A PRAYER FOR PEACE IN KOSOVO
And For All Touched By The Horrors of War
authored by The Rev. Justin Tanis, UFMCC Director of Clergy Development
We pray to you, our Savior, Jesus Christ, who proclaimed, "Blessed are the
peace makers for they shall be called the children of God." We celebrate the
wonder of your resurrection and the promise of eternal life and yet we live
in a world racked by violence. In this Easter season, we pray to you,
God have mercy.
We lift up to you, O Christ, the war in Kosovo. We know that the tensions
between your peoples there have gone on for many centuries and we acknowledge
that we have been unable to stop the violence. We give this situation to you,
for we know that you are able to bring life to places of death, peace to
places of war, hope to places of despair. We pray to you,
God have mercy.
Into your loving arms, O Christ, we commend all those who have died in this
conflict, Albanian and Serbian. We know that you comfort and unite them in
your heavenly realm where all divisions fall and peace reigns. May your
presence comfort and heal those who mourn for their lost loved ones, we pray to you,
God have mercy.
For the more than 1 million ethnic Albanians who have been uprooted in this
crisis and the 430,000 refugees who have fled Yugoslavia, we pray to you,
God have mercy.
For all who live in terror of bombs and guns, for all who sleep fitfully
amidst the fear and noise of war, for all who do not understand why this is
happening to them, for all the children unable to play and go to school, for
those of every race, we pray to you,
God have mercy.
For the people of Albania, Macedonia, and Montenegro who have opened their
hearts and homes to welcome strangers, providing them with a living witness
of your hospitality, we pray to you,
God have mercy.
For all who hold hatred in their hearts, we pray that you bring peace, for
we know that hatred poisons all whom it touches. Melt the hatred of the past
that the peoples of the earth may know and share a future. You are the God of
transformations and so we pray to you,
God have mercy.
For the soldiers of NATO, Yugoslavia and the ethnic Albanians, for their
fears, their freedom and their lives, we pray to you,
God have mercy.
For the leaders of our nations that they may see a way to bring peace to
Kosovo -- a lasting peace, a just peace for all involved -- we pray to you,
God have mercy.
May the power of your resurrection sweep across our world, for your love and
the eternal life you bring know no boundaries of nation or race. May we be
agents of that resurrection power and may we be witnesses to all that you are
doing in our world. May we be your peace makers until that day when you reign
over all the earth in justice and in peace. We pray to you,
God have mercy.
FOR ADDITIONAL INFORMATION, CONTACT:
James N. Birkitt, Jr., UFMCC Communications Department
8704 Santa Monica Blvd., 2nd Floor
West Hollywood, CA 90069
Tel. (310) 360-8640
Fax: (310) 360-8680
E-mail: UFMCCHQ@aol.com
website: http://www.ufmcc.com
