An order of worship reflecting on Diaconia and praying for

Morning Prayer in the Ecumenical Centre 27 October 2008

Hospitality and visitation – basic dimensions of diaconal practice

According to the ecumenical prayer cycle we pray this week for the Indian Ocean Islands:
Comoros, Madagascar, Maldives, Mauritius, Seychelles

"In Madagascar, when you feel lost in an unknown situation, the safest place to go is the church. There is always someone to receive you. This is partly a manifestation of Malagasy hospitality, but also it is a real manifestation of a caring church, the living image of God. God through his church always welcomes strangers no matter who they are or where they come from. There is always room for anybody who knocks at the door. The living condition of the church is its deeds towards needy people. We should know by now that actions are more important than words. There are many uprooted people around the world who seek refuge and shelter, with a load of despair and bitterness but full of hope. They feel lost and knock at the door of the church! Welcome them as God welcomes you!"
(Ranto Ranaivoson)

Welcome

Opening responses

Creator of time and space, we come together from different places and contexts
To meet in your presence.

Redeemer of the whole creation, we come with our hope and our sorrow
To be transformed in your presence.

Sustainer of all life, we come to listen to you
To strengthen our communion in your presence.

Psalm 23
The Lord is my shepherd,
I shall not be in want.

The Lord makes me lie down in green pastures;
and leads me beside still waters;

You restore my soul, O Lord,
and guide me along right pathways for your name's sake.

Though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I shall fear no evil;
for you are with me; your rod and your staff - they comfort me.

You prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies;
you anoint my head with oil; my cup is running over.

Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life,
and I will dwell in the house of the Lord forever.

Old Testament reading: Isaiah 58:6-12 (read in Malagasy)
Is not this the fast that I choose: to loose the bonds of injustice, to undo the thongs of the yoke, to let the oppressed go free, and to break every yoke? 7 Is it not to share your bread with the hungry, and bring the homeless poor into your house; when you see the naked, to cover them, and not to hide yourself from your own kin? 8 Then your light shall break forth like the dawn, and your healing shall spring up quickly; your vindicator shall go before you, the glory of the Lord shall be your rear guard. 9 Then you shall call, and the Lord will answer; you shall cry for help, and he will say, Here I am. If you remove the yoke from among you, the pointing of the finger, the speaking of evil, 10 if you offer your food to the hungry and satisfy the needs of the afflicted, then your light shall rise in the darkness and your gloom be like the noonday. 11 The Lord will guide you continually, and satisfy your needs in parched places, and make your bones strong; and you shall be like a watered garden, like a spring of water, whose waters never fail. 12 Your ancient ruins shall be rebuilt; you shall raise up the foundations of many generations; you shall be called the repairer of the breach, the restorer of streets to live in.

New Testament reading: Hebrews 13:1-3
Let mutual love continue. 2 Do not neglect to show hospitality to strangers, for by doing that some have entertained angels without knowing it. 3 Remember those who are in prison, as though you were in prison with them; those who are being tortured, as though you yourselves were being tortured.

Reflection - Kjell Nordstokke

Hymn: Let us build a house were love can dwell

Intercessions from Madagascar
Everlasting God,
who love in justice
and whose justice is fulfilled in love,
we give thanks to you,
in the name of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ,
for the faithful witness of your churches in the islands of Comoros, Madagascar, Maldives, Mauritius and Seychelles.

We praise you for the lives and works
of those who witness hardship,
in the midst of multi-cultural and multi-religious contexts,
in deep poverty,
always exposed to killer diseases,
yet sharing the good news of your love
through their empowering word
and through work for social and economic justice.

We pray for your continued presence through the Holy Spirit,
to strengthen the ministry of the churches
in the public and political arenas
that the abundant life promised in the Gospel
may become real in the lives of people.

Teach us, Lord Jesus, to live your love in justice
and your justice in love throughout our daily lives.
teach your church to love the Gospel it preaches
and to love those to whom the Gospel is preached.

Prayers continued in silence

Lord’s Prayer (each in his / her own language)

Blessing

On our hearts and on our houses
the blessing of God.

In our coming and our going,
the peace of God.

In our life and our believing,
the love of God.

At our end and new beginning,
the arms of God to welcome us
and bring us home. Amen.

Hymn

This service was put together by Simone Sinn, Kjell Nordstokke and Antsan'ny Rakotoarisoa.

