Melville Presbyterian Church hosts Palestinian World Day of Prayer service

BY SCOTT STEPHENSON

Every year, Christian women around the globe participate in the World Day of Prayer - an ecumenical event in which everyone is welcomed to come together with prayers and actions directed towards peace and justice. This year, Melville Presbyterian Church in Brussels observed the day with scripture readings and songs.

 

The Christian women of a different nation are selected each year to write the international program for the World Day of Prayer - this year, the chosen nation is Palestine. Since being asked several years ago to handle the task, a group of Palestinian Christians has been praying and reflecting together in response. They ended up selecting the theme - “I Beg You... Bear With One Another In Love,” which comes from Ephesians 4:1-7. Their program calls Christians to bear with each other in love, despite all difficulties and oppression, with the hope that the power of prayer will be able to bridge barriers and forge bonds that transcend borders and cut through chaos by capturing a shared spirit through the harmonious hymn of hope.

 

World prayer hopes to create a collective conduit capable of creating real change and fostering compassion, the very vibrations of voices striving to reach from the world’s collective sacred spaces all the way to the heavens. In these trying times, it certainly can’t hurt.