Prompts for Prayers of Intercession: 1/22/2023
Intercession prompts:
For the safety of women and children kidnapped in Burkina Faso…
For those killed by gang violence in Goshen, California and all whose lives are affected by gangs…
For people of Asian descent who continue to face anti-Asian hate crimes…
For the families of those killed in a plane crash in Nepal …
For flooding in California, Western Australia, and all places with too much water …
For transgender people who fight for their right to live around the world and especially in Scotland …
For chicken farmers battling avian flu in their flocks …
Other notable events and observances:
Week of Prayer for Christian Unity (January 18-25)
Lunar New Year (January 22)
Conversion of Paul (January 25)
Timothy, Titus, and Silas, missionaries (January 26)
Lydia, Dorcas, and Phoebe, witnesses to the faith (January 27)
Thomas Aquinas, teacher, died 1274 (January 28)
Suggested hymns & prayers:
A prayer for the well-being of creation (ACS p. 47):
God, creator of all living things, you fashioned a world in which lands and waterways, plants and animals, together meet the needs of all that you made. We pray that such vitality may flourish around the globe. Bless those who work the soil and who manage animals. Uphold their towns and villages. Nurture bees and other pollinators. Protect farmlands and ranches from drought and flood. Free children from forced labor in the fields. Grant an economy that can sustain those families who treasure a rural life. Teach us how to share with everyone the benefits of each harvest, and accept our gratitude for all sustenance you provide, in the name of Jesus Christ, our Savior and Lord. Amen.
A prayer against prejudice, racism (ACS p. 51):
O God, your divinity transcends distinctions of gender, and through the generations you widen our awareness of human diversity. We gather here before you in our various expressions of gender identity, all of us one in Christ Jesus. Bring our society to peacefulness concerning a wider understanding of gender. Give courage and healing to those who express outwardly the gender they testify as gift from you. Open the church to their witness. We ask that with your creative Spirit you cultivate new relationships, mend old wounds, and nurture communities of respect, for the sake of the one who embraces all persons in love, Jesus Christ, our Savior. Amen.
Hymns for the health of creation
When the Storms of Life Are Raging (TFF 198)
For the Wholeness of the Earth (ACS 1067)
Hope of the World (ACS 1085)
These prompts are provided for worship leaders as they prepare the prayers of intercession for weekly worship. The prompts are prepared by several leaders in the ELCA and reflect current world and national events. You are encouraged to adapt and add other concerns for your local context, including staying informed of events and concerns in your synod.
Additional topical prayers are found in Evangelical Lutheran Worship (pp. 72–87) and All Creation Sings (pp. 46–55), as well as in other resources provided in print and online at sundaysandseasons.com.
Crafted intercessions for every Sunday and festival are provided in the Sundays and Seasons worship planning guide published in-print and online by Augsburg Fortress.
Prayer Ventures, a daily prayer resource, is a guide to prayer for the global, social and outreach ministries of the ELCA, as well as for the needs and circumstances of our neighbors, communities and world.