prayer by Written by Revd Sarah Hills, St Peter’s and St Oswald’s, Sheffield.
Prayer for Reconciliation and Peace
‘Though we are many, we are one body…’
This year we in the UK are hosting the Olympic games. People from all over the world will converge on London, and other parts of the country to compete in sports, to spectate, to support their countries’ athletes, and to cook, clean and tidy up after each event. Peoples from every nation, and all ‘races, colours and creeds’. Tensions will run high; individuals will find themselves cheek by jowl with people they don’t know, and maybe even people their country has been in conflict with. How can we in our journey of faith help in this process, where reconciliation, healing and peace may need to be high on the agenda? In our Diocesan 10 days of prayer, we are asked this year to ‘make time for God’ and to ‘be open to God’. Let us focus in our prayers, then, that the Olympics helps us to do just that, by keeping at the forefront the need to ask God’s help – not just for our ‘team’ to win, but for the reconciliation and healing we know needs to happen in our world.
Peace and the Olympic games
Peace and unity were the original purpose of the Olympic games. In a time of widespread conflict, the Olympics signified a sacred truce. Athletes needed to be able to reach Olympia safely and so peace during this time was instigated. When the modern Olympic games came into being in 1896, a spirit of international cooperation and a wish for peace was revived with the sporting events.
A new call for an Olympic Truce – a 100 days of peace – has been called for, and is about –
Laying down weapons to build a culture of non-violence
Upholding respect for human potential and achievement above bloodshed
Implementing UN resolution A/RES/48/11 which urges member states to ‘abide by the Truce, individually and collectively, and to pursue . . . the peaceful settlement of all international conflicts’.
The biblical basis for reconciliation
The journey from confession, through forgiveness, towards
‘Though we are many, we are one body…’
This year we in the UK are hosting the Olympic games. People from all over the world will converge on London, and other parts of the country to compete in sports, to spectate, to support their countries’ athletes, and to cook, clean and tidy up after each event. Peoples from every nation, and all ‘races, colours and creeds’. Tensions will run high; individuals will find themselves cheek by jowl with people they don’t know, and maybe even people their country has been in conflict with. How can we in our journey of faith help in this process, where reconciliation, healing and peace may need to be high on the agenda? In our Diocesan 10 days of prayer, we are asked this year to ‘make time for God’ and to ‘be open to God’. Let us focus in our prayers, then, that the Olympics helps us to do just that, by keeping at the forefront the need to ask God’s help – not just for our ‘team’ to win, but for the reconciliation and healing we know needs to happen in our world.
Peace and the Olympic games
Peace and unity were the original purpose of the Olympic games. In a time of widespread conflict, the Olympics signified a sacred truce. Athletes needed to be able to reach Olympia safely and so peace during this time was instigated. When the modern Olympic games came into being in 1896, a spirit of international cooperation and a wish for peace was revived with the sporting events.
A new call for an Olympic Truce – a 100 days of peace – has been called for, and is about –
Laying down weapons to build a culture of non-violence
Upholding respect for human potential and achievement above bloodshed
Implementing UN resolution A/RES/48/11 which urges member states to ‘abide by the Truce, individually and collectively, and to pursue . . . the peaceful settlement of all international conflicts’.
The biblical basis for reconciliation
The journey from confession, through forgiveness, towards