Swords into Plowshares

A Jerusalem Prayer - May 29, 2011

Sunday, May 29, 2011 begins the World Week for Peace in Palestine Israel 2011. Here is a prayer for that day from the Heads of Churches in Jerusalem:
 
Isaiah 2:1-5; 11:9
“In days to come the mountain of the Lord's house shall be established as the highest of the mountains, and shall be raised above the hills; all the nations shall stream to it….”

“They will not hurt or destroy on all my holy mountain, for the earth will be full of the knowledge of the Lord as the waters cover the sea….”
 
Almighty and Merciful God, by the gift of the Holy Spirit, you gathered the first Christians in Jerusalem.  Grant that, like the first church of Jerusalem, we may come together, and with courage, we may preach and live the Word, and the good news of truth, reconciliation, and peace.

God Creator, Giver of Life, Bearer of Pain, Initiator of Love, you made the world and everything in it.  You created the human race in your image and likeness, and gave us the earth for all to share.  Break down the walls that separate us.

God of Justice, your generosity is without bounds.  Guard us from selfishness; inspire us to be instruments of love, and witnesses of your mercy and justice.  Help us to face challenges and to struggle against all that is born of injustice.  Lead us to act together in places and situations of want and need: where families are driven from their homes, where the vulnerable suffer in the hands of the powerful, where poverty and unemployment destroy lives.

God of Hope, you continue to call us to work for Peace in our world, broken and wounded by injustice, violence, and indifference.  Alone, we are overwhelmed by challenges but together, and inspired by your Spirit, we can prevail beyond dreams and imagination.  In fear we lose hope, and feel the futility of our efforts.  Instill in our hearts and minds the image of your suffering and compassionate love as a source of courage and strength.

God, Protector of the widow, the orphan and the stranger, in a world where many know despair, you raised your Son Jesus Christ to give hope for humanity and renewal to the earth. Strengthen and unify your Church against the forces of evil in this part of the world, where aggression of all forms, killings and the blood of martyrs shed even in places of worship, obscure the hope of a new life.

God of Peace and Mercy, inspire nations to transform oppression and violence into freedom and peace for the sake of the poor, the vulnerable and the broken-hearted.  Help us to respect and promote the equality and dignity of all, particularly in your Holy Land.  Grant discernment to leaders and legislators, that righteousness and truth may flourish among all peoples throughout the world.

God our Father, we thank you for your Son, Jesus Christ, who taught us to yearn through prayer for the coming of your Kingdom.  You are able to accept in us what we cannot acknowledge; to name in us what we cannot bear to speak of; to hold in your memory what we tried to forget.  Teach us to pray together to resist the evil and oppression by our non-violent actions and love for one another.  May your Son’s earthly life be the model for our own, as we recognize your presence and guidance through all our joys and tribulations.

We pray these in the name of the Risen Lord, and in the power of His Spirit.  Amen.

Learn about the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) ministries and policies related to Israel and Palestine.

Video of International Ecumenical Peace Convocation

The World Council of Churches (WCC) will be web streaming the plenary sessions and special events of the upcoming International Ecumenical Peace Convocation (IEPC). The video streams will be live from the Mona campus of the University of West Indies in Kingston, Jamaica, where the convocation is being held, beginning Wednesday 18 May.

The streaming will be available through the IEPC website and the Jamaica Information Service. Following is the web streaming schedule. All times are Jamaica local time (GMT-5 hours) and subject to change. Find more information about the speakers and panel members in the IEPC handbook.

Wednesday 18 May (time and speakers subject to change)

Time: 14:30 - 16:30 
Plenary: Opening, DOV celebration, keynote address, greetings

Scheduled speakers:

• Rev. Dr Olav Fykse Tveit
• Rev. Dr Paul Gardner
• Rev. Dr Margot Kässmann
• Metropolitan Dr Hilarion of Volokolamsk
• Canon Dr Paul Oestreicher

Time: 17:30 - 19:00
 Opening Prayer and worship service

Thursday 19 May (time and speakers subject to change)

Time: 10:30 - 12:30
 Plenary: Peace in the Community

Scheduled speakers and panel:

