Go and Do – Week of Prayer for Christian Unity 2022

Each day during the Week of Prayer for Christian Unity, we provide a starting point, reflection, questions and a prayer based on the theme. Here you can turn your reflections into action with our Go and Do points.

Day 1

Global

Visit the website of Embrace the Middle East and see what actions you can take to be in solidarity with Christians of the Middle East.

The Occupied Palestinian Territories continue to suffer from a wide range of health, social, economic and human rights challenges. In September, Christian Aid published its ‘Where is Palestine? report which details the injustices experienced on a daily level by the local population. Razan was a volunteer paramedic who was shot dead in Gaza at the age of 21 while on duty giving medical assistance. Her mother, Sabrin Jamaa al-Najjar, spoke about loss, forgiveness and how she is now following in her late daughter’s footsteps and so volunteering herself.

“I deal with all those injured like I am dealing with Razan. I am doing my best to save the lives of the injured people – and when I am doing my job, my mission, I feel that I am saving the life of Razan. Even if I found the Israeli soldier, the one who killed my daughter, injured in front of my eyes, there would be no doubt that I would assist him as a first aider.”

The image above is of health worker, Mosab Khbees, as he administers a vaccine in Al Moghraga, Gaza, in November 2021. Al Moghraga is a remote vulnerable area that has very little access to services. Alongside CAFOD, Christian Aid has been funding health services such as those provided by Mosab and Razan, to help the situation in Gaza.

Please pray for the ongoing security situation in Gaza. Visit the websites of Christian Aid, CAFOD, and Embrace the Middle East and see what actions you can take to be in solidarity with the populations in this area.

Local

Organise a candlelit vigil with the churches in your area as an act of unity for this week. It doesn’t have to be in person but each church could encourage members to put a candle in their window at an agreed day and time.

At that time, remember those who have been lost to covid, pray for friends and family who are grieving. Consider what you can to help with the covid crisis – shop for a neighbour, volunteer in a vaccine centre, call or message someone who might be feeling isolated.

Personal

Take time this week to star gaze. Let your eyes settle on an unfading star and pause in reverence and prayer before the Creator of light. You don’t have to go outside, you can search for and visit an online planetarium.

Consider all those around the world and across time who have seen that same star. We are part of one long chain of history in which we are bound together by the God who created all of us, and loves all of us. As you consider that star that we have all seen, remember all that binds us together in unity.

Day 2

Global

Focus on a number of examples of where you consider good leadership to be evident. Try to identify the shared principles of leadership in these examples and consider how they can be encouraged in the work of creating unity.

Yadira Lemus, pictured, is from Honduras. After losing her previous coffee harvest due to climate change, she developed new approaches to ensure a better harvest in the future. She joined a women’s group that with help from a Christian Aid partner is training women in entrepreneurship and new technologies. She adopted solar technology to more effectively dry her coffee enabling her to market it locally and earn a better income. She has learnt to diversify her income and farming methods, to adapt to climate change and protect the environment.

“As a coffee producer, it is more and more difficult to produce. And yes, that is obviously related to climate change, because before we would plant coffee and it produced almost by itself. We talk about whether or not to have children, but I think it is better if we stop to think about what world we are going to pass down to them. I know I am doing something different. Each action we do on a daily basis is reflected on the environment. It depends on us”

Thank God for leaders like Yadira who embrace new approaches and even new technologies, and yet do so not with personal profit in mind, but the good of the planet and of future generations. Pray that we might seek a stream of such leaders who lead with integrity rather than avarice.

Local

Invite a local leader to a gathering of the churches in your area to hear more about their work and to find out how you can best support and encourage them.

Consider setting aside time in your church service this week to pray by name for the other church leaders / churches in your locality. Ask God to bless them and encourage them in their ministry.

Personal

Find out about or refresh your memory on the circle of concern and circle of influence and consider how you can best exercise your personal leadership this week to help the cause of unity.

Think about the ways in which you need to lead yourself more effectively – maybe in your use of time or resources or energy. Do not though turn this into a guilt trip. The first step in loving others is to love ourselves well. Leading ourselves well and loving ourselves well are two sides of the same coin, they are not in opposition.

Day 3

Global

Tyonyar Ungon, pictured, is collecting his covid hygiene kit funded by Christian Aid’s Covid appeal in Adagi community, Nigeria. The combination of crop failures, local conflict and Covid has left many families struggling to survive, with hardly enough money to feed themselves, let alone buy face masks and hand sanitiser. With limited access to food, clean water and healthcare, they are particularly vulnerable to Covid. Christian Aid has been working with a local partner (Community Links) to distribute hygiene kits to the most vulnerable families in the region.

Of course, as well as education and support in hygiene measures, what the Global South needs especially is better access to vaccines. With the advent of the Omicron variant, we have seen that no-one is safe until everyone is safe. A coalition of agencies have been campaigning to end vaccine inequality and to ensure that right across the Global South countries have the access to the vaccine that they need.

To find out more, visit Crack the Crises and The People’s Vaccine Alliance to see how you can play your part in campaigning for a fairer and safer world.

Local

Consider as churches together what situations of injustice or exclusion exist in your locality, work with others in your community to challenge and change the systems that need turning upside-down.

