Midday Prayer During COP26

Wednesday 10th November 2021

We come with faith: 

and we seek understanding.

We come with doubts: 

and we seek understanding.

We come with griefs: 

and we seek understanding.

Of our own hearts and misdesirings: 

we seek understanding.

Of your ways and will: 

we seek understanding.

For pre-empting the dangers of this present darkness: 

we seek understanding.

(From https://ourcommonprayer.org/2021/05/06/climate-emergency/)

Reading: The word of the Lord came to Jonah son of Amittai: “Go to the great city of Nineveh and preach against it, because its wickedness has come up before me.”But Jonah ran away from the Lord and headed for Tarshish. He went down to Joppa, where he found a ship bound for that port. After paying the fare, he went aboard and sailed for Tarshish to flee from the Lord. The sea was getting rougher and rougher. So they asked him, “What should we do to you to make the sea calm down for us?” “Pick me up and throw me into the sea,” he replied, “and it will become calm. I know that it is my fault that this great storm has come upon you.” Now the Lord provided a huge fish to swallow Jonah, and Jonah was in the belly of the fish three days and three nights. From inside the fish Jonah prayed to the Lord his God. And the Lord commanded the fish, and it vomited Jonah onto dry land.

Then the word of the Lord came to Jonah a second time: “Go to the great city of Nineveh and proclaim to it the message I give you.” Jonah obeyed the word of the Lord and went to Nineveh. 

Jonah 1:1-3, 11, 12, 17; 2:1,10; 3:1-3

On this the ninth day of COP26 the focus is on transport, so let us pray:- 

We pray for all the participants,

the decision-makers and the protestors,

the bureaucrats and the prayerful,

influencers and bankers,

for producers and consumers, 

that they may recognise the importance of transport

for linking people and nations,

 and for the sharing of resources.

May they recognise the importance of enabling 

equitable access to carbon free transport

and of rapidly removing transport modes 

that pollute and destroy life

Loving and patient God,

may your will be done.

All: Amen.

How long O Lord? 

How  many heat waves?

How many droughts?

How many floods?

How many lost coast lines?

How many before we admit our error?

Before we recognise the crisis?

How many lost penguins?

How many missing polar bears?

How many extinct butterflies?

How many disappearing swifts?

How many before we admit our error?

Before we recognise the crisis?

How many car journeys?

How many air miles? 

How many beef steaks?

How many tonnes of cement?

How many before we admit our error?

Before we recognise the crisis.

Creator God, we admit our error

and recognise the crises we have caused. 

Grant us the wisdom and determination to make amends:

To change the way we live,

To change the way we see things,

To have care for the future.

Amen.