• Martin Luther King III
• Prof. Ram Puniyani
• Dr Muna Mushahwar
• Dr Deborah Weissman
• Dr Tania Mara Viera Sampaio
• Asha Kowtal
• Rev. Karen Thompson

Friday 20 May (time and speakers subject to change)

Time: 10:30 - 12:30 
Plenary: Peace with the Earth

Scheduled speakers and panel:

• Rev. Tafue M. Lusama
• Sr Ernestina López Bac
• Adrian Shaw
• Lic. Elias Crisostomo Abramides
• Fr Prof. Dr Kondothra M. George
• Choir from Global Network of Religion for Children

Saturday 21 May (time and speakers subject to change)

Time: 10:30 - 12:30
Plenary: Peace in the Marketplace

Scheduled speakers and panel:

• Archbishop Valentine Mokiwa
• Omega Bula
• Fr Emmanuel Clapsis
• Rev. Dr Roderick Hewitt
• Rev. Garnett Roper
• Dr Rommel F. Linatoc

Sunday 22 May (time subject to change)

Time 17:00 - 19:00 Concert (time to be confirmed)

Monday 23 May (time and speakers subject to change)

Time: 10:30 - 12:30
Plenary: Peace among the Peoples

Scheduled speakers and panel:

• Setsuko Thurlow
• Dr Christiane Agboton-Johnson
• Dr Patricia Lewis
• Dr Lisa Schirch
• Archbishop Avak Asadourian
• Rev. Kjell Magne Bondevik 

Tuesday 24 May (time subject to change)

Time: 10:30 - 12:30 and 14:30 - 16:15
 Closing Plenaries

IEPC Theme Song

For Jamaican singer/songwriter Grub Cooper, music is not only the universal language but also the fastest way to reach people and touch their emotions.

And for Cooper, the music has to be accessible to all.

During the past 40 years Cooper has reached deep into the heart of Jamaicans with more than a thousand musical compositions, many of them written and performed as a member of one of Jamaica’s top performing acts, the Fabulous 5.

Now Cooper is bringing his gift of songwriting to the world through a newly recorded composition written specifically for the upcoming World Council of Churches (WCC), International Ecumenical Peace Convocation, which is being held in Kingston, Jamaica 17-25 May. 

The convocation promises to bring together some 1000 people from churches around the world for a week of learning and sharing about peacemaking. The event is the culmination of the WCC Decade to Overcome Violence. It will feature the presentation of an Ecumenical Call to Just Peace. 

The WCC, the Caribbean Conference of Churches and the Jamaica Council of Churches are jointly hosting the peace convocation, which will be held on the Mona campus of the University of the West Indies near Kingston.

The song, Glory to God and Peace on Earth, is a song about peace. Borrowing the convocation motto as its title, the 4-minute tune offers a Caribbean flavour with a chord structure allowing for easy arrangement, Cooper said.

“I tried to achieve a simple melody because simplicity is always best,” he said in an interview in Kingston. “I left it sort of open ended that persons who would wish to put a particular idiom to it, suppose there was somebody from Spain, they probably could do it at a beat that they are comfortable with, without changing the melody. So the arrangement is not cut in stone.”

Cooper’s group, the Fab 5, will be the headliners at a peace concert in Kingston on 20 May sponsored by the Jamaica Council of Churches and the WCC.

While the peace convocation will be filled with speeches, workshops, seminars and presentations, Cooper is certain the song will have an impact and invited those attending the convocation to learn it before coming so they can sing it together.

“From time immemorial music has always had more power than the spoken word,” Cooper said. “Whenever you want to reach a population in a hurry and in an effective way music is obviously the most logical way to go.”

Listen to the interview with Grub Cooper and the song

Sheet music to the song (pdf, 1.4 MB)

YouTube films for World Week for Peace in Palestine Israel

From the convenor for the World Week for Peace in Palestine Israel, to be held from 29 May to 4 June 2011:

A number of partners around the world have been working together to create new resources for our common use during World Week for Peace in Palestine Israel, to be held from 29 May to 4 June 2011.  These new resources reflect this year's shared focus on the city of Jerusalem.

