World Prayers for Sept. 25-Oct. 1: Belarus, Moldova, Russia, and Ukraine

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Russia. Photo by Stephen Padre/Bread for the World

Bread for the World believes prayer is central to the work of ending hunger by 2030. Hunger happens in every corner of the world. In this blog series, we will provide a prayer for a different group of countries each week and their efforts to end hunger.

This prayer series will follow the Ecumenical Prayer Cycle, a list compiled by the World Council of Churches that enables Christians around the world to journey in prayer through every region of the world, affirming our solidarity with Christians all over the world, brothers and sisters living in diverse situations, experiencing their challenges and sharing their gifts.

We will especially be lifting up in prayer the challenges related to hunger and poverty that the people of each week’s countries face. In prayer, God’s story and our own story connect—and we and the world are transformed. In a prayer common to all of us—the Lord’s Prayer/the Our Father—we pray, “Give us this day our daily bread.” This line from this prayer can also be a prayer for the end of hunger.

We invite you to join Bread in our prayers for the world’s countries to end hunger. And we encourage you to share with us your prayers for the featured countries of the week or for the end of hunger in general.

For the week of September 24-October 1: Belarus, Moldova, Russia, and Ukraine

O Lord, we thank you for these wondrous countries where priests, pastors, and lay people gave up their lives during communist times. We thank you for the long history of Christianity in these lands and those who work for democracy and openness in government.

We especially give thanks for all who help to alleviate the suffering of people due to the conflict in Ukraine and who try to counteract and overcome divisions.

We pray for your guidance as these nations work to reconfigure political and economic structures and for compassion and integrity for all peoples in these nations with such diverse ethnic histories. We ask that you especially watch over the large number of people who now live in poverty and are unemployed, and also those who suffer from alcoholism, HIV and AIDS, tuberculosis, and other life-threatening diseases.

We also lift up those trying to revitalize churches after decades of official