places where the violence of war has temporarily been laid down.

Peace for the hearts and minds of those who live in areas ravaged by wars for generations.

The hope of peace for those who have never experienced true peace.

Peace that goes beyond ceasefires and speaks of ongoing hopeful, hope-filled mutuality.

 

In the silence we hold all this before God.

 

silence is kept

 

Lord in your mercy

Hear our prayer


 

Our dream to see an end to all violence

We dream of a day when violence ceases.

A dream that is barely imaginable.

A dream that is so far removed from our present experience that the very thought of it verges on insanity.

A dream that might not even be possible – and yet we recognise that this is the realm of dreams.

Out beyond the expected, in the hinterland beyond what is known.

And so we hold to this dream as a worthy dream.

 

In the silence we hold all this before God.

 

silence is kept

 

Lord in your mercy

Hear our prayer


 

Our longing to see renewed dialogues that cross every boundary

For peace to truly blanket this world will require a level of interdependence and dialogue that is beyond imagining.

For dialogue to penetrate the hates of generations, the stories of generations and the experiences of generations would be miraculous.

And so we long for miraculous dialogues between neighbours, forever foes and former friends.

We long for the unexpected to bloom as flowers in the desert.

We long for words of grace to be spoken.

We long for open ears.

We long for receptive hearts.

And we recognise the ease by which such words are written and spoken by those detached from conflicts drenched in the suffering of the generations.

We recognise this.

And yet we also recognise our vocation as peace-makers and peace-speakers.

We long for earnest dialogue.

Dialogue that breaks down the barriers of pain and rejection.

Dialogue that acknowledges differences and difficulties and yet still seeks for something more.

We long for dialogue that reaches out beyond the sanctuary of what is known, to embrace the longings of the forgotten.

We long for dialogue that gives voice to the voiceless, those whose worlds have been torn apart by war.

We long for dialogue that strives for peace and mutuality, prophetic dialogue that is not dismayed by adversity but still hungers for peace.

In the silence we hold all this before God.

 

silence is kept

 

Lord in your mercy

Hear our prayer

 


 

The Lord’s Prayer

Our Father in heaven,

hallowed be your name,

your kingdom come,

your will be done,

on earth as in heaven.

Give us today our daily bread.

Forgive us our sins

as we forgive those who sin against us.

Lead us not into temptation

but deliver us from evil.

For the kingdom, the power,

and the glory are yours

now and for ever.

Amen.

 


 

A Prayer of Blessing

Creator God,

We long for your peace

To reign in this world and in our hearts

Help us to be messengers of peace

Empowered and blessed

By the power of your Holy Spirit

All this we pray

In the name of the Father

The Son

And the Holy Spirit

Amen.

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