World Week of Prayer for Peace in Palestine and Israel

Muli shani! Greetings from Zambia!
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This prayer for peace and justice in Palestine and Israel shared in today's chapel service here at UCZ University, was read by Esnat, a ministry student recently returned from a study programme in the Holy Lands.

She introduced the prayer with these words:
This week, the third week of September, is the World Week of Prayer for Peace in Palestine and Israel, a week set aside by the World Council of Churches, inviting Christians around the world to learn about life in Gaza, in the Holy Land, to learn about the destruction of homes by the Israeli government in order to build the dividing wall, the barrier, through the land.  It’s a week to set a plumb-line in the midst of God’s people there, not to be sure the wall, the barrier, between Palestine and Israel is straight, but to pray and work toward dismantling it, to bringing it down, a time to proclaim the straight and right path of God.

A prayer for the World Week for Peace in Palestine and Israel

God, loving Parent of all humankind,
You are our Peace.
In Jesus you embodied peace with justice –
And you still do—
Peace at its most down-to-earth,
Peace, which can still prevail
In the face of all the walls we build.
We pray for the people of Palestine and Israel,
especially the hundreds of Palestinian families
whose homes have been destroyed
to build the great dividing wall.
We hear their cry,
their helpless anger at the
wall of concrete cutting across their daily lives,
limiting their travel, study, and healthcare;
limiting their access to work, worship,
family connections, and even celebrations.
We pray for their children,
living in a world crossed by razor wire
that tears at flesh and draws blood.
We confess our complicity in maintaining barriers
of ignorance, fear, privilege, prejudice,
‘us’ and ‘them’.
But you are our peace,
with power to cut this wire for good,
to break down all our walls.
Help us hold up your plumb-line amidst your people,
to proclaim what is right,
and together share in the work of building peace,
the work of justice.
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Original prayer by Jan Sutch Pickard (WWPPI), expanded by Ana Gobledale
For the full text of the original prayer, click here.
Photo: The Wall, Palestine -Sadaka photo
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Ana's Zambia Journey blog link: https://zambiajourney.blogspot.com/