2025 Liturgy Guide and Resources
for the Weekend of Prayer and Action Against Hunger 17-19 October 2025.
For this Weekend of Prayer and Action Against Hunger, Christians from all around the world will gather for prayer and worship around the theme of global hunger and food justice.
We offer this guide to support worship planners to develop a service of prayer or worship that fits your local context. You will find selections of prayers to choose from, which are offered to be used or adapted for your own community’s context.
“The Shared Table”
The wonderful thing about an artwork is that it can ‘speak’ to people in many different and varied ways. When I first saw this thoughtful piece, I was struck by three things:
The first is the empty chair. It made me think of the ‘unseen guest’ that we could consider Jesus to be. There is a well-known quote that has hung in many a dining room in days gone by: ‘Christ is the head of the home, the unseen guest of every meal, the silent listener to every conversation.’ This might leadus to consider what we might do or say differently if indeed Christ is dining with at our table. In this, there is also the challenge of who Jesus may be asking us to invite for a meal. I recall the words from Jesus’ parable of the sheep and the goats:
“For I was hungry and you gave me something to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink, I was a stranger and you invited me in, I needed clothes and you clothed me, I was sick and you looked after me, I was in prison and you came to visit me … Truly I tell you, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers and sisters of mine, you did for me” (Matthew 25: 31-46)
So, the unseen guest can be considered to be both our Lord Jesus and those who are thought of in the world’s eyes, to be ‘the least’.
The second thing that strikes me about the picture is the woman at the head of the table. She is the only one without food directly in front of her, and her poise is one of prayer. That brings to mind Jesus’ words that we “shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that comes from the mouth of God” (Matthew
4:4). We are called to trust God before all else, but also, in the face of scarcity and hunger, there is the promise of God’s miraculous provision:
Jesus took the five loaves and two fishes and in blessing the meagre meal it was multiplied, and there was not just enough to go round, but 12 full baskets left over. And just like the boy who shared his meal, in our offering what we have to the Lord, we can ask Him to bless and multiply it as it is shared with others.
The third thing that strikes me is the colour contrast in the picture. Half the table and half the woman are in light and half in shade, and in the rest of the picture it is a mixture. For me this is suggestive of the fact that our world is a mixture of light and darkness and that we always have a choice to make – to see Jesus with us at our table, to trust God for what we need and to share our meal with the hungry.
Questions for further reflection:
- What do you see in the picture? What are the main three things that strike you?
- Have you had a testimony to share of God’s miraculous multiplication and provision?
- Do any verses or passages of Scripture come to mind as you reflect on the picture?
- You might like to take time to respond to the picture creatively. Perhaps it will inspire a poem, prose reflection or picture of your own.
—Reflection By Sarah Larkin, Head of Communications and Marketing, Integral Alliance
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2024 Liturgy Guide and Resources
for the Weekend of Prayer and Action Against Hunger October 11-13, 2024
For this Weekend of Prayer and Action Against Hunger, Christians from all around the world will gather for prayer and worship around the theme of global hunger and food justice.
We offer this guide to support worship planners to develop a service of prayer or worship that fits your local context. You will find selections of prayers to choose from, which are offered to be used or adapted for your own community’s context.
“Enough to Share”
There are shared meals one will never forget. Years ago, I visited churches in Zimbabwe. It was a difficult time with incredibly high inflation and political turmoil with violence. We passed by a church building under construction in the suburbs of Harare. It was a working day. Spontaneously people came when they saw our cars. We sang and prayed together.
We were about to leave, but someone asked us to stay. Women went to their homes and came back soon with chicken, rice, and salad. We sat down and shared a meal together. What a sign of love and welcome. I was blessed by the gracious gift of food, hospitality, and care. It was like light rising in the darkness. I was reminded that God’s kingdom is not a future dream. It becomes real in the middle of the injustices and hardships we are facing, such as increase of hunger, wars, armed conflicts, climate change, most affecting those who only cause few carbon emissions, etc. God’s kin-dom is real, today, when we share food with one another, explore new ways to grow wheat and vegetables, see Christ in the stranger and become God’s beloved community.
Follow up questions:
- Do you remember meals that touched and even changed your life?
- With whom could you share food? Perhaps you wish to reach out to people with whom you never met for a meal?
- Look at your life and at your community in the light of God’s promises in Isaiah 58,6-12.
