Prayer of Intercession

Sunday, 21 October, 2012

Bruce Van Voorhis

Spirit of Peace, we pray for your spirit to fill the land of Syria. We ask for your comfort for the families of those who have lost one or more of their members and for your healing touch to renew those who have been injured. May the solutions to the country’s problems be found in words and dialogue and not in weapons and war. May the violence not infect Syria’s neighbors and spread death and destruction to other lands.

Spirit of Peace, we give thanks for the recent peace agreement between the government of the Philippines and the Moro Islamic Liberation Front, or MILF, after four decades of conflict. May this accord succeed where others have failed. May trust and respect replace the suspicions and animosity of the past between the Muslim Moro people and the country’s predominantly Christian population. May one’s identity and faith no longer be a barrier between people. May people learn to live as brothers and sisters created by a divine being.

Spirit of Compassion, we seek your blessing to mend and rebuild the life of Malala, the young Pakistani girl who was shot because she wanted an education for herself and others of her gender. We give thanks that she is now beginning to stand up and write.

Spirit of Wisdom, we ask that you will guide the words and actions of the new leaders of the United States and China who will be chosen next month and our own new government in Hong Kong. May they work to narrow the income gap in the lands they govern, serve the least of their societies instead of those with abundant financial resources and protect their minority populations from discrimination and exploitation. May they also uphold the human rights of their people, especially freedom of expression, assembly and association.

Spirit of Unity, we remember in the ecumenical prayer cycle today the churches and people of our neighbors in South Asia in India, Pakistan and Sri Lanka. May the divisions between people based on caste, religion and ethnicity in these countries become social relics of the past. May the political will be found and the institutions created to combat the corruption that retards development while it fosters impunity and provides fertile ground for human rights violations.

Spirit of Healing, we offer prayers for those in our church community who are ill to quickly regain their health, especially for a speedy recovery for Peter and Adrian from their surgery and for our pastor Phyllis from the flu. We remember too loved ones who are far away who may not be well as we feel anxious and helpless that we cannot be with them. We give thanks for the concern of our youth for the poor. May their sense of servanthood continue to grow and become a meaningful witness to others.

Spirit of Peace, Compassion, Wisdom, Unity and Healing, we now pause in silence to share with you the joys and concerns in our hearts.

Spirit of Peace, Compassion, Wisdom, Unity and Healing, hear our prayer. Amen.

Prayer of Intercession

Sunday, 14 October, 2012

Sunita Suna

God  our creator and sustainer of Life

We thank you for your magnificent creation with abundance of resources for all on this planet  to share and experience life in fullness. However, due to  human’s  insatiable greed for the worldly wealth we  human beings have broken our sacred covenant with you  by allowing injustices in our communities, society and in the world. God the resources what you created for all to have the benefit of, is unjustly  distributed   among communities, and nations. This has given rise to poverty, disease, exploitation, and violence. This unequal distribution of resources have caused a widening gap between the rich and the poor in this world where we are living today.

God, as we observe today the International Day for the Eradication of Poverty, we remember and uphold   almost half the world’s population — over three billion people — live on less than $3.00 a day .

We remember  those 40 million people who are living with HIV/AIDS and have no access to medication,

We remember  those 1 billion people who have inadequate access to water and sanitation,

We remember those billion children who are malnourished and struggling for life.

We remember those millions of women and men  who are forced to migrate to another country for poverty

God we live in an affluent city like Hong Kong, yet more than a million people are experiencing poverty in their day to day life. The resources are not equally shared among people in Hong Kong and the gulf between the rich and poor is ever widening

We specially remember and uphold those people, who are homeless, elderly, marginalized, migrants, asylum seekers in our prayer today. We also remember the political leaders and the decision makers of  Hong Kong government and seek your guidance and wisdom to be bestowed on them, so that they come up with programmes, and policies to create   HK where everyone can experience life with dignity and share joy, happiness and harmony.

God, we pray for the Churches in and around the world,. We are reminded today of Micah’s prophetic warning that all religious rituals, assemblies and sacrifices are useless if God’s people don’t do justice and love mercy and walk humbly with God (Micah 6:6-8).

You have taught us to share through the teaching of Christ,  when he fed more then 5 thousand people with 2 fish and 5 loaves. Help us to learn from Christ to share our resources and our lives with  the have-nots:  the poor; the homeless and  the hungry. As a faith community bring us together oh God, to engage in the cause to overcome extreme poverty and ‘make poverty history.’ We pray for the Churches, Communities, Individuals who are engaged in eradicating poverty. Strengthen them and empower them to continue their work.

May this prophetic voice enable us to

Open our eyes to see the invisible death and suffering of million precious lives in poverty

Open our ears to hear those cry and voices who are struggling for life

Open our mouth to speak out the injustices towards more than half of the world’s  population of this planet

We also  remember our congregation members, especially those who are sick and unwell. Thank you God for your healing touch to Simon, continue to help him  to recover completely.

In the Ecumenical Prayer Cycle, we pray for the people and churches of Bangladesh, Bhutan and Nepal.

We ask this prayer in the name of Jesus Christ, our savior and liberator. Amen