Make a list of all the local initiatives that are run jointly by the churches. This might include foodbanks, street pastors, debt advice, domestic violence support, mental health and counselling services, substance misuse support, schools work. Pray for each of these initiatives in turn asking God to provide the financial and human resources that they need, and that their work would be effective.

Personal

Take time today to sit in stillness and discern what injustice most disturbs your conscience, spend time praying, researching and planning how you can take action about it (if you are not already involved in doing so).

Think about how your skills, experiences, passions and opportunities can come together to create a space in which you could make a real contribution.

Day 4

Global

Dalal, pictured, studies at the Darna centre in north west Syria. The centre is run by a Christian Aid partner and funded by the EU. She dreams of becoming a doctor so that she can help people. Working hard she has caught up on the studies she missed as a result of being displaced. She feels that the life-skills sessions at the centre help her to deal with difficult situations that she has faced.

“All of these difficulties of poverty, displacement and war motivate me to learn and encourage people into education.”

Conflicts continue to take lives across the Middle East in Syria, Iraq, Libya, Yemen and of course Israel and the Occupied Palestinian Territories. Education, and especially girl’s education, is one of the services that is often disrupted in these circumstances. Schools may be destroyed; teachers and pupils may fear attending; and displacement, such as for Dalal, may make consistent education impossible. The Syrian conflict triggered the biggest displacement crisis of this century. Over 6 million Syrians are internally displaced, and at least another 5 million have fled across national borders as refugees. Children and young people are particularly at risk of becoming a lost generation, with limited or no education and employment opportunities, and struggling with severe trauma caused by conflict.

Christian Aid is working with our partners in the region to ensure young people affected by conflict can access education and training to help transform their lives, reduce their vulnerability to joining armed groups, and support peaceful, cohesive communities. We have helped provide safe spaces and improve the skills, resilience and social inclusion of children and young people through education, vocational training, psychosocial support, and community involvement.

Please pray for this work and see also Amos Trust to find out more about how to create peace with justice in the Middle East.

Local

It is easy to look at other regions of the world and see nothing but division and strife. However, we need to also examine our own communities, and the unnecessary barriers that we put up between ourselves.

Reflect on the different expressions of Christianity and different faith expressions in your locality. How could you contribute to peace, mutual understanding and better relationships in the places God has put you?

Personal

Bring the fears that keep you in division from other traditions before the Good Shepherd in prayer. Meditate on the words of the Good Shepherd – ‘do not be afraid, little flock.’

We often sing the song, ‘Make me a channel of your peace’ in our churches. Its second line states, ‘Where there is hatred let me bring your love.’ Meditate on that line and ask God to show you how you can live out that reality in the days and weeks ahead.

Day 5

Global

COP26 may now be over, but climate injustice remains a reality that must be addressed. The folks marching in this image suffered a bit of damp weather as they processed around the streets of Glasgow. For many of our brothers and sisters around the globe, climate change is not just damp weather but droughts, floods, crop failures, disease and death. It has been said that while climate changes makes life in the Global North more uncomfortable and inconvenient, in the Global South it kills – perhaps as many 250,000 people per year.

Start (or continue) a conversation around your Christian community about how you are responding to the challenges of climate justice. As churches, take part in global prayer and action for climate justice.

Local: Plan a Climate Sunday service between the churches in your locality. Visit climatesunday.org for resources and inspiration.

Personal: Seek out a community to be part of to support you in your action responding to global challenges. For example if you like craft you could turn your skills into activism in community with the craftivist-collective.com.

Day 6

Global

Just Scripture is a project of Christian Aid in which church communities from across the world connect with each other in online bible studies. It is a way of breaking down barriers, building relationships and learning from one another in the global church. We also learn from each other as we pray together. So, use the ecumenical prayer cycle to pray with communities across the world today.

Local

Partner with churches in your area to learn, worship and pray together.

Personal

Find and join an online service from a church of a different tradition. Join in this act of worship and reflect on what riches God has shown you through this different experience of worship together.

Day 7

Global

Take time today to campaign for global justice. Visit the websites of CTBI agency partners to take part in their current campaign actions for social justice.

Local

Identify projects in your local area that need more support, and work together as churches to assist them.

Personal

Consider an issue of social justice that you’ve not been involved with previously and take time to find out more and take action.

Day 8

Global

Communities from all over the world have joined in pilgrimage for climate justice during 2021. As churches, we need to continue this journey to a better future for the planet and for us all. Janet Ahatho, pictured, is Director of Environment and Natural Resources in the County Government of Marsabit, Kenya. She says

“If we continue like this, our peoples livelihoods are going to be lost. Developed Countries need to reduce these emissions, and pay for what they have done for the vulnerable who are feeling the effect. To ensure that these people who have contributed zero to climate change, those who’ve lost livestock because of droughts, they are losing water because of high temperature, are supported with adaptive measures to sustain their livelihoods and withstands the shocks of climate change.”

Find out more at christianaid.org.uk/campaigns.

Local

Organise a local pilgrimage between the churches in your area, for example, you could walk to each of the church buildings or find your nearest pilgrim route.

Personal

Journey familiar routes by another way, for example walk 50% more slowly on your errands today, what do you notice? How do you see things differently?