Any thoughts on how these promises transform yourself, your community and the world?
—Bishop Rosemarie Wenner
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Liturgy: Sharing food with the Hungry: Isaiah 58: 6-12
Conflict; an uneven global economic recovery from the COVID-19 pandemic; the effects of climate change; high inflation; as well as the rising cost of food, fuel, and fertiliser are driving a polycrisis that is pushing tens of millions of girls, boys, and their families into extreme hunger.
The number of people affected by acute food insecurity has nearly doubled over the past three years, from 135 million people across 55 countries and territories in 2019 to a record 258 million in 58 countries in 2022 Ð even more than last year’s mid-year projection that, without urgent action, 222 million across 53 countries and territories could face Ôcrisis’ (IPC 3) conditions or worse.
In the face of dire statistics, we know that hunger has a nameÉ
- Seven-month-old Hamdi weighed only 8.8 pounds in June when she arrived at a nurition clinic in Baidoa, Somalia. Health workers found her to have severe acute malnutrition, exacerbated by acute watery diarrhea and measles. Drought in Somalia is not only impacting access to food.
- Ten year old Peter in Kenya, whose family’s food supply has been impacted by drought and climate change.
- 1-year old Nadia in Afghanistan, displaced and experiencing severe malnutrition.
Nadia, Hamdi and Peter found help and support…but the situation globally remains a significant challenge. And hunger is in every neighbourhood and community.
These realities are true in a world where there is enough to feed everyone….and so we pray for justice, for hearts to act and serve and for systems to change to take steps to end hunger.
Worship resource
- Opening prayer
- Hymns & music
- Hunger today
- Prayer of Confession
- Scriptures
- Reflections
- Examples of action
- Prayers
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Why We Pray and Act Against Hunger
The Focus of our Gathering
Across the globe more than 41m people – around half of them children–are at risk of falling into famine in 43 countries. Famine is preventable and has no place in the 21st century. These people are not starving, they are being starved by conflict and violence; by inequality; the impacts of climate change; and by a fight against COVID-19 that has left them even further behind.
Time is running out. Action must be taken now to prevent the needless deaths of tens of thousands of children. If the world stands by and does too little too late, children will starve to death. Hunger will also force children and their families to make dangerous survival choices, such
as child marriage or child labour, and this will have lasting harmful consequences for girls and boys.
Up to 811 million people were hungry in 2020, up by 161 million from 2019. This is a 25% increase from 2019, which is greater than the total increase over the past 5 years. Hunger increased in all regions of the world. Asia has the largest total number of hungry people, but Africa has the highest proportion of its population.
In our time of worship, we will focus on the invitation from Jesus to follow him – ‘Feed my sheep.’
We have the assurance that God sees and knows and hears the cry of each person experiencing hunger in the world today and invites us to participate in their redemption, ensuring that the daily needs of all people can be met. Our response, in hope-filled obedience, is to join in God’s
redemptive work in the world.
Download worship resource below, a collaboration with ecumenical partners (Micah Global, Integral Alliance, ACT Alliance, World Methodist Community, Lutheran World Federation, The Salvation Army, World Council of Churches, WEA, World Vision) ⬇️
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“Give us each day our daily bread”
Across the globe, more than 41 million people – around half of them children – are now at risk of starvation in 43 countries. The global hunger crisis is driven by conflict, by climate change; and by the economic impacts of COVID-19. Even in countries where some have an abundance of food, many people are lacking the basics.
Mennonite World Conference is working with a large group of Christian churches and networks to launch a weekend of prayer and action 16-17 October 2021. This will coincide with World Food Day on 16 October.
Global church and network partners include ACT Alliance, Integral Alliance, Lutheran World Federation, Micah Global, Organization of African Instituted Churches, Salvation Army, World Council of Churches, World Evangelical Alliance, World Methodist Council and World Vision International.
It will be a time for us, as followers of Christ, to unite across denominations in solidarity with our sisters and brothers, praying for them and with them, so that they can live their lives without hunger, with dignity, in all life’s fullness, experiencing the grace and love of God.
During the course of the weekend, we invite our members to share a meal with other families and individuals, offer your prayers for those who are hungry, and reflect on the causes and impacts of hunger.
On Sunday, 17 October 2021, we encourage local congregations to focus on this global hunger crisis in their Sunday service.
Click on the resources below.