As a contribution to these resources, we invite partners and individuals or groups around the world to send brief YouTube films (1-2 minutes) to our partners in Jerusalem/Bethlehem in which a message of solidarity, prayer or concern is expressed on the theme of Jerusalem and the need for a just peace for this city and its people.

The film can offer for instance an image of a person speaking, but could also involve other scenes such as that of an event in your community.  The films will contribute to an occasion on 4 June in Bethlehem when in the evening an ecumenical service for a just peace in Jerusalem will be followed by a candle procession along the Jerusalem-Bethlehem checkpoint and a meeting near the Wall.  At this meeting the denial of access to Jerusalem will be the main speakers’ topic.  The YouTube films will be shown on a white space painted on the Wall in front of a local Palestinian and international community attending this event.  In order to be available for use at this event, we invite you to place the film on You Tube not later than 3 June, 16:00 Jerusalem time.

There is not necessarily a need to make artistic productions (though these are welcome as well); the simple human message is most important.  The preferred language is English.  Please inform Toine van Teeffelen/AEI in Bethlehem and John Calhoun, the Week’s convenor, with a cc to the Arab Educational Institute, about any film that is placed on YouTube, including the URL.

The links to the films may also be made available on the website of the WCC so that they can also be used for other occasions in the context of the Week.  However, for that latter purpose they need to be made available preferably before the beginning of the Week, on 29 May.

Our contact group in Jerusalem-Bethlehem will themselves contribute a 4 minute YouTube film especially made for World Week for Peace in Palestine Israel, in which the denial of access to Jerusalem will be discussed, including brief interviews with youths walking along the Wall, a mock “gate” painted on the Wall, a Palestinian women’s choir, and scenes from the situation around Rachel’s Tomb.  This film will be ready before the beginning of the Week.

Many thanks for your consideration, and we look forward to hearing from you.

A blessing

May the blessing of the God of peace and justice be with us;

May the blessing of the Son who weeps the tears of the world's suffering be with us;

And may the blessing of the Spirit, who inspires us to reconciliation and hope be with us from now into eternity.

Amen.

This blessing closed the Liturgy of the Word on the occasion of the visit to the World Council of Churches of His Eminence Cardinal Kurt Koch, President of the Pontifical Council for Promoting Christian Unity on 9 May 2011. The Executive Committee of the World Communion of Reformed Churches participated in this service.

Resources for World Week for Peace in Palestine Israel

Here are some resources to use or adapt for the week of advocacy and action for a just peace in Palestine and Israel sponsored by the World Council of Churches on May 29 - June 4.

• The Jerusalem Prayer for 2011, authored by the Heads of Churches in Jerusalem (available in English, French, German, and Spanish)
• Service of the Word liturgy for 29 May 2011, based on the lectionary readings for the day, designed by members of the Palestine Israel Ecumenical Forum, an initiative of the World Council of Churches
• a series of reflections on the theme, "I Dream of Peace in Jerusalem," written by residents of the city
• Join an ecumenical prayer vigil

Learn about the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) ministries and policies related to Israel and Palestine.

Prayer for peace - Sunday 22 May 2011

 The World Sunday for Peace is part of the WCC's International Ecumenical Peace Convocation (IEPC) which will take place 17 -25 May in Kingston, Jamaica and marks the culmination of the “Decade to Overcome Violence: Churches Seeking Reconciliation and Peace”. Here is a prayer that congregations, communities and individuals are encouraged to use:

Prayer for peace - Sunday 22 May 2011

God of peace and possibility, Creator, Redeemer and Sanctifier:
We approach you to ask once again for your mercy, forgiveness and a fresh start.
We ask you to help us give peace a chance, in this world.
We want to give peace a chance, yet we have already missed so many opportunities.
We have sabotaged so many initiatives; instead of overcoming evil with good,
we have stood by while good was overpowered.
Forgive us, Lord.

Dona nobis pacem: Give us peace, we pray.

Just as we claim your forgiveness, we also claim this moment in the name of peace.
We accept anew our responsibility as peacemakers and creators of justice.
We give thanks for the Decade to Overcome Violence, for its work in raising our awareness and our yearning for peace. And yet, we admit that there is much more required if we are truly to give peace a chance.

Dona nobis pacem: Give us peace, we pray.

