Prayers of Gratitude and Intercession

MWC Prayer Network: Click here for more information about what the Prayer Network is and how to sign up. If you would like to share a prayer with us, please write to prayers@mwc-cmm.org.

God of justice, we pray for vaccine equity around the world. We cry with those who are suffering without opportunity to be vaccinated. Soften the hearts of political and pharmaceutical leaders to release vaccines and patents to low income countries. We pray especially for our brothers and sisters in Tanzania where less than one percent of the population has been vaccinated. We thank you for the generosity of our members who care for the sick through physical aid and donations to UNICEF’s vaccination campaign.

08 October 2021

Creator God, we come to You in the name of Jesus Christ, desiring Your redemptive kin-dom to come and Your will to be diligently done here on earth as it is in heaven. We pray that the Holy Spirit may empower believers to recapture the vision of what you saw when You said what You had created was very good. 

O God, raise us all to be compassionate witnesses to one another and the environment as we lift up the beloved community to walk in a new humility, meekness, and love.

O God, breathe on us once again, in Jesus’ name we pray.

Amen!

Sibonokuhle Sibanda, Creation Care Task Force


Read more

How environmental crises impact church communities

 

01 September 2021

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.

Click here to read the president’s letter to Anabaptist-Mennonites of India

25 August 2021

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

 

10 August 2021

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 – separated from their communities – 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. 

*Statement of Anabaptist church leaders, Truth and Reconciliation Commission Hearings, Edmonton, Alberta, Canada, March 2014 

06 August 2021

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.

17 July 2021

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

16 July 2021

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

Click here to read more

 

15 July 2021

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.

12 July 2021

Farmer God who brings forth life from the earth,

We lift up to you the women and men whose livelihoods grow from the soil.

  • For those unsettled by a changing climate;
  • For those who wrestle when land stewardship and market realities clash; 
  • For those who find joy in farming but have no land;
  • For those who have land and skills but lack markets and successors.
  • And for those who have no access to fresh, healthy food.

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.

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08 July 2021

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.
 

04 June 2021

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.

17 May 2021

Reports from church leaders in Southern Africa

  • Praise God for good rains. Most families will have enough food from their own fields this year.
  • Let us pray for peace before, during and after upcoming elections in Zambia.
  • BIC Church Zimbabwe is planning to hold District Councils in May 2021. Pray also for the BICC Zimbabwe General Conference this year to become a reality this year (Proverbs 16:3).
  • Pray for the BIC church school students and all the schools in Zimbabwe to be protected from COVID-19 infection (Psalms 91: 9-10).
  • Pray for profitability in the church business units as they begin to recover after the lockdown.
  • We thank the Lord that BICC South Africa managed to get a piece of land.
17 May 2021

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

13 May 2021

Waves of infection, an extra-contagious variant, high deaths have resulted in a humanitarian crisis in Brazil. Pray for Anabaptist-Mennonite churches struggling with reduced finances to continue to show love to their neighbours. Pray for wisdom about how to hold church services in a low-risk manner.

10 May 2021

God delivers the needy when they call,
the poor and those who have no helper. . .
From oppression and violence he redeems their life;
and precious is their blood in his sight.

Psalm 72:12-14

God of compassion, have mercy on all who are in danger or who live in fear in Colombia.

Soften the hearts of government and military leaders, and turn them away from violence. Protect your people from physical or spiritual harm. Strengthen your church to follow the way of Jesus in these difficult days.

Give followers of the Lamb vision and courage to be ministers of reconciliation.

Lord, in your mercy, hear our prayer.

In the name of Jesus, Prince of Peace, amen.

J. Nelson Kraybill
President, Mennonite World Conference

Click here to read the president’s pastoral letter to Anabaptist-Mennonites of Colombia

 

06 May 2021

Pray for the increased attention of congregation members from the three Mennonite synods in Indonesia to support Assembly 17 in July 2022. Pray for the efforts of Indonesian research centres to produce a COVID-19 vaccine to support the government’s target of reaching 70 percent of the population by the end of 2021.

04 May 2021

We thank God for keeping us safe despite the COVID-19 pandemic. Though with challenges, the church has continued worshipping God. We eagerly await being together again.

Pray for spiritual revival of the congregants (Psalm 85:1-6). We pray that the world may know Christ the Saviour.

Pray for wisdom for national church leaders as they give guidance and counsel to the church.

Pray for economic recovery and that government leaders will have the fear of God as they lead so that there will be peace (1 Timothy 2:1-2).

God owns the silver and the gold (Haggai 2:8). Pray for new ways of fundraising for the Lord's work in light of the COVID-19 challenges. May God restore and open up opportunities even during difficult time for his people who people lost incomes.

We have lost church members including the leaders due to COVID-19. Let us pray for comfort, spiritual strength and provision for widows in the church and the families of all the deceased” (James 1:27).

01 May 2021

We call upon the Lord for India and for all nations in pandemic distress:

Living God, how long can this tsunami of suffering and death prevail? Reach down from on high to draw your children out of mighty waters.

Bring healing and salvation.

Sustain exhausted pastors, medical staff and other caregivers.

Comfort those who mourn, and supply what each nation needs to come through this torment.

Lord, in your mercy, hear our prayer!

Click here to read a pastoral letter from the MWC president to Anabaptist-Mennonites of India

 

29 April 2021

“Out of the depths I cry to you, O Lord. Lord, hear my voice!” (Psalm 130). 

We hear accounts of military forces torturing and killing peaceful protesters, raiding houses and destroying property in Myanmar. A democratically elected government has been displaced. COVID-19 has caused suffering and death, and the people of Myanmar now face increased food and fuel costs at a time of high unemployment. 

God grant our sisters and brothers strength to follow the way of Jesus, “wise as serpents and gentle as doves” (Matthew 10:16). 

Kyrie eleison, Lord have mercy!  

 

Click here to read the president’s pastoral letter to the church in Myanmar 

15 April 2021

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