Prayer of Intercession

Sunday, 28 July, 2013

Hope S. Antone

In sincerity and humility, let us now enter this moment of intercession.

Gracious and loving God, we thank you for your gift of forgiveness, despite our mistakes, failures and wrongdoings. Thank you for giving us another chance to follow your will and to live our lives worthy as your children.

God of health and healing, we thank you for the recovery of our friend, Michael; and we pray for those who are still suffering from various forms of sickness, dis-ease and discomfort. May your healing touch be upon them that they may remember your love and faithfulness.

God of love and comfort, we lift up to you the victims of the recent tragic train crash in Spain. May your comforting touch be upon those who were affected.

God of peace and harmony, we remember the countries in Asia and Africa where there is growing animosity, continuing conflict and increasing tension between groups and among countries. May your will for peace, based on justice, touch the hearts of their leaders that they may find peaceful and just ways to solve their problems and handle their differences.

God of abundance and fullness, we remember the people who have been affected by recent disasters – like the earthquake in China and the floods in India. May those who died find their rest; may the injured be healed; and may the survivors’ lives and homes be rebuilt.

God of freedom and liberation, we thank you for the release from custody of Chinese human rights activists Teng Biao and Hu Jia. But we also lament the imprisonment of Xu Zhiyong, and his lawyer Liu Weiguo, and the forced closure of their human rights organization. We pray for strength and perseverance of these and other freedom fighters.

God of refuge and help, we raise before you the plight of asylum seekers and foreign domestic workers here in Hong Kong. May the Hong Kong government help ensure their right to life with dignity. We specially pray for better protection of workers through secure and decent living accommodation.

God of all creation, we pray for the various ministries of Kowloon Union Church, especially our effort to do ecological projects such as composting and gardening. May we continue to find ways of living out our calling to be co-stewards of your creation.

Let us now join in praying for the churches and peoples in the Caribbean, including the Bahamas, Barbados, Cuba, Dominican Republic, Grenada, Guyana, Haiti, Jamaica, Trinidad and Tobago, etc. May they feel your faithful accompaniment as they face the challenges of resistance, tropical diseases, debt burden, dependence on agriculture, and vulnerability to natural disasters.

And even as we say these prayers, we also ask for your help so that we also become part of our prayers ourselves – and so that we become agents of your love, peace and justice, in our respective contexts.

Now, let us pray together as one family in the words that Jesus taught us [you are welcome to say the Lord’s Prayer in your own languages]...