Friday 5 March 2021 was the World Day of Prayer.
This is a global ecumenical movement led by Christian women who welcome you to join in prayer and action for peace and justice.
This year, the focus of the day was the Pacific country of Vanuatu. About 60 percent of women in Vanuatu have experienced some form of physical and/or sexual violence in their lives, of which 21 percent were left with permanent injuries. This is in a country which is 83 percent Christian.
As well as this, Vanuatu is the world’s most vulnerable nation in terms of its ability to respond to natural disasters.
This all has relevance to the World Day of Prayer because we recognise that we are limited in our human power to make the change we would like to. We need outside help, and prayer reminds us of this. It is also a recognition that no one should have to live with gender-based violence and the devastating effects of climate change.
When you pray and when you put that prayer into action, you are working with God to bring the kingdom on earth as in heaven. You are actually living out the Lord’s Prayer.
The call of God is to live out our lives on the rock that Jesus spoke of in Matthew 7:24-27. It is about what is often called the Golden Rule, to do for others what you would have them do for you. That sums up everything that life is about, loving God and loving our neighbour; in this case our global neighbours in Vanuatu.
Below is a video from our Church and Community Engagement Coordinator, Nils von Kalm, in which he goes into more detail about why the World Day of Prayer is so important to our work.