By the moving of your Spirit, commit our hearts and minds to peace, and help us dedicate our lives to becoming the starting-points of peace. “Let this be the moment, now.”
Help us cooperate with you, giving peace a chance, creating a world where peace may be our ethos and our essence.
Give us peace, we pray. Grant us wisdom and courage to seize the initiative: wisdom to discern the things that make for peace, and courage to be faithful and obedient to you.

Dona nobis pacem: Give us peace, we pray.

God of peace and possibility, make us instruments of your peace
at the International Ecumenical Peace Convocation and in all places
so that we may fulfill your will, and so that we may give peace a chance.
In the name of the Prince of  Peace, Jesus Christ our Lord and Saviour.
Amen.
 
Prayer from the Caribbean

Download the prayer in other languages:

Arabic: صلاة من أجل السلام

Armenian: Աղոթք խաղաղության

Aymara (Bolivia): Diosar mayiña sumañkañataki

Chinese: 世界和平祷文

Danish: Bøn for fred

English: Prayer for peace

Finnish: Rauhanrukous

French: Prière pour la Paix

German: Gebet für den Frieden

Greek: Προσευχή για την ειρήνη

Italian: Preghiera per la pace

Kiswahili: Maombi ya Amani

Korean: 평화를 위한 기도

Maohi: Pure no te Hau

Norwegian: Bønn om fred

Oshiwambo (Angola/Namibia): Eindilo omolwombili

Portuguese: Oração pela paz

Romanian: Rugăciune pentru pace

Samoan: O le tatalo mo le filemu

Spanish: Oración por la paz

Swedish: Bön för freden

Trees and Tweets for Peace

World Sunday for Peace - May 22

As the sun rises on Sunday 22 May Christians and churches across the world are being encouraged by the World Council of Churches (WCC) to celebrate God’s peace in their worship services, to hold a Peace Sunday dawn vigil, to plant a tree as an act of peace or to use social media to share prayers for peace with Christians around the world.

"Each tree will become the lasting symbol of our united efforts to bring the peace of Christ to our suffering world" says the Rev. Dr Olav Fykse Tveit, the WCC general secretary. "We hope that people will feel inspired to use social media like Twitter or Facebook to share pictures, peace prayers and hopes for a just peace in their own language."

The World Sunday for Peace is part of the WCC's International Ecumenical Peace Convocation (IEPC) which will take place 17 -25 May in Kingston, Jamaica and marks the culmination of the “Decade to Overcome Violence: Churches Seeking Reconciliation and Peace”.

Over a thousand people from around the world will be meeting in Kingston to celebrate the promise of a just peace. Churches in the Caribbean have prepared a prayer for peace for churches throughout the world to use on the Sunday for Peace.

Hymns, texts and ideas that congregations can use to prepare for their celebration of the peace Sunday are available.

"It can be quite a challenge to write a prayer in just 140 keystrokes on Twitter, but such small steps are part of our journey to building a just peace," said Tveit. "It's our hope that the worldwide prayer for peace on 22 May will help build bridges of just peace."

As the sun rises over the world on 22 May, keep the WCC updated about how your church is praying and acting for peace with justice, write your prayers for peace and share photos of your vigil and tree planting:
 
On Twitter use the hash tags #IEPC #Sunday4peace #Justpeace and #WCC.

World Week for Peace in Palestine Israel

The World Council of Churches invites member churches and related organizations to join a week of advocacy and action for a just peace in Palestine and Israel on May 29 - June 4. Congregations and individuals around the globe who share the hope of justice are invited to take peaceful actions to create a common international public witness.

Participants are encourage to plan activities around three main areas:

• Praying with churches living under occupation, using a special prayer from Jerusalem.
• Educating about actions that make for peace, and about facts on the ground that do not create peace.
• Advocating with political leaders using ecumenical policies that promote peace with justice.

Learn about the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) ministries and policies related to Israel and Palestine.

Accompanying Clark: A Brief Tour of Hebron

Check out Accompanying Clark: A Brief Tour of Hebron

Clark Scalera reflects on his service in Hebron with the Ecumenical Accompaniment Programme in Palestine and Israel. Clark is a Presbyterian minister who served in Hebron from October to December of last year.