Loving God, soften the hearts of political leaders in India and all who seek to destroy minority religious communities. Pour out your Spirit on Mennonites and all Christians of India who know and follow Jesus, that they may be steadfast in the face of persecution. Let your work of healing the nations restore peace between religious groups in all of India.
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Click here to read the president’s letter to Anabaptist-Mennonites of India |
Pray for Nepal which experienced floods and landslides from excess rainfall in June and July. Some 200 BIC families were affected. The country also saw a surge of coronavirus infections from the Delta variant. Most of the congregations in cities are unable to meet due to lockdown and few have had opportunity to be vaccinated. Pray that the church members of BIC Nepal would remain strong in their faith despite these challenges. Pray that the government may be able to provide vaccines to all the population quickly.
| Read more about Nepal |
We worship a God who hears cries of the suffering, attends to their welfare, and moves to save. In the Gospels, Jesus – the living example for the church – embodies God’s solidarity with those who are oppressed, ignored, rejected or treated as alien.
We mourn for hundreds of Indigenous children in Canada who in decades past died and were buried ñ separated from their communities ñ at residential schools where they had been demeaned and abused instead of cared for and educated.
We affirm Canadian Anabaptist leaders who declared*:
“We regret that, at times, the Christian faith was used, wrongly, as an instrument of power, not as an invitation to see how God was already at work before we came. We repent of our denominational encounters with Indigenous Peoples that at times may have been motivated more by cultural biases than by the unconditional love of Jesus Christ. We repent of our failure to advocate for marginalized Indigenous Peoples as our faith would instruct us to.—
As Mennonite World Conference, we commit to seek justice through challenging beliefs and systems of domination. We are grateful for and humbled by the witness of Anabaptist churches and agencies in Canada and elsewhere who are working with Indigenous groups toward restoration and reconciliation.
—See also MWC Statement of solidarity with Indigenous Peoples.
Cases of COVID-19 are surging in Indonesia after many people travelled and gathered in groups to celebrate the end of Ramadan. Jakarta and Central Java have been particularly affected. Entire households are being infected and many young people require hospitalization. Members of Mennonite congregations have been infected, so church services are fully online again. Many hospitals are at capacity; oxygen supplies for patients are also running low. Pray that this situation will not drag on causing economic and emotional depression. Pray for the government: may their hard work result in many vaccinations quickly, and may the community be disciplined in following health protocols to protect everyone.
Pray for peace and stability of Ethiopia and the Horn of Africa. We strongly request your prayers for our brothers and sisters in Tigray and Metekel areas. They need our support to heal from the trauma and rehabilitate. Pray for brothers and sisters who are persecuted because of their faith in some parts of the country. Pray for funds to rehabilitate people affected by natural and human-made crisis in different parts of the country.
—Meserete Kristos Church
The death toll has risen to the highest level in Burma’s Kalemyo, which is suffering from the third wave of covid.
Pray for Myanmar which is suffering a severe third wave of COVID-19 amid continuing political unrest after a government coup several months ago. A pastor reports 63 Christian pastors have died in Kalemyo including two from the small national Mennonite church. There is a severe oxygen shortage. “People are suffering because of the civil war and dying of COVID,” writes the pastor, whose name is withheld for safety reasons.
Photo: Empty oxygen tanks in Kalemyo, Myanmar
May our hearts and souls hold all of our global brothers and sisters in prayerful attendance while each of us struggles with the realities and consequences not only of the pandemic but of severe and violent oppression, economic disruption etc.
May our hearts and souls be opened to the small everyday miracles and huge kindnesses in the world directly surrounding us.
May our hearts and souls be filled with patience and gentleness towards all the people working so hard to help ease our way out of this pandemic.
May our churches find new and hopeful ways of being church in a world that changes rapidly.
May our focus be not on quantity but on quality, on gentle kindness instead of targets, on prayerful silence instead of barricades.
Farmer God who brings forth life from the earth,
We lift up to you the women and men whose livelihoods grow from the soil.
Christ who knelt in the dust,
We offer the broken places in our food system to your healing touch.
—Jennifer Halteman Schrock, a member of the Creation Care Task Force.
Pray for the emerging Mennonite Brethren conference in Ukraine (Association of Mennonite Brethren Churches in Ukraine – AMBCU).
Pray for the churches and for the small groups doing Bible studies and worship.
The churches are also meeting on Zoom.
Pray for those that are suffering from the virus. Pray for people suffering economically and the churches distributing food.
Reports from church leaders in Southern Africa
In the USA particularly, where racial injustice is a daily reality, may church members to engage in costly peacemaking, rooted in radical discipleship, seeking to dismantle systems of oppression anywhere we witness them.
We pray for healthy development of congregations, renewal where faith or togetherness has become encrusted, and good handling of conflicts where disputes have taken place.
Differences regarding COVID-19 compliance have caused disagreement between church members. Pray that the leaders of the church have wisdom to act wisely so the unity can be saved.
COVID-19 and the missed opportunities to meet in presence are changing congregations. Pray with us, that congregations will emerge stronger from these times