Sow life ...

Comments by Dennis Smith, new president of the World Association for Christian Communication:

I am honored to serve you for these next few years. I want especially to recognize the leadership of Musimbi Kanyoro and Piet Halma who tomorrow will be completing their terms as officers of WACC. We are not alone on this journey, and Musimbi and Piet are among the cloud of witnesses who will continue to accompany us with their witness and vision.

WACC has been important to me for a long time. When I began in WACC back in about 1979, I was staffing a communication training and religious film distribution service in Guatemala's central highlands. The WACC news bulletin Action, edited by Ann Shakespeare, was my one contact with the larger world of Christian communication. Over the years, WACC has served as my professional association, my window onto the rich world of Latin American communication theory and practice, a laboratory for social research through the Global Media Monitoring Project, and the school where I learned about communication rights, public policy and theologies of communication. People like Carlos Valle, Horace Etemesi, and María Elena Hermosilla have been valued mentors.

As the World Association for Christian Communication, we work to assure the full participation and leadership of women in our media, in our churches and institutions, in our world. We provide a unique space where, as people of faith, we can call on all people of good will to build community, to assure the full participation of the silenced, of those who have been made invisible, to challenge systems of impunity and violence by speaking prophetically to power, to stand with processes of liberation and wholeness in human history, to celebrate and defend human culture in all its diversity.

We are bearers of a proud tradition in defense of communication rights. We will continue to be present in the struggle to have the right to communicate recognized as a basic human right. We are here because we are storytellers. And in my brief comments this afternoon I want to speak to the theme of our Congress by telling a story from Guatemala: I was the translator.

The speaker was a Mayan pastor with deep roots in the spirituality of his people. The audience was a delegation representing several theological seminaries from North and Central America. The delegation wanted to know what was happening in Guatemala. In December, 1996, we had signed Peace Accords that ended 36 years of civil war. That war left almost 250,000 people dead or disappeared; more than a million displaced people.

In the larger context, the delegation wanted to know what the pastor could say about Mayan cultural resistance. The Mayas had somehow survived 500 years of adversity and still maintained languages, cultures, a vibrant spirituality, a unique way of being in this world. The Mayan pastor talked about rediscovering roots; he explored how hard and necessary that is after a time of massive brutality. How does one restore one’s humanity? How does one recover one’s connectedness with all things?

Being immersed in so much violence for so long, he said, breaks something inside us. Trust is shattered. Suspicion becomes a way of life. We become confused, numb, exhausted. And deep within us lingers a continuing spark of violence.

How do we restore balance? How do we re-build self-respect? What is the glue that helps us piece together our integrity? A starting point, he said, is to recall the stories told to us by our grandmothers.

But many, he said, have forgotten. They have been seduced by power, by consumerism. Inside, they are hollow, hurting, adrift.

Only a remnant have remained true to their vocation, to the awful, awe-filled calling to serve those in need in the name of God, whose name in Mayan languages is Heart of Heaven, Heart of Earth.

One professor wanted to talk about the problem of evil. Is there not a time when one must take up arms against the oppressor? He was like many of us. In the 80’s, much of his identity had become tied up in Central America’s struggles. In good faith, he, like many of us, had chosen to baptize the revolutions and sidestep their ambiguities. Now, he wanted to hear that the other side was evil.

The pastor did not answer.

Another posed a similar question.

Still no answer. I noted to myself that the pastor did not trot out his credentials of suffering. I knew he had lost close relatives. I knew he had witnessed monstrous acts.

The pastor and I talked later. I asked him why he had chosen not to tell his own story. Such memories, he told me, should not be violated. To do so can trivialize the victims, can cheapen their ongoing presence as they accompany us on life’s journey.

We talked about living in a time of great violence. We agreed that in these circumstances, there are no good guys. Within each of us exists the capacity to do monstrous acts. That is who we are as human beings. To celebrate violence only lessens us, no matter what the justification. But victimhood also lessens us. To perpetrate violence breaks something inside us. Always. There are no exceptions. So here we are, lessened: victims, witnesses, perpetrators. After so much brutality, our very humanity hangs by a thread. God’s restoring grace is our only hope.

So how do we deal with continued violence and injustice? Do we just step aside and let it roll unchecked? No. The struggle to build the world imagined by God must continue. But we must know that the struggle will consume us. In our brokenness we will become even more broken. In Guatemala, I have come to suspect that all of us, sooner or later, end up as damaged goods. That is certainly what we have seen in the films we have viewed and in the stories we have shared in this Congress.

