Prayer of Intercession – June 10, 2012

Spirit of Life and Love, we especially remember today the people of Syria.

Spirit of Life and Love, we especially remember today the people of Syria. We pray for an end to the massacres and violence in that country and lift our prayers to you for the victims, their families and others who have suffered. May your peace fill the emptiness of their lives and the chaos of their country. We ask, Lord, that Syria’s leaders and those who oppose them meet at a peace table to discuss what is best for the country. We look to the international community to play a meaningful role too by first setting aside their own national self-interests and seek instead to root their actions in a genuine desire to bring about peace for the Syrian people.

Spirit of Life and Love, we lift up to you our concern today for our environment in Hong Kong and that of our neighbors around the world. The life-giving and life-sustaining ability of our air, water and soil, Lord, continue to be threatened by our actions, and our inaction only ensures that the condition of our environment continues to deteriorate. We persist in our stubbornness, Lord, to put economics before the environment. Meanwhile, as our planet warms, people begin to suffer from more frequent and more destructive natural disasters, water becomes scarcer and food production becomes more difficult. You have blessed us with a beautiful world, Lord that gives us life and inspiration and nourishes our spirit. Grant us the wisdom, Lord, not to destroy your gift to us. We pray that the world’s leaders meeting near the end of this month in Rio de Janeiro will resolve their differences for the benefit of the world’s people that they represent as well as the air, water and soil on which we all depend for life.

Spirit of Life and Love, we mourn the death this past week of the Chinese democracy and labor activist Li Wangyang in suspicious circumstances. We pray for your comfort for his family, friends and others who knew him. We ask, Lord, that the authorities in China conduct a thorough and impartial investigation of his death and that justice be rendered if, indeed, his right to life was taken from him by others.

Spirit of Life and Love, we join our hearts and prayers today with others around the world to remember our sisters and brothers in Angola and Mozambique in southern Africa. We remember their years of suffering from war and poverty. We pray that their leaders will seek to serve their people instead of themselves and that the natural wealth of these lands will be fairly and justly shared among all the people.

Spirit of Life and Love, in all the prayers we have just offered to you, we realize that we have not heeded your voice that we have only listened to our own egos, our own desires, our own self-interests. We have become obsessed with power, with greed, with domination over others and over nature. What we have created in the wake of our delusions is a world of broken relationships, including a ruptured relationship with you. Forgive us, Lord, and continue to bless us with your wisdom and guidance even when we are deaf or apathetic or even ignore your voice.

Spirit of Life and Love, in our own faith community at KUC, we ask for your blessings for our new ministry in our old manse. Give us wisdom, Lord, that we may make the best use of this new resource for ministry. Meanwhile, as our children and youth face the pressures of exams, may you be with them, Lord, with your refreshing peace. For those of our family of faith who are ill or who are dealing with the challenges of poor health, we pray that your healing power will touch them and give them strength.

Spirit of Life and Love, we now pause to share with you in silence the joys and struggles of our lives.

Spirit of Life and Love, hear our prayers. Amen.

With Peace,

Bruce Van Voorhis

(Bruce Van Voorhis works in Hong Kong for Interfaith Cooperation Forum [ICF], a regional network of young Buddhist, Christian, Hindu, Muslim and indigenous activists working for justpeace at the grassroots level in South and Southeast Asia. ICF is a joint program of the Asia and Pacific Alliance of YMCAs [APAY] in Hong Kong where Bruce is based and the Christian Conference of Asia [CCA] located in Chiang Mai, Thailand.)