While we live in a world subject to the evil one, we belong to God. Let us mourn, and let us dance. - Henri Nouwen
On January 7, 2023, five police officers from the Memphis Police Department severely beat 29-year-old Tyre Nichols during a traffic stop in Memphis, Tennessee. Nichols was hospitalized in critical condition and died there three days later.
Have mercy lord, for we are a people obsessed with violence. Your radical uprooting is needed here, now in America. For we have shown ourselves incapable of naming and dealing truly with our capacity for despair, violence. And too many of us still think we are above reproach in how a culture and its systems shows their true nature.
Raise a hedge of protection around the family of Tyre as they mourn this senseless and brutalizing death.
Bring your justice to bear on police brutality. All we can hope is that your justice and mercy does in fact transform people and communities. We need this transformation.
A report commissioned by L’Arche has shown that it’s co-founder, Vanier, abused at least 25 women during his life. As Christians continue to understand and deal with the abuses and manipulations of power within our ministries, we pray:
God of truth, thank you for bringing this to light. For some of us, manipulation, confusion and abuse are closely linked to our experience with people of faith. And for some of us, we still refuse to see this as an issue. We need your spirit to reveal the truth and bring justice to situations. We need your spirit to heal victims and perpetrators. And help us all to not tolerate this behavior on behalf of what is sold as “God’s mission” for one minute more.
Last Thursday Israeli forces killed 9 Palestinians in a raid of the Jenin Refugee Camp and one man in the town of al-Ram. Last Friday, a Palestinian attacker shot 7 people outside of a synagogue on International Holocaust Remembrance Day and on Saturday two Israeli men were wounded by Palestinian man near Jerusalem’s Old City.
When we don’t know how else to pray, we pray for help. Help leaders lead to peace. Help policy-makers make change. Help people to see their neighbor as their neighbor and not as enemy. Quell violence before it erupts. Heal souls ripped apart by cruelty.
And help us who do not live in these areas but love them, not judge without understanding the full situation but pray for your peace that passes understanding.
If you're in the Hamilton area join Meadowlands Fellowship CRC for a concert featuring Indigenous singer-songwriter Jonathan Maracle. He integrates his Christian faith as a Mohawk follower of Jesus with the traditional sounds of Indigenous music, sharing his journey in reconciling his Mohawk heritage and his Christian faith in a compelling and insightful way. His concerts are an encouraging inspiration for Christians and all who are engaged in reconciliation with the Indigenous community. RSVP for February 11th at 7:30pm
Join us for the Philadelphia premier of This is Hunting Park, a documentary film project of the Climate Witness Project, exploring how people of faith & neighborhood residents are working together to fight climate injustice. Sat, 4 March 2023 from 7:30 PM – 9:30 PM EST at 4261 North 5th Street Philadelphia, PA 19140. REGISTER NOW
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