Here are two more extracts from Prayers for All Seasons 2, which you can buy this week, until 27 September – a saving of £2.80 – at a 10 per cent discount, using the code ANIMAL10. Just type the code into the relevant box at the KM checkout between the dates given.
One World Week confession
A divided world
Sovereign God,
we talk of being ‘one world’
but we know, in reality, that we are not.
Though we try to push the truth out of our minds,
we know that we are two worlds –
a world of rich and a world of poor,
well-fed and hungry,
healthy and sick,
powerful and powerless –
two worlds between which the divide grows ever greater,
the contrast ever more shocking.
We are accomplices to the crime:
Lord, forgive us.
We confess that what is true of the world as a whole
is true of the rich world we live in,
our society riven in two between the haves and the have-nots,
the wealthy and the poor,
the well-to-do and the underprivileged –
two societies between which the divide grows ever greater,
the contrast ever more stark.
We are accomplices to the crime:
Lord, forgive us.
We confess that, though we speak of pursuing justice
and seeking change,
few of us are actually willing to make sacrifices,
to have less so that others may have more.
We close our eyes to challenges we would rather not face,
ignoring injustice so long as it does not touch us.
We are accomplices to the crime:
Lord, forgive us.
Sovereign God,
help us not just to speak of ‘one world’,
nor even simply to pray for it.
Teach us to work towards the fulfilment of that vision,
through Jesus Christ our Lord.
Amen.