Holy Spirit, spirit of wholeness – we are broken. We are capable of breaking others. That’s why Guatemalan poet Julia Esquivel states categorically:

“Because you can’t kill death with death
Sow life
And kill death with life.”

This is the story we share: the breath of the Spirit is in our midst; her presence will not be denied. Her's is the story of the slow, sure, tender triumph of life and justice and hope in all of Creation.

Go forth, my sisters and brothers, and be bearers of peace. For we are not alone.

Cape Town
10 October 2008

order of prayers for Bangladesh, Bhutan and Nepal

SERVICE OF MORNING PRAYER
The Chapel of the Ecumenical Centre, Geneva
Monday 13 October 2008

This week the ecumenical prayer cycle calls attention to
the nations, churches and peoples of Bangladesh, Bhutan and Nepal

Prelude

Opening prayer
O God, we come before you with unclean hearts, selfish minds, unworthy spirits.
In your grace, you touch us and make us whole and sound.
We dance before you with joy. We sing in freedom. We swim in your love.
We give you thanks and praise for your grace.
We pray that you will touch us, again and again,
and show us the way toward true happiness.
In your triune name we pray, O Lord.
Amen.

Thuma Mina 16 – Veni Creator

Reading from Holy Scripture: Philippians 4:4-7
Soyez toujours joyeux d’être unis au Freuet euch in dem Herrn allewege, und
Seigneur. Je le répète: Soyez joyeux! abermals sage ich: Freuet euch!
Manifestez de la douceur envers tous. Eure Lindigkeit lasset kund sein allen
Le Seigneur viendra bientôt. Menschen! Der Herr ist nahe!
Ne vous inquiétez vous de rien, Sorget nichts, sondern in allen Dingen lasset
mais en toute circonstance demandez à eure Bitten im Gebet und Flehen mit
Dieu dans la prière ce dont vous avez Danksagung vor Gott kund werden!
besoin, et demandez-le-lui avec un cœur Und der Friede Gottes, welcher höher ist
reconnaissant. Et la paix de Dieu, qui als alle Vernunft, bewahre eure Herzen
dépasse tout ce que l’homme peut com- und Sinne in Christus Jesus!
prendre, gardera vos cœurs et vos esprits
en Jésus Christ.

Thuma Mina 52 – Alleluia

Reflection

Prayer of Intercession (Response: Thuma Mina 94 – La ténèbre n’est point ténèbre)
Eternal God, you call us to rejoice. Forgive our tendency towards gloom.
Remind us that your good news is glorious, and lead us into your courts with joy.

La ténèbre n’est point ténèbre devant toi; la nuit comme le jour est lumière.

Lift our lives out for their accustomed ruts, our minds out of their comfortable rants.
Lift our hearts into your presence through the revelation of your gracious will for us.

La ténèbre n’est point ténèbre devant toi; la nuit comme le jour est lumière.

Teach us how to love you, and to worship you in joyousness of spirit.
Teach us joyfully to love one another, to bring your light into one another’s existence.

La ténèbre n’est point ténèbre devant toi; la nuit comme le jour est lumière.

Wherever practical difficulties lie as snares in our neighbours’ paths,
wherever the forces of markets obscure hope for people’s futures,
wherever war or natural catastrophe amplify the temptation to despair,
shed your light upon our world, and grant that we may reflect your goodness.

La ténèbre n’est point ténèbre devant toi; la nuit comme le jour est lumière.

Hear our prayers, O God: those we utter aloud, and those we pray in silence…
Hear us as we pray for all the world, and especially this week for your grace in
Bangladesh, Bhutan and Nepal.

All this we pray in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, who taught disciples to pray…

The Lord’s Prayer (said by each of us in his or her own language)

Sending prayer
Compassionate Lord, you know that we would prefer to have power over the storm,
a secure home, a life protected from the winds and every other threat.
Yet we gather here to ask your help in learning to live with the storms that come,
to grant us shelter among friends, to provide strength when our plans end in failure.
Build us up, Lord, again and again.
And grant that we may ever rejoice in fellowship with you, and with one another.
Amen.

Thuma Mina 134 – Laudate omnes gentes

Postlude

This service was written and put together by Theodore A. Gill