Dear Lord,Thank you for this day. Hold the victims of slavery, sex, and abuse in your hands. Give them the will, strength, and courage to defend themselves to your glory! Help them to bear the burden they have endured and hold fast their belief of your goodness through Christ. Amen
Shirley Greiman
Stir up your power, Almighty God, and guide us in the ways of justice and truth. Help us to love one another as you love us, that we may be strengthened and renewed by the Holy Spirit to right the wrongs done by those who do not know how to love. Grant our petitions, O Lord, for the sake of Jesus Christ, your Son our Savior. Amen.
The Rev. Dcn. Nancy R. Crawford
This is my prayer. We grieve the injustices that have been perpetrated against women throughout history, and we affirm the equality that you instilled when you created humanity.
We pray especially for women in the developing world, who are often most grievously affected by war, conflict, and natural disasters.
In your name, Jesus, we stand up against all violence against women. Amen
Linda Guest
We are the hands that rock the cradle. But what if our hands are battered and bloody? tremble from coercion? abandon the cradle?
We are the voices that sing the lullaby. But what if our voices are faint? shriek with rage? are silenced?
We are the eyes that behold the hope. But what if our eyes are closed? glazed with pain? ignore the vision?
We are the hearts that burst with reconciliation. But what if our hearts embrace forgiveness? flower with justice? redeem the violence?
By Margaret Faulk of Nashua, NH Vol. I of “Women’s Uncommon Prayers
The International Anglican Women’s Network (IAWN) has set the issue of violence against women and girls as its #1 priority for the next several years. Our General Convention has passed many resolutions on this issue. The women in the Episcopal Church have created this annual campaign through a partnership between ECW, AWE and EWC that began in 2010.
We encourage people — women and men, girls and boys — to mark the 16 Day period by using these prayers, every day during the 16 days, in personal or corporate prayer and worship. We also hope that sermons will be preached, articles will be written, and the bulletin insert will be used as we move through the 16 Day period.
Dear Episcopal Church Women, Over the past several months, members of the National Episcopal Church Women’s Board have observed the evolving events that have impacted the ministry of the United Thank Offering (UTO). We have felt the pain that has accompanied the changes and our hearts go out to all concerned.
Women’s ministry in the church has a long tradition, and we remember especially the Emery sisters who, in the late 19th Century, were instrumental in the formation of the Women’s Auxiliary and the Box Works. Today, Episcopal Church Women promote a daily, personal practice of prayers of thanksgiving in response to God’s blessings, and encourage tangible, intentional, and daily offering in gratitude for those blessings. In addition they provide UTO boxes in their parishes, place them on tables at their diocesan conventions, and gather them in every spring and every fall year after year. We are thankful for the legacy of women who have gone before us and for those who continue to work tirelessly today.
We are thankful most especially for the UTO leadership, the province leadership, the diocesan and parish coordinators, and the women, men and children who place coins of thankfulness in their UTO blue boxes. As a result of the generous giving of time, talent, and treasure by countless people, many have been helped throughout the world. The ECW Board supports the continuation of coins of thankfulness. We acknowledge and respect the wisdom of the women of the church to make their personal decisions pertaining to thankful giving.
UTO grants are awarded to churches and institutions throughout the Anglican Communion whose people are laboring diligently in the fields to bring about the fulfillment of God’s kingdom here on earth. Sweep away the hostilities, the mistrust and the utter dejection that have been experienced these last several months and what will be found is this: ECW stands firm in its desire to see the work of United Thank Offering continued. We pray that all future decisions will be made with coins of thankfulness in mind.
“For minds to think and hearts to love and hands to serve, we thank you, Lord.”
Your Sister in Christ, Nancy R. Crawford
Dome of the Rock
The Second Annual ECW Holy Land Tour is scheduled for December 1 through 11, 2014. The event is being coordinated by ECW President Nancy Crawford, Lynn Headley, and local Anglican guide and instructor, Canon Iyad Qumri.
Travelers will enjoy the beauties of the Mediterranean landscape, while visiting the holiest sites in the Judeo/Christian/Muslim faiths. They will visit the city of Nazareth (the home of the Holy Family), the Basilica of the Annunciation, the Church of the Nativity in Bethlehem, Shepherd’s Field, and the site of Jacob’s Well—where Jesus spoke with the Samaritan Woman.
