Prayer for peace for the Middle East

Pax Christi Interfaith Prayer for Peace

O God, you are the source of life and peace.
Praised be your name forever.
We know it is you who turn our minds to thoughts of peace. Hear our prayer in this time of crisis.
Your power changes hearts
Muslims, Christians and Jews remember, and profoundly affirm, that they are followers of the one God,
children of Abraham, brothers and sisters;
Enemies begin to speak to one another;
those who were estranged join hands in friendship;
nations seek the way of peace together.
Strengthen our resolve to give witness to these
truths by the way we live.

Give to us:
Understanding that puts an end to strife; Mercy that quenches hatred, and Forgiveness that overcomes vengeance.

Empower all people to live in your law of love. Amen

PAX CHRIST International Catholic Movement for Peace

We are now a Kairos Community

Yesterday (9th July 2014), the PCC of St John the Baptist Parish Church , Crowthorne, voted unanimously to become a Kairos Community. The PCC has asked our Kairos Group to prepare a Kairos Programme of Action of consideration at their next meeting.

This is just a small step, but hopefully many others in the UK will join Kairos Britain to respond to the call of all the Churches in Jerusalem.

Need for prayer

The abduction and killing of three young Jewish men in the West Bank has resulted in a massive increase in the Israeli Defence Force activities. Many Palestinians have been arrested and life has been made even more difficult. Feelings are running high among both Jews and Palestinians. Several Palestinians have been killed by the IDF. One young Palestinian has been killed by Jews in retaliation.

Gideon Levy writes today in Harretz, a liberal Jewish newspaper based in Jerusalem:-
The youths of the Jewish state are attacking Palestinians in the streets of Jerusalem, just like gentile youths used to attack Jews in the streets of Europe. The Israelis of the Jewish state are rampaging on social networks, displaying hatred and a lust for revenge, unprecedented in its diabolic scope. Some unknown people from the Jewish state, purely based on his ethnicity. These are the children of the nationalistic and racist generation – Netanyahu’s offspring.

For five years now, they have been hearing nothing but incitement, scaremongering and supremacy over Arabs from this generation’s true instructor, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. Not one humane word, no commiseration or equal treatment.

They grew up with the provocative demand for recognition of Israel as a “Jewish state,” and they drew the inevitable conclusions. Even before any delineation of what a “Jewish state” means – will it be a state that dons tefillin (phylacteries), kisses mezuzot (doorpost fixtures with prayer scrolls), sanctifies charms, closes down on the Sabbath and keeps strict kashrut laws? – the penny has dropped for the masses.

The mob was the first to internalize its true significance: a Jewish state is one in which there is room only for Jews. The fate of Africans is to be sent to the Holot detention center in the Negev, while that of Palestinians is to suffer from pogroms. That’s how it works in a Jewish state: only this way can it be Jewish.

Today's old testament reading in Order for Anglican Morning prayer comes from Deuteronomy Chapter 24 and includes:-

You shall not deprive a resident alien or an orphan of justice; you shall not take a widow’s garment in pledge. Remember that you were a slave in Egypt and the Lord your God redeemed you from there; therefore I command you to do this.

When you reap your harvest in your field and forget a sheaf in the field, you shall not go back to get it; it shall be left for the alien, the orphan, and the widow, so that the Lord your God may bless you in all your undertakings. When you beat your olive trees, do not strip what is left; it shall be for the alien, the orphan, and the widow.

This is the Jewish Law - how sad it no longer applies. 

Please pray for the situation in Israel and Palestine, that the current inhumanity and injustice may be replace by justice and peace for all.