Call to Prayer

We gather today to acknowledge the horror of war and the hope for peace. We raise our prayers today to God the Just, arbiter between the nations, God who is Love, healer of the peoples. We claim the power that prayer can have within us and across the world.

Prayer of Confession for Humanity in a Time of War

O God, the blood of our brothers cries out from the ground. We hide the sin of murder from ourselves with the justification of cold logic, but we cannot hide it from you. Despite our pride, we know Abel has no children. 

We crave your protection, but fear the curse of wandering without a home. We and our brothers seek the blessing of Abel and cannot understand when we are left with only your regard for Cain. We are eager for your blessing and seek to snatch it from your hand rather than accept it with open hands.

Forgive us of the sin of murder and war shared by the many peoples of your Creation. Wash away the prejudice and lies that soak our souls with hatred and division. 

Break our hearts of stone hardened by generations of hatred. Write your law of love upon our hearts. 

Transform the weapons of our world as you transform our hearts. Let the swords become ploughshares and spears pruning hooks. Let the killing stop and the healing begin.

May we accept the gift of vine and fig tree knowing it is your grace and not our force of arms that brings it to us. Teach us the ways of abundance and sharing. Let your justice prevail on Earth.

All these things we pray in your name, O Lord. Amen.

Song of Peace

This is my song, O God of all the nations,

a song of peace for lands afar and mine;

this is my home, the country where my heart is;

here are my hopes, my dreams, my holy shrine:

but other hearts in other lands are beating

with hopes and dreams as true and high as mine.

My country’s skies are bluer than the ocean,

and sunlight beams on cloverleaf and pine;

but other lands have sunlight too, and clover,

and skies are everywhere as blue as mine:

O hear my song, thou God of all the nations,

a song of peace for their land and for mine.

May truth and freedom come to every nation;

may peace abound where strife has raged so long;

that each may seek to love and build together,

a world united, righting every wrong;

a world united in its love for freedom,

proclaiming peace together in one song.*

Open worship

Rabbi Nachman’s Prayer

May it be Your will,

Holy One, our God, our ancestors’ God,

that you erase war and bloodshed from the world

and in its place draw down

a great and glorious peace

so that nation shall not lift up sword against nation

neither shall they learn war any more.

Rather, may all the inhabitants of the earth

recognize and deeply know

this great truth:

that we have not come into this world

for strife and division

nor for hatred and rage, 

nor provocation and bloodshed.

We have come here only

to encounter You,

eternally blessed One.

And so,

we ask your compassion upon us;

raise up, by us, what is written:

I shall place peace upon the earth

and you shall lie down safe and undisturbed

and I shall banish evil beasts from the earth

and the sword shall not pass through your land.

but let justice come in waves like water

and righteousness flow like a river,

for the earth shall be full

of the knowledge of the Holy One

as the waters cover the sea.

So may it be.

And we say:

Amen.

Everyone neath their vine and fig tree

And every one ‘neath their vine and fig tree
Shall live in peace and unafraid
And every one ‘neath their vine and fig tree
Shall live in peace and unafraid

And into plowshares turn their swords,
Nations shall learn war no more
And into plowshares turn their swords,
Nations shall learn war no more

Open worship

A Prayer for Peace in Israel and Palestine

By Rose Marie Berger

God of Comfort,
send your Spirit to encompass all those whose lives
are torn apart by violence and death in Israel and Palestine.
You are the Advocate of the oppressed
and the One whose eye is on the sparrow.
Let arms reach out in healing, rather than aggression.
Let hearts mourn rather than militarize.

God of Justice,
give strength to those whose long work for a just peace
might seem fruitless now. Strengthen their resolve.
Do not let them feel alone. Show us how to support their work
and bolster their courage. Guide religious leaders to model
unity and reconciliation across lines of division.
Guide political leaders to listen with their hearts as they seek peace and pursue it.
Help all people choose the rigorous path of just peace and disavow violence.

God of Love,
we lift up Palestine and Israel — its people, its land, its creatures.
War is a monster that consumes everything in its path.
Peace is a gift shared at meals of memory with Christians, Muslims, and Jews.
Let us burn incense, not children. Let us break bread, not bodies.
Let us plant olive groves, not cemeteries.
We beg for love and compassion to prevail
on all your holy mountains.

God of Hope,
we lift up the cities of the region: Gaza City and Tel Aviv,
Ramallah and Ashkelon, Deir El Balah and Sderot,
so long divided, yet so filled with life and creativity.
Come again to breathe peace on your peoples
that all may recognize you.

God of Mercy,
even now work on the hearts of combatants
to choose life over death, reconciliation over retaliation,
restoration over destruction. Help us resist antisemitism in all its forms,
especially in our own churches. All people, Israelis and Palestinians,
deserve to live in peace and unafraid, with a right to determine
their future together.

God of the Nations,
let not one more child or elder be sacrificed on altars of political expediency.
Keep safe all people from unjust leaders who would exploit
vulnerability for their own distorted ends.
Give wise discernment to those making decisions to pursue peace.
Provide them insight into fostering well-being, freedom, and thriving for all.
Teach all of us to resolve injustices with righteousness, not rockets.
Guard our hearts against retaliation, and give us hearts for love alone.

Strengthen our faith in you, O God of All Flesh,
even when we don’t have clear answers,
so that we may still offer ourselves nonviolently
for the cause of peace.

Amen

Dona nobis pacem

Open worship

Expanding Circles Prayer

O God, we raise up our prayers today for children hurt or killed by war and their families. Heal the injured. Bring peace within to those who mourn while the war rages on. We remember their communities and the scars they bear. Make them whole.

We raise up the innocent adults killed–named by that cold phrase collateral damage. Hold them close to your heart. 

We ask for your mercy on those we, ourselves, cannot forgive. How can those who kill the innocent receive no punishment?

God, we ask your protection and guidance for the soldiers on all sides who believe they are doing what is right. Help them to act so that they are just in their own eyes and consciences may remain clean. Let them discern the path that is right.

God we pray for those who know what they are doing is wrong. Turn them to the path of righteousness. Offer them a way out from moral injury. Make them protectors of the innocent and not punishers of the guilty. Give them the bravery to refuse to hurt the innocent. Help them to chart a course out of the path of violence.

Bless and protect your children for we are all your children. Teach us the path of peace. Turn us away from the way of war and violence. Bring your justice here on earth.

Amen.

Open worship