Prayers for Peace: Epiphany 2003

Some of this content has been superseded in time of war.

Prayers for world peace, for use by parishes, congregations and individuals around Epiphany, are available on the Church of England’s website An Invitation to Prayer. This website was originally created to stimulate prayer following the tragic events of September 11 2001. Epiphany, on 6 January, celebrates the arrival of the wise men bearing gifts for the infant Jesus. Dr David Hope, the Archbishop of York, has written to parishes saying “This is an appropriate season in which so to focus our prayer.”

The website address is www.invitationtoprayer.org and it received 26,500 page requests on its first day. So far it has received more than 140,000 page requests.

This new initiative is set against the background of the breakdown of the peace process in the Holy Land and violence between Jews and Palestinians as well as the situation in Iraq. In recent debate, the House of Bishops “urged the British Government and the International Community to continue to pursue all available peaceful means towards resolving the crisis with Iraq.” This November, the General Synod heard specific calls for prayers for peace this Epiphany and the prayers on the website, reproduced here, are the result.

All this material is also available as a PDF document (176kb): right-click the link and choose “Save target as...” or “Save link as...” to save the file to your computer. You will need a PDF reader (available free from Adobe).

A Letter to Parishes from the Archbishop of York

17th December 2002

Dear Brothers and Sisters in Christ,

As we prepare to welcome and celebrate the birth of Jesus Christ, the Prince of Peace, we do so facing the prospect of a possible war in the Middle East. The breakdown of the peace process in the Holy Land and the continuing acts of violence among both Jews and Palestinians concerns us all. In recent months too there has been a gathering danger of war against Iraq.

In October the House of Bishops “urged the British Government and the International Community to continue to pursue all available peaceful means towards resolving the crisis with Iraq...” and “...that to undertake a preventative war against Iraq at this juncture would be to lower the threshold for war unacceptably.” In November the General Synod indicated its support for this statement, and heard calls to pray for peace particularly at Epiphany.

I am writing to encourage parishes, congregations and individuals to pray for peace at Epiphany. This is an appropriate season in which so to focus our prayer. In this season we celebrate the revealing of Christ to the gentiles, through the visit of the Magi from the east to the new born Saviour.

Advent, Christmas and Epiphany all provide us with poignant reminders of God’s profound and deep love for his creation. Each season is pregnant with hope and the possibility of reconciliation, and the making of a new world, one in which God’s justice and peace come “on earth as it is in heaven.”

This is not a time for simply “hoping for the best” but rather of a commitment together in prayer and in hope that the God of peace will bestow upon all humanity his mercy and grace, for the sake of Jesus Christ in whose name we pray.

+ David Ebor:

Prayers

A better way

God of peace, overturn our warring;
God of mercy, awaken our forgiveness;
God of healing, guide us to a better way.

From Hasten the time: Prayers for mission; compiled by Christopher P Burkett; pub USPG. Use with permission

Epiphanytide prayer for world peace

Low at his feet lay thy burden of carefulness:
high on his heart he will bear it for thee,
comfort thy sorrows, and answer thy prayerfulness,
guiding thy steps as may best for thee be.

J S B Monsell

On reconciliation

Jesus, Reconciler;
be the encourager and sustainer
of those who strive for human reconciliation now.
Through all doubts and difficulties
keep alive in them
the vision of your better way.

From Hasten the time: Prayers for mission; compiled by Christopher P Burkett; pub USPG. Use with permission

Help us see in each other a family likeness

Lord of hope and compassion, Friend of Abraham,
Who called our father in faith to journey to a new future,
We remember before you the country of Iraq from which he was summoned,
Ancient land of the Middle East, realm of the two rivers,
Birthplace of great cities and of civilization.

May we who name ourselves children of Abraham,
Call to mind all the peoples of the Middle East who honour him as father.
Those who guard and celebrate the Torah,
Those for whom the Word has walked on earth and lived among us
Those who follow their prophet, who listened for the word in the desert
And shaped a community after what he heard.

Lord of reconciliation, God of the painful sacrifice uniting humankind,
We long for the day when you will provide for all nations of the earth your blessing of peace.
But now when strife and war are at hand,
help us to see in each other a family likeness, our inheritance from our one father Abraham.
Keep hatred from the threshold of our hearts,
and preserve within us a generous spirit which recognizes in both foe and friend a common humanity.

This we ask in the name of the one who came to offer us the costly gift of abundant life.

Alan and Claire Amos
(In Arabic Abraham is often called ‘El Khalil’ which means ‘the Friend [of God]’. Ur and Haran, the cities from which, according to Genesis, Abraham was summoned by God both lie within the territory of modern Iraq.)

A light in the darkness

A candle is a protest at midnight.
It is a non-conformist.
It says to the darkness,
I beg to differ.

Indian Proverb

For the peoples of Iraq

Lord, we pray fervently for the people of Iraq
facing the horror of a full-scale war,
and for those people who may be called upon to fight.
Help us to persuade world leaders to continue negotiations.
Help all of us: individuals, nations, governments and world leaders
to remember —
the unnecessary loss of life for millions of innocent people,
the scale of human suffering that war brings,
the right of Iraqi people to determine their own future,
the gross violations of human rights and crimes against humanity
that are committed in the name of war,
nobody has total power over any country or its people but God alone.
Let us be open to God’s words in our forthcoming decisions and try not to be God ourselves.

Fleur Dorrell, Mothers’ Union

A Call to Peace

Lord, help us to lead our world in the ways of justice and peace.
Help us to be at peace with ourselves,
our families, friends and neighbours.
May peace not conflict arise from our hearts wherever we go.
Help us to be active peacemakers —
to bring peace into the world by whatever means we are able.
Help us never to stand back and watch people suffer,
but to look for solutions in the smallest and the largest situations.
May our peace be a sign of strength and not of weakness,
that others may follow peace with peace. Amen.

Fleur Dorrell, Mothers’ Union

The Call

We must strive:
To bring the light of the Gospel to those living in darkness,
To bring the hope of the Gospel to those living in despair,
To bring the healing of the Gospel to the lonely,
the disadvantaged, the marginalized.
And to bring the peace of the Gospel to a divided world.

Pax Christi

Lord, come to our assistance

O Lord, you came to bring peace,
to offer reconciliation, to heal the separation between people,
and to show how it is possible for men and women to overcome their differences
and celebrate their unity.
You revealed your Father as a Father of all people,
— a Father without resentments or desires for revenge,
— a Father who cares for each one of his children

with an infinite love and mercy and
who does not hesitate to invite them into his own home.

But our world today does not look like a world that knows you, Father.
Our nations are torn by chaos, hatred, violence and war.
In many places death rules.

O Lord, do not forget the world into which you came to save your people;
Do not turn your back on your children who desire to live in harmony

but who are constantly entangled
in lust, violence, greed, suspicion, jealousy and
hunger for power.

Bring your peace to this world, a peace we cannot make ourselves.
Awaken the consciousness of all peoples and their leaders;
Raise up those who can speak and act for peace,

and show us new ways in which hatred can be left behind,
wounds can be healed, and unity restored.

O God, come to our assistance. O Lord, make haste to help us.

Abridged from a prayer by Henri Nouwen

For the unity of humanity

God, you have made us of one blood,
your common people,
and sent Jesus, to restore us by the shedding of his blood;
so direct us by your spirit,
that recovering our common humanity,
your world may be renewed in peace.

From Hasten the time: Prayers for mission; compiled by Christopher P Burkett; pub USPG. Use with permission

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