Prayers and Liturgies
A litany for the moment
Responsive reading: one voice for the regular text, all voices for the bold text. All voices join on bold and italic text.
God of surprising birth
You are not the saviour we expect,
Your power does not look like the power
We want our God to demonstrate.
We wait.
We wait in darkness.
We wait in anguish and we wait in hope.
We wait, knowing that we need one another and Your presence to grasp hope
We have harmed and been harmed through words and deeds, and in the things we have chosen not to do.
We know the harm is not the end, we know that together and with You harm can transform to harmony.
God of foolish birth
Your grace baffles us.
You meet us where we are and, mercifully, we are not left where we were found.
We watch.
We watch in anticipation of this grace.
We watch, peering into the darkness knowing that Your light can be found.
In our clumsy ways we hope to reflect Your grace to those around us.
May we humbly accept those gifts from each other, knowing Your transformative power can make them what they are meant to be.
God of humble birth
You disrupt our assumptions of You and of one another,
Transforming judgment to understanding; discrimination to solidarity; mercilessness to compassion.
We wonder.
We wonder at the audacity of Your manger birth, modelling the power of weakness.
Though the work can be difficult, when we live Your call to justice and mercy.
We honour Your surprising, foolish and humble birth. Amen.
—Compiled by Karen Suderman from Voices Together #896, Robert McAfee Brown, Anne Lamott, the Anglican Book of Common Prayer.
Prayer for peace in our world
In coming together for worship, we recognize the importance of this act – the act of creating community and establishing communion. It reminds us of the importance of recognizing one another as part of our community. We also recognize how we are one small part of a broader family of faith that also comes together, forming a global community. Together we remember the body of Christ.
In coming together, we also recognize that many within our faith family – some across the street; some in different parts of the world – experience the realities of war, violence and oppression. We come from countries that are broken because of ongoing war. We also continue to do the hard work to overcome the pain and brokenness that such violence and brokenness causes.
We recognize the ways in which many within our global communion demonstrate their resiliency as worthy children of God despite being oppressed and dehumanized.
We know and experience and are shaped by war, violence and oppression.
And, as we reflect on our common faith in Jesus Christ, the Prince of Peace, we know that war – and preparation for war – will not bring peace.
- Causing others to die from famine will not bring peace.
- Bombing others will not bring peace.
- Killing will not bring about peace.
- Taking economic advantage of others will not bring about peace.
- Building walls will not bring about peace.
War causes destruction. It tears at the fabric of our lives and our relationships, and creates rubble of communities, countries and people’s hopes and dreams.
Responding to violence with violence causes us to become that which we do not want to become. We want to witness to life, not death. We want to heal wounds, not inflict more wounds. We want to build relationships and reconcile those that are broken, not entrench divides and separation between one another including those with whom we may differ. We want peace, not further violence and war.
We call on ourselves and our siblings on the front lines of wars to make the bold move and commitment to lay down their firearms so that they can use their arms to hug and be hugged.
As we see the those who are different from us – those across a cultural, national or ideological barrier – to have the courage to love: to refuse to see enemies but rather beloved children of God and potential friends.
We call on those in places of political authority to open your hearts and minds and imaginations to practice creativity, not rigidity and stubbornness, to overcome difference through dialogue instead of domination and division. We invite you to free yourself and others from the imprisonment that such separation creates.
We call on ourselves and all of our siblings to recognize how nationalistic ideology and separation fails to bring safety and security. Safety and security only comes about when relationships with our neighbours and our global siblings is fostered. We therefore call on all of our siblings around the world to show hospitality to others so that life may be extended and received both by the one receiving and by the one extending hospitality. Hospitality is a life-giving posture.
Let us work and dedicate ourselves to the peace that is only possible when we pursue and embrace each other, so that justice and peace may kiss, thereby challenging the root causes that causes conflict in the first place! This is Jesus’ life-giving peace; it is Christ’s peace!
May we witness to Christ’s way of peace in and for our world.
—Andrew G. Suderman is the secretary of the Peace Commission. He lives in Harrisonburg, Virginia, USA.
A pastoral letter regarding war in the Middle East
Beloved sisters and brothers
The escalation of war in the Middle East today is a source of fear and grief for our Anabaptist family around the world. For some, this is a new reality, for others it adds to the burden of violence carried for years or decades from local conflict. We see all of those who are being crushed under the machinations of the mighty; we mourn and we ask for God’s merciful presence among them. We condemn any justification of war as part of God’s will.
We invite our prayers to move us to action. And we invite our actions to be our prayers.
Our allegiance is not to presidents or kings but to the Prince of Peace. As members of a Historic Peace Church – that is, a church dedicated to the ways of peace – we follow Jesus, the Prince of Peace, who calls us to radical love of enemy.
This love trains our hearts to see God in the human “other” whether enemy or friend.
This love gives us the courage to seek justice.
This love calls us to pursue right relationships interpersonally, at the level of organizations, among states and peoples, and with the rest of creation – all of which suffer harm amid conflict.
The power of Christ’s love rallies us not to pride that defends nations or ideological purity but to compassion for those who are suffering – regardless of national identity or political affiliation.
The teachings of Jesus remind us that the enemy is not the other person but our own instinct to create barriers and fall victim to enmity itself. We pray that as we find the courage to love, God’s transformative power would break cycles of violence that divide, oppress and kill.
Justice must accompany peace. Indeed, peace can only be present when justice that is restorative, truth-seeking and reparation-oriented is embodied. We confess our failure to seek a just peace. We ask the Holy Spirit to teach us humility and equip us with the courage to love. We ask for the wisdom to recognize and speak truth with prophetic clarity and self-giving love. We ask for the boldness to confront injustice despite risk to ourselves.
We resolve to speak out – whether to governments or fellow citizens – to question uncritical support to sources of ongoing violence and death.
As a global Anabaptist communion, we renounce violence – as Jesus did. We commit ourselves – as Jesus followers –to transforming unjust systems through active nonviolence. We call for states to cease investing in war and instead to begin the hard work of seeking the ways of peace – a peace that does not come through guns, missiles, or violent force – so that all may flourish.
Our words seem small and inadequate in the face of the crisis, yet we reaffirm our conviction that
“The Spirit of Jesus empowers us to trust God in all areas of life so we become peacemakers who renounce violence, love our enemies, seek justice, and share our possessions with those in need.” (Shared Conviction 5)
Lord, in your mercy, hear our prayer.
In the name of Jesus, Prince of Peace,
Henk Stenvers
president, MWC
A blessing for the moment
In the work of waiting
May God give you joy
In baffling grace
May God carry you
In the difficult work
May God give you peace.
Go, cloaked in the surprising, foolish, humbling love of God.
