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The World Day of Prayer International committee recently launched a virtual choir program with volunteers from the worldwide WDP network. They began working on the four songs from the WDP 2024 program written by the women of Palestine and each song is now available on our YouTube channel! You can also view them here:
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“I Beg You… Bear With One Another in Love” Ephesians 4:1-7  Dear Sisters in Christ, I bring you warm greetings from Ghana and WDPIC. As we prepare to mark the 2024 World Day of Prayer, may we find it in our hearts to forgive and pray with one other, as we are all one in Christ. Let’s take a moment to reflect on this year’s celebration. Many of you are familiar with a book by Alexandre Dumas, titled The Three Musketeers. The heroes of this story have as their motto “All for one and one for all.” This means that each member of the group will fight for the others. They vow to stand together in a common struggle. This resonates with what we are doing as a WDP movement. Every year, we lift up the voices of women from a selected country. We pray with and for them. We care about their concerns. And we offer to share our resources. Each time we do this, we build up a strong ecumenical global sisterhood. We stand together amidst all of our struggles and difficulties. This year’s liturgy came from Christian women in Palestine. Together, our movement will lift up their stories, songs and prayers on Friday, March 1, 2024. Their theme, “I beg you … bear with one another in love,” was chosen in 2017, but it is appropriate and relevant today amidst the devastating war in Gaza and Israel. God has surely guided us for such a time as this. We respond as Christian women by going down on our knees and praying for peace, unity, love and justice. In the passage from Ephesians 4:1-7, there are two clear areas that form the basis of our unity as Christians. First, we share a common ground as Christians, created in the image of God. And second, we receive a common grace from God, who does not discriminate. We bear with one another in love because of this common ground and common grace. It is from this place that we find our unity. In this time of war and violence, we must stand united in protecting God’s creation. We must pray for a just peace. And we must work for a just peace. A line from Naseeru binur elkalima (one of the songs from Palestine) says: “Our world is full of sorrow, struggle, loss and pain, tempting us all into despair.” Despite the sorrows, struggles, loss and pain that we face, we are still called to bear with each other in love along this journey of life. May it be so. - Joyce Larko Steiner (PhD)
Chairperson, WDPIC |
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