A committee of Christian Palestinian women has prepared this year’s World Day of Prayer service, which has the theme of “I beg you … bear with one another in love.”
St. Andrew’s United Church at 60 Athabasca Street East is hosting the prayer service on Friday, March 1, at 2 p.m. Everyone is invited to attend the event, which includes a video, music and stories from Christian Palestinian women.
The theme comes from the Bible, specifically, the book of Ephesians, chapter four and verses one to three.
The Women’s Inter-Church Council of Canada (WICC), one of the founders of this prayer movement, is co-ordinating World Day of Prayer (WDP) activities across this country, while a New York-based international committee is offering support to other participating nations.
“We are encouraged to reflect on the history and challenges faced by this area as citizens struggle for security, peace and independence as well as the efforts that women have made during changes in ruling influences over the last century,” WICC says on its website.
“This is (also) an opportunity to examine a geographical area that is home to the birth of Christianity.”
For anyone who objects to the writing committee region, WICC said the service should be understood as one written by Palestinian Christian women, not as a Palestinian-focused service. Therefore, people should look for commonalities and avoid polarization.
“Let us be an example of women working well together with a purpose to build relationships with women in other regions of the world and grow and deepen our understanding, in part, by reading our Palestine background information,” the organization said.
“As the service theme suggests, ‘I beg you … bear with one another in love.’”
WDP began in 1927 to help bridge social, geographic and political barriers across countries. Together, the goal is for nations to pursue justice, peace and reconciliation by standing together in prayer and action.
Last year, over 1.5 million Christians speaking 90 languages in 150 countries united in spirit to pray for relevant issues affecting women and children.
The most recent writing countries were Taiwan (2023), England, Wales, & Northern Ireland (2022), Vanuatu (2021), Zimbabwe (2020), Slovenia (2019), Suriname (2018), the Philippines (2017), and Cuba (2016).
From WDP donations over the last 40 years, WICC has distributed over $3 million for small projects to help restore hope to women and children touched by injustice.
Louise McDougall, a spokeswoman with St. Andrew’s organizing committee, said the church hosted the event about 10 years ago and was looking forward to doing it again. She thought it was important to honour World Day of Prayer because Palestinian Christian women needed support during the ongoing war.
“When we realize what’s happening in the world today with the war, we just sympathize with them and just can’t believe how they can live under these circumstances,” she said, noting this region has experienced war regularly over the decades. “It must be terrible. We are so fortunate in this country.”
The writing committee created this service before the Israeli-Hamas War began and, in fact, started writing it just as the pandemic hit, which is why it took them so long to produce it, said McDougall. While they finished it before this war began, they recently sent further stories and information to add to the service.
The organizing committee wants people to be more conscious of what’s happening in that Middle Eastern country and to pray for those people so peace will come, she added. The group also wants people who attend the service to acquire more knowledge of the situation in Palestine.
