Peace Day Pray 09/21/2013

Posts tagged Event Ideas

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IDEAS TO ADAPT YOUR SERVICE THIS SUNDAY TO PARTICIPATE IN PEACE DAY Peace Day – September 21– is recognized as the International Day of Peace and the International Day of Prayer for Peace. In the week surrounding September 21, hundreds of thousands of people around the world lift their hearts in prayer and their bodies in activities promoting peace. While it may seem like a minor thing to pray for peace one day a year, Peace Day presents a small opening to God’s subversive dreams of peace and wholeness. God can enter through this small crack that we provide. This one day can be an opportunity for Christian communities (in union with all faiths) to yearn to become strong partisans of peace and advocates of reconciliation. The Christian tradition often implicitly or explicitly blesses war and violence, and often falls short of interrupting the hardening of the heart that leads to divisiveness and hurt. Peace Day can be an entry point and a starting place for any faith community to move away from violence and towards just peace. For those interested in adapting your service this Sunday to open the way to God’s dream of peace – here are some ideas! During the regular prayer time in your service, pray specifically for a ceasefire in your homes, your community, your nation, and around the world. Consider using one of the prayer resources on the Peace Day “Praying for Ceasefire” Resources page: http://prayingforceasefire.tumblr.com/resources Incorporate a medley of scripture verses about peace (for examples, see here) Pass the Peace of Christ. Invite everyone to stand up and move around, greeting each other and saying, “Peace be with you/Christ be with you.” “And also with you.” Ask your youth group to brainstorm areas of violence they see or experience. During the service, have them stand around the congregation and speak about the areas of violence they see in your community and our world. Ask the congregation to stand together in a time of silent or spoken prayer for ceasefire. Light a peace candle to represent Christ’s light of peace entering the world. Sing a special peace hymn – Finlandia is one classic option. Write a letter from your congregation to the local newspaper about God’s message of peace and reconciliation, and how it applies to specific issues your community is facing; then send it to be printed in this Sunday’s paper. Have the children in your nursery or Sunday school make posters or prayer flags about what peace means to them. Display these during the service and have them share their ideas about peace.   Be sure to sign up and be counted www.prayingforceasefire.tumblr.com/signup   Share the story of your Peace Day prayers here: http://prayingforceasefire.tumblr.com/tellyourstory   Tweet to @idopp and using #peaceday

IDEAS TO ADAPT YOUR SERVICE THIS SUNDAY TO PARTICIPATE IN PEACE DAY

Peace Day – September 21– is recognized as the International Day of Peace and the International Day of Prayer for Peace. In the week surrounding September 21, hundreds of thousands of people around the world lift their hearts in prayer and their bodies in activities promoting peace.

While it may seem like a minor thing to pray for peace one day a year, Peace Day presents a small opening to God’s subversive dreams of peace and wholeness. God can enter through this small crack that we provide. This one day can be an opportunity for Christian communities (in union with all faiths) to yearn to become strong partisans of peace and advocates of reconciliation. The Christian tradition often implicitly or explicitly blesses war and violence, and often falls short of interrupting the hardening of the heart that leads to divisiveness and hurt. Peace Day can be an entry point and a starting place for any faith community to move away from violence and towards just peace.

For those interested in adapting your service this Sunday to open the way to God’s dream of peace – here are some ideas!

  • During the regular prayer time in your service, pray specifically for a ceasefire in your homes, your community, your nation, and around the world.
  • Consider using one of the prayer resources on the Peace Day “Praying for Ceasefire” Resources page: http://prayingforceasefire.tumblr.com/resources
  • Incorporate a medley of scripture verses about peace (for examples, see here)
  • Pass the Peace of Christ. Invite everyone to stand up and move around, greeting each other and saying, “Peace be with you/Christ be with you.” “And also with you.”
  • Ask your youth group to brainstorm areas of violence they see or experience. During the service, have them stand around the congregation and speak about the areas of violence they see in your community and our world. Ask the congregation to stand together in a time of silent or spoken prayer for ceasefire.
  • Light a peace candle to represent Christ’s light of peace entering the world.
  • Sing a special peace hymn – Finlandia is one classic option.
  • Write a letter from your congregation to the local newspaper about God’s message of peace and reconciliation, and how it applies to specific issues your community is facing; then send it to be printed in this Sunday’s paper.
  • Have the children in your nursery or Sunday school make posters or prayer flags about what peace means to them. Display these during the service and have them share their ideas about peace.

 

Be sure to sign up and be counted

www.prayingforceasefire.tumblr.com/signup

 

Share the story of your Peace Day prayers here:

http://prayingforceasefire.tumblr.com/tellyourstory

 

Tweet to @idopp and using #peaceday

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Hymn text for Peace Day - from Matt McKimmy

From Matt McKimmy, Richmond, Indiana, USA:
Inspired by this year’s Peace Day theme, “Praying for Ceasefire,” I’ve written three additional/alternate verses to “O God of love, O Power of peace.”  This is sung to Tallis’ Canon. It can be found online here and is also #368 in Hymnal, A Worship Book (Brethren Press, 1992).

Our plan is to use the first verse as written then sing these additional three. I’m glad to share them with others (with attribution, of course.)

Where guns and knives are tools of hate
an end to violence cannot wait.
From swords to plowshares, now begin –
give peace, O God, give peace again.

With hostile words we taunt and tease
‘till rivals become enemies.
More civil discourse help us gain –
give peace, O God, give peace again.

It matters not party nor creed,
to love each other is our need.
A way of deeper care, sustain –
give peace, O God, give peace again.  

 - Matt McKimmy - pastormatt @ richmondcob . org 

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Event plans from Great Bend, Kansas, USA: Dominican Sisters of Peace/Heartland Center for Spirituality

In Great Bend, Kansas, we will have a prayer service at the Dominican Sisters of Peace convent on September 21st.  This is co-sponsored by the Dominican Sisters of Peace and Heartland Center for Spirituality.  I have attached a copy of the service which I prepared.  This service will be used by the entire Dominican Sisters of Peace congregation which has 6 convents (in Columbus, OH; Akron, OH; New Orleans, LA; Oxford, MI; St. Catharine, KY, and Great Bend, KS) and individual Sisters scattered in ministry settings around the United States and some overseas.  We will be inviting the ecumenical community to join us at the convent, but probably will not have a separate service for the ecumenical community due to some transitions in our staffing situation.  The responsive prayer that is included in the attached service is a slightly adapted version of what I prepared at On Earth Peace’s  request for the Peace Day (link here).  This version is geared to weave in the identity line of the Dominican Sisters of Peace – “Preach Peace.  Build Peace.  Be Peace.”     In Great Bend I have been asked to preach for this service, while Sisters will provide leadership for other parts of the service. 

Peace,

Connie

 

Connie R. Burkholder

Heartland Center for Spirituality/Dominican Sisters of Peace

 

Before anything else, beyond everything else, God loves us extravagantly, ridiculously, without limits or conditions…just as we are.    – Roberta Bondi

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Peace Day Idea: Public prayer or celebration

Organize an event including prayer, cultural sharing, music, and art, to interrupt violence in your community, and to get your community talking together and praying for peace, on or near September 21. Plan a public event with people of your own faith tradition, or with people from various backgrounds. Share your concerns together about violence in your community and our world. Share each of your tradition’s teachings about peace. Seeks God’s power together to address the challenges you face. For more ideas, see our Resources page.