The pilgrims will visit Capernuam and its ancient Synagogue, add their written prayers the ancient Western Wall, and take in the Church of the Loaves and Fishes and the Chapel of St. Peter’s Primacy. The agenda also includes a walk along the Palm Sunday Road, ending in the Garden of Gethsemane, as well as the opportunity to pray the Way of the Cross on the Via Dolorosa, and worship at the Church of the Holy Sepulcher.
Additional highlights of the trip include featured speakers from Muslim, Christian, and Jewish faiths, who will offer their unique perspectives of practicing faith in their regions.
O Lord, our Creator and Deliverer, you heard the cries of your people in Egypt and sent your servant Moses to lead them out of oppression. Hear our prayers for all your people who suffer from abuse and oppression, that we too might be a means to free them from their pain. O Lord, our Deliverer, Hear our prayer.
Bring to an end the divisions in your Church throughout the world, that unified in purpose, the Body of Christ may always remember and serve those men, women, and children whose suffering is hidden from our sight or painful for us to acknowledge.
O Lord, our Deliverer, Hear our prayer.
Bestow your grace on persons in positions of leadership throughout the Church, especially our Presiding Bishop, our bishop, and the laity and clergy in our parishes, that your Church may be holy ground where all your people can gather in safety and peace.
O Lord, our Deliverer, Hear our prayer.
Guide the leaders of all the nations, that your justice may be brought to all who have been wronged and that every country might be a promised land for its people.
O Lord, our Deliverer, Hear our prayer.
Open our eyes to those in our midst who suffer abuse, that we may also open our hearts to share their pain and bring them relief from their sorrow.
O Lord, our Deliverer, Hear our prayer.
Lift up all your people whose suffering is beyond their strength to endure, that they may feel the healing of your compassionate love.
O Lord, our Deliverer, Hear our prayer.
Strengthen all who care for the abused and who speak to the world of their pain, that they may find renewal for their labor in your healing presence.
O Lord, our Deliverer, Hear our prayer.
Remind us always that as you pardon all wrongdoings and heal all ills, we may also forgive those who inflict pain on others and pray for their restoration to wholeness.
O Lord, our Deliverer, Hear our prayer.
Hold in your loving care those who have died at the hands of others, and comfort those who mourn them with knowledge that you will bring justice and healing to all who have been wronged.
O Lord, our Deliverer, Hear our prayer.
O Lord, our Creator and Deliverer, you enlightened and strengthened Moses to be a prophet and guide to your people when they cried out for help. Open our hearts, our ears, and our eyes, that we might also work for justice and comfort for all who suffer abuse. This we ask in the name of your Son, our Savior Jesus Christ, who came to set at liberty those who are oppressed. Amen.
-The Reverend Nancy Casey Fulton
We pray for ALL who are subject to acts of violence, O LORD,
that they may be restored to soundness of body, mind, and spirit to serve as models of faith and hope, that by their good example we can learn to resolve conflict without harm, anger, or hatred, respecting the sanctity of life, and affirming our common identity as children of a loving GOD, who would have us all care for one another: that peace and good will may find a home in our hearts as well as our lives; now and forever. AMEN.
Prayer by The Rev. Gregory Johnson – Diocese of Hawaii – December 2012.
O God, you have loved each of us since before we were born, and you love each of us in equal and abundant measure. Yet we sometimes chose not to see ourselves in one another. We sometimes choose to live as though we were not the brothers and sisters we know ourselves to be. Pour your blessing upon all your people in every nation especially for the women and children in areas of unrest and violence, for whom we pray today, whatever their faith or ethnicity. Preserve their lives, deliver them from the terror of war, and, when this is over, guide them in the way of reconciliation and peace.
Bring them a deepening sense of their oneness in the human family, that those things that unite your people may be seen and felt as greater than anything that can ever decide us.
Amen.
-The Reverend Barbara Cawthorne Crafton Women’s Uncommon Prayers: Our Lives Revealed, Nurtured, Celebrated edited by Elizabeth Rankin Geitz, Ann Smith, Marjorie A. Burke Morehouse Publishing, 2000
