Episcopal Press and News
Council of Churches Asks for Prayers for the Middle East
Episcopal News Service. March 29, 1990 [90093]
A year ago the heads of the Christian communities in Jerusalem issued an unprecedented joint statement, calling attention to the suffering of the people as a result of the continuing conflict between Israel and Palestinians and imploring the international community to renew efforts for peace.
In response, the Middle East Council of Churches is this year asking Christians around the world to join in a period of prayer, fasting, and action for peace, from Palm Sunday (April 8) to Pentecost (June 3), dates shared this year by Eastern and Western Christians. The council released the text of a prayer from Jerusalem for use on Palm Sunday:
On the day you entered Jerusalem, O Lord, fulfilling what had been written in the Scriptures, we go forth from our homes and from ourselves, bearing our palm branches and beseeching you to answer our prayers.
We join the great crowd that came out to meet you crying,
"Hosanna! Blessed is the One who comes in the name of the Lord!" Open our eyes and enlighten our minds so that we will see you as you are in the Gospel -- in the midst of the community of the faithful and among all those who thirst for you, wherever they may be.
We come to Jerusalem with you, and we see there your people divided, yet longing to be united in you, as branches of the one vine. Grant us the courage to go beyond ourselves, to transcend the burden of history so that we may recover our unity in you and through you.
We come to Jerusalem with you, and we see there is no peace, and that people remain in agony and suffering. Strengthen those who thirst for mercy and justice, but have been deprived of the rights to live in dignity. For such are those you have loved, reminding us that they are our neighbors. Free them from oppression; restore to them the right to life and to independence in their own land, just as other nations enjoy this right.
We come to Jerusalem with you, and we see that there are those who live in fear. Grant them inner peace. Free them from the illusion that depriving others of their rights, or even eliminating them, will provide security or reaffirm self-identity. Send your Spirit, who spoke throughout the prophets, to lead all of us to reach out to the other in a recognition of the common dignity possessed by all human beings. In the sharing of our deepest aspirations is found the way of liberation from fear, doubts, and anxiety and the way toward security, fullness, and creativity.
When we meet in you as one body, and you send us forth, carrying the Good News, and when we bring to realization your justice on earth, then will Jerusalem become the community of all believers, the wellspring of peace in the Holy Land and in the whole world.
We come to Jerusalem, O Holy One, with you seated on the throne of our hearts, our minds, our lives. We walk the road to Golgotha with you and partake of your passion. Seeing you nailed to the cross, we bow down before your suffering. Show us the glory of your Resurrection.