To mark the first anniversary of the start of the war in Ukraine, the Iona community has prepared a liturgy to share at this time. In our service on 26th February, we prayed the intercessions from this liturgy interspersed with the Kyrie outside the church, tying yellow and blue ribbons to the railings.
Local initiatives:
You may also find the following videos helpful:
The video below shows people from Ukraine reading from the Psalm –
HOW PSALM 31 IS BRINGING COMFORT AT A TIME OF CRISIS
Resound Worship have provided this recording of a Kyrie with the Ukrainian flag superimposed on the video. It may be helpful as we pray for those involved in this conflict –
Prayers for Ukraine from the URC
Could You Smite Him Lord?
Oh Lord,
I really want to ask you smite Mr Putin;
it hasn’t got to be a big smite,
just enough to remove him from power,
topple him from his throne,
remove his advisors,
disable his armed forces,
and make him see sense.
Is that a big ask Lord?
After all you seem to have smote a lot in the Bible;
powerful kings brushed away,
invading generals confounded by your power,
or had their heads chopped off by some pretty feisty women,
so that your people would be free.
Even your mother sung of your power to remove tyrants from their thrones
and she faced the might of Rome.
The problem with asking you for some smiting,
is that I see myself as a trendy leftie,
what they call a snowflake,
I don’t really believe in violence,
I think anger can be used more productively,
I know you call us to solve our problems and not depend on you to sort out our messes,
but just this once Lord?
A bit of a smite?
A localised precision smite?
In the meantime, Lord,
please look after Mr Zelenskiy,
inspire him to continue to use his skills to defend his people;
protect him as you protected his ancestors of old.
Give hope to the people of Ukraine,
hope in your providence,
hope that the world won’t ignore their plight,
hope that the invaders will go,
and if, after that, you’ve got time for a smite….
Amen
By the Revd Andy Braunston, URC Minister for Digital Worship
Prayer for Hope
God of all time,
God of this time,
these times are difficult, and we bring them to you.
There have been other times like this when countries have invaded others.
You show us countries seized a village or settlement at a time and countries facing full invasion.
You reveal, when we dare to look, how national boundaries have changed like waves on the sand.
We feel so powerless; it all is so human and so tragic.
We bring it all to you in our confusion and worry.
Remind us, as ever, that worry is not what we must carry.
Remind us that worry makes us smaller, makes our powerlessness real.
Fill the place that worry has taken in our hearts and replace it with hope.
Give us courage to read the news as we can, to listen, to watch, to understand.
As we face the reality of these times, we pray for your hope to carry and fill us.
Let hope be the insight which we gift to each other.
Fill us with your knowledge that hope is as real an act as giving our money and our welcome.
You will bring peace, as ever you do.
Give us courage to gift your hope to that process.
In the name of your incarnated Christ and in the power and presence of Holy Spirit,
Amen
By the Revd Elizabeth Gray King, pastor in the North Western Synod
Beacon Hill United Reformed Church 