Photos from Interfaith Prayer Service for Peace
In October, 2008, ICPJ hosted an Interfaith Prayer Service for Peace in Iraq.
Here are photos and prayers from that event. You can also download a copy of the order of service
We Pray Together For Peace- written by Mary Ann Perrone
Reader: We are mindful of all victims of violence and war
All: We pray together for peace
Reader: We remember those who have died and the living left to mourn
All: We pray together for peace
Reader: We are mindful of families torn apart
All: We pray together for peace
Reader: We remember the children, especially the orphaned
All: We pray together for peace
Reader: We are mindful of those who bear arms against each other
All: We pray together for peace
Reader: We remember the millions who’ve been made refugees
All: We pray together for peace
Reader: We are mindful of those left homeless and hungry
All: We pray together for peace
Reader: We remember those who live in constant risk and fear
All: We pray together for peace
Reader: We are mindful of those who perpetrate violence
All: We pray together for peace
Reader: We remember those who make their voices heard for peace
All: We pray together for peace
Reader: We pray together
All: We pray together for peace
A prayer in a time of war– Christian, by Paul Versluis
God of compassion and grace, we pray for all the victims of this long war:
- We pray for those who have been directly affected by this war, for all who suffer and grieve.
- We pray for those who fight and those who flee
- For all those who have been wounded and for the families of those who have died
- We pray for the homeless, the orphaned, the hungry and the sick
- We pray for those who suffer mental anguish, for children who grow up in a culture of fear and war.
Grant the victims of this war new strength. As Zechariah prayed long ago, ‘May the tender mercy of our God mercy break upon us to give light to those who sit in darkness and the shadow of death and guide our feet into the way of peace.’
God of compassion and grace, we pray for all who lead. May they favor affection over affliction, truthful, healing words over the rhetoric of enemy language, humility over arrogance, forgiveness over vengeance, repentance over self justification, mercy over judgment.
Jesus, I follow your path of peace and walk in the power of your resurrection. May your Spirit empower me to be an instrument of healing and peace. Cast out the demon of fear, the demon of racism, the demon of greed, the demon of violence and fill us with a new spirit of love. Restore us to a right mind and renew our hope.
“Bring forth the kingdom of mercy, bring forth the kingdom of peace, bring forth the kingdom of justice, bring forth the city of God.”
We experience both fear and faith. At times we are assailed by doubt and confusion while at other times we catch a glimpse of hope. “Help our unbelief, in the grace of Jesus, Amen.
Buddhist, offered by Mary Tillinghast
May I (All Beings) be peaceful, happy, and light in body and spirit.
May I (All Beings) be safe and free from injury.
May I (All Beings) be free from anger, afflictions, fear, and anxiety.
May I (All Beings) learn to look at myself (ourselves) with the eyes of understanding and love.
May I (All Beings) be able to recognize and touch the seeds of joy and happiness in myself (ourselves).
May I (All Beings) learn to identify and see sources of anger, craving a delusion in myself (ourselves).
May I (All Beings) know how to nourish the seeds of joy in myself every day.
May I (All Beings) be able to live fresh, solid, and free.
Unitarian Universalist prayer, offered by Nancy Shaffer
Spirit of Life, we open our hearts to you in grief. Holy One who listens always, we cannot say in words alone the immensity of what we have done. We cannot say in words alone the expanse of what remains to be made whole.
This earth was given as a garden. We have defiled it. We long for a way to make it new again.
Our grief is this: we have through both action and inaction made thousands of children into orphans; thousands of wives, widows; husbands, widowers; vast numbers of families half or less the size they were before. We have through both action and inaction caused the destruction of entire neighborhoods and towns; a country. We have through both action and inaction cut whole generations apart from the moorings of centuries. We have destroyed trust. We have created hatred. We have set loose fear.
We can say that our intention was not these, but something good or opposite; we admit intention cannot erase outcome.
We come to you in grief: for thousands of lives ended young, too soon, before their time, whatever the age. For lives altered: eyes, legs, minds wounded in ways our hands cannot repair. We come to you in grief: for the length of the destruction we have made: not just now, but for generations to come. We come in grief for our blindness to how the peoples of this world are one, for our mistaking some views as the only right views, for our mis-use of power. For our failing to see you in others. We come to you broken by the lives and customs and possibilities we have broken. We come to you aching in spirit, longing to be made vessels of new hope.
Help us write on our hearts, we ask, ancient words, the timeless words of the prophet Isaiah:
“They shall beat their swords into plowshares and their spears into pruning hooks. Nation shall not lift up sword against nation; neither shall they learn war anymore.” Help us write on our hearts, we ask, ancient words, timeless words continued by the prophet Micah: “They shall all sit under their own vines and under their own fig trees, and no one shall make them afraid.” We long for our actions to be true to this vision: the implements of war no longer implements of war but turned to peace. This earth returned to its first intent: the delight of its peoples through leaf, vine, shade, fruit; the calm, glad sharing of these.
Quaker prayer, offered by Kathleen Peabody
There is that of God in everyone, which makes each person too precious to damage or destroy. We pray that violence among people and nations will be abandoned. Peacemakers are also empowered by that of God in them. Hope and faith motivate the seeking of nonviolent resolution of conflict.
Refusal to fight with weapons is not surrender. Passivity when threatened is unwise and unjust. We pray for endurance in the struggle to remove the causes of unbending argument and confrontation by every means of nonviolent resistance available.
There is no guarantee that such resistance will be any more successful or any less risky than military tactics. At least these means will be suited to the longed for goal: That we humans learn that peace is the way. Without violence, conflict can be resolved in a spirit of justice and respect. This is sometimes very painful, but fair resolution can prevent further warfare.
We must start with our own hearts and minds. Wars will stop only when we are convinced that war is never the way. What we advocate is not uniquely Quaker but human and, we believe, the will of God. Our stand does not belong to Friends alone-it is yours by birthright.
Dear God, please help us to relinquish the desire to have power over other people, and to use consensus and cooperation where decisions are made. Please empower us to guard the environment of our planet Earth from pollution and misuse. Please help us resist the accumulation of possessions in a poverty stricken world and the urge towards waste. And please let us learn the importance of making reparation. When put to the test, we each may fall short. God, please help us to together reject the clamor of fear and listen and build onto your words of hope.
Dear God, we pray that more and more of your people make the building of peace a priority and make opposition to war absolute. Amen.
Prayer adapted from statement for peace by New Zealand Yearly Meeting
Muslim prayer, offered by Heather Laird
O God! You are peace and all peace is from you; and all peace returns to you.
Grant us to live with the salutation of peace, and lead us to your abode of peace.
You are blessed, Our Lord and Exalted, O Owner of Magnificence and Honor!
O God! I ask of thee, God, thy love, love of those who love thee, and the doing of deeds which may bring thy love to us, O God, change our restlessness to peace.
O God let us love that what you love more than our wealth and our worldly goods and ourselves, let those things be helpful to us in the pursuit of those things that you love and bring us peace.
(sources Tirmidhi and Muslim)
Peace prayer from the Jewish tradition, offered by Rabbi Nathan Martin
(Hebrew) : ופרוש עלינו סכת שלומך
Ufros aleynu sukkat shlomeycha
Spread over us your sukkah of peace.
