World Council of Churches Prayer Cycle (Week 52)

In God's Hands: The Ecumenical Prayer Cycle
At the very heart of the ecumenical movement is the reality of prayer. Jesus prayed that we may all be one, united in God in the mystery of the Trinity. That is the basis and the goal of our search for unity.

The Ecumenical Prayer Cycle enables us to journey in prayer through every region of the world and through every week of the year affirming our solidarity with Christians all over the world, brothers and sisters living in diverse situations, experiencing diverse problems and sharing diverse gifts. Lord, hear our prayer ...

This week we pray for:
Week 52 - Ghana, Nigeria

INTERCESSIONS

Give thanks for:

Christians and Muslims who take risks to work for dialogue and reconciliation between the two faith communities.
The councils of churches in these countries and their common witness.
Missionaries who brought the gospel, and growing independent churches which have found their own ways of being Christian.
Talking drums and rattles.
Ama Atta Aidoo, Wole Soyinka, Ken Saro-Wiwa and others who tell good stories from an African context.
Fufu, yams, cassava and peanuts.

Pray for:

The curtailment of deforestation.
A more just distribution of wealth and power.
Just and peaceful relations between members of different ethnic groups and between Muslims and Christians.
An end to human rights abuses against minority groups.
Those who suffer from malnutrition and diseases such as malaria, whooping cough and HIV and AIDS.
Better stewardship of the environment and natural resources.

PRAYER

We offer you, O Ruler of men and women and of heavenly beings, the gold of our costly service. Take the labour of our hands, the skill of our minds, the power of our organization. Purge us of pride, and stir us from sloth, that we, being refined by your grace, may become better servants of your kingdom, now and hereafter.

Amen.

We offer to you, our Lord and our God, the incense of our worship and our prayer. By the gift of your Holy Spirit, you have hung forth a star in the lowly heaven of every Christian soul; grant us eager feet to follow wherever it leads, until our searching souls are blessed with the vision of yourself, who are our heaven and our home, forever.

Amen.

We offer to you, O Man of sorrows, the myrrh of your church’s sufferings. When we have nothing else to give, this offering remains. Where you are on the cross, there also may your servants be. May your perfect sacrifice avail to make our light affliction redemptive in the world, that sharing the fellowship of your sufferings we may rejoice in the power of your resurrection, now and forever.

Amen.