International Day of Peace 21 September

The International Day of Peace, marked each year on 21st September, is a time for individuals, community groups, nations and international organisations to re-commit to the way of peace with justice.

The UnitingJustice Australia website provides worship resources, including a Call to Worship, Litany for Peace, prayers of confession and intercession, blessing and dismissal, UnitingJustice Australia is the justice unit of the National Assembly of the Uniting Church in Australia, “pursuing national matters of social and economic justice, human rights, peace and the environment.”

The International Day of Peace 2016 focused on three areas of injustice: gender inequality, climate injustice and nuclear arms.  “Through addressing these injustices, we move closer to reaching a just peace.”

Worship Resources on Peace:

Prayer performed each morning by His Holiness the Dalai Lama
(on the Global Ministries, USA site)
May I be a guard for those who need protection
A guide for those on the path
A boat, a raft, a bridge for those who wish to cross the flood
May I be
a lamp in the darkness
A resting place for the weary
A healing medicine for all who are sick
A vase of plenty, a tree of miracles
And for the boundless multitudes of living beings
May I bring sustenance and awakening
Enduring like the earth and sky
Until all beings are freed from sorrow
And all are awaken

Jesus said;
“Blessed are the peacemakers,
for they will be called children of God.”
We are called to be peacemakers,
to stand against injustice, inequality and oppression
For injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere.

Let us gather,
as the children of God,
committed to the call to peacemaking.
We gather, as the children of God,
God of peace is our refuge.
Let us worship God.

 

Resources for Prayer on Peace & Syria, Global Ministries, USA

For an excellent selection of ready-to-use prayer and worship resources gathered by Global Ministries, USA, click here.  Numerous resources helpful to congregations and individuals have been included, arising from a variety of faith traditions.

The Lord is my Light: a prayer service for Syria

A complete service is provided including:

Prayer inspired by Lamentations 5
Remember, O Lord, what has befallen your children;
Look, and see their pain and suffering.
Five years of tension, of scarce resources, of lost community and identity,
Their inheritance has been turned over to strangers, their homes, schools and businesses destroyed in the violence.
They have become orphans, fatherless; their mothers are now widows.
They are weary, but are given no rest.

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