The number of COVID-19 deaths worldwide currently surpasses one million and continues to climb. Wherever we live or minister, we are all still vulnerable to this virus. We are also very mindful of the greater vulnerability of millions of others in the world. We think of those trapped in poverty, refugee camps and detention centres. We remember women, girls and men being trafficked in exploitative situations and mothers and children fleeing violence in parts of Africa or others in The Philippines, Vietnam and Central America finding themselves and their families escaping natural disasters such as floods and cyclones.
We pray the following prayer adapted from one by Karla Selene Segoviano, Mexico and the World Council of Churches:
Our Father, you are with us with your people from the market, with the doctor and the healthcare worker, with the businessman and woman and the homeless person. You are with us throughout the times of anxiety and quarantine.
Hallowed be your name when we look at each other as equals, when we see that country borders are nothing but invisible walls, when we understand that extending our hand means much more than a handshake and that the embrace of community can reach all the way to the other end of the city when we unite in prayer with our sisters and brothers here and for those on the other side of the world.
May your will of love and peace, justice and solidarity, hope and unity, health and security, be done for all at this time.
Give us this day today’s corn, beans and hope in abundance, so that we might share it with those who have the least. Forgive us for the times we have wasted the food and blessings you give us each day and did not share our bread.
Lead us away from any temptation to accumulate and not share, from any greed and arrogance, free us from unjust practices and fill us with generosity, faith and trust in you.
Because yours is creation and everything that is in it, so rich and abundant that there is more than enough for everyone. Yours is the glory, in you we trust and our hope is in you! Amen