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ECUMENICAL PRAYER VIGIL Please join the ecumenical prayer vigil for
the Christian communities in Jerusalem, This ecumenical prayer vigil began the First Sunday in Advent, December 3, 2000. The vigil will continue across the USA, on the same day each month in each state, until the violence in the Middle East ends and all can celebrate a just and lasting negotiated resolution to the Palestinian-Israeli conflict. Check the prayer vigil schedule on the back of this sheet to find out what day of the month is designated for your state. By engaging in this vigil we are declaring that God's grace is the source of all peace and through prayer we are humbling ourselves to God's will for all creation. We offer this prayer vigil as an opportunity for congregations to incorporate the welfare of the people of the Middle East into the heart of their church life: in their worship, in their learning, and in their advocacy. We urge people to see this prayer vigil as an outpouring of concern for Palestinians and Israelis – Christians, Muslims, and Jews – whose lives are overtaken by broken relationships and the conflict which flows from these divisions. Go to www.pepm.org and click on "Prayer Vigil for Middle East Peace" for updates on organizing in your community, for a list of other congregations involved in the vigil, and for prayer ideas. Please sign up your congregation or organization as a vigil participant and get connected with others in your area participating in the vigil. Suggestions for implementing the vigil • Pray together as a family, as office/parish colleagues, or as a congregation, on the date each month designated for your state. • Partner with other churches located in your area to host a service of prayer on the date assigned to your state and also invite speakers from the Middle East, show a video, organize a discussion group, have a meal together, or write advocacy letters. • Share prayers and worship resources you have developed with other congregations in your community or send them to the Lutheran Office for Governmental Affairs for posting on the prayer vigil Web site. • Promote participation in the prayer vigil through your church bulletins and newsletters. • Sign up your congregation, parish, synod, diocese, denomination, etc. to be listed on the Web as a participant in the prayer vigil. Go to www.pepm.org. |
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Prayer Vigil Schedule Example: People in Alabama and New York are invited to focus on the Middle East in their daily prayers on the 3rd of each month. STATE DAY OF THE MONTH Alabama / New York 3 For more information Middle East Prayer Vigil - PEPM
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Prayer Petitions God of peace and hope, encourage those who seek to establish a fair and just peace in the Middle East. Bless their efforts as they work to end conflict. Lead those who engage in violence to put down their weapons and to live in peace with one another. God of justice, bless those who work for peace through justice. Strengthen their resolve in the face of seemingly endless violence and terror. Guide the leaders of the peoples of the Middle East to know your will and to support a just peace for all of your children. Blessed Jesus, lifting up the holy land for all humankind, breathe love into our prayers with a desire for nothing other than peace: peace in our hearts, peace for all creation, and especially peace in the land that is called holy. God of hope, we lift up the city of Jerusalem, distracted and divided, yet still filled with promise as all the cities of the world. Jesus, ride again into our cities, temples, Upper Rooms and Gethsemanes, that we may be given sight to recognize you. God of mercy, even as we long to understand that which is often beyond our comprehension, we lay before you the hearts, minds and bodies of all those suffering from conflict in Palestine and Israel. Shower upon all the people of the Holy Land the spirit of justice and reconciliation. God of the nations, be with the Palestinian and Jewish people who watch from afar the suffering of their families and friends. Be with the Palestinian and Jewish communities in the United States. Grant them comfort and hope in these stressful days.
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