This Week's Prayer

The ancient Germanic goddess Ostara, or Eostre, from which we get the name Easter, brings renewal, rebirth from the death of winter. New life, from death. Blessed be.

The Torah tells of the escape of the Israelites from Egypt: a new life of freedom from the soul-death of enslavement. Blessed be.

The Christian Testament tells of a resurrection after crucifixion. New life, from death. Blessed be.

Every day there is news of death, violence, injustice, persecution.

Every day our faith, our hope, our trust in the possibilities of love calls us to live into new life. Life and love are risen.

Our hearts grieve the world’s sadness:

• The 147 university students killed in Kenya by al-Shabob. 
• All the victims of violence in the middle East: the battles of the Islamic State, and of Houthi rebels and their allies in Yemen. 
• The thousands made homeless, with uncertain food, from a monster cyclone in Vanuatu. 
• The people of Chile, enduring an eighth consecutive year of major drought; 
• and of California, instituting water restrictions; 
• and of Bangladesh, where climate change is raising sea levels and making drinking water much saltier; 
• and of Oklahoma, rattled by earthquakes, probably caused by wells used to bury vast amounts of wastewater from oil and gas exploration deep in the earth near fault zones.

Our hearts grieve all the world’s sadness.

Our hearts celebrate signs of progress for peace and democracy:

• An Iran nuclear deal could have a lasting positive impact on the Middle East. 
• Nigeria elected a new president and saw a peaceful transition of power from one political party to another through the ballot box – something extraordinary for that country.

We pray that light and love may indeed arise, and that we may make ourselves into the instruments for a world made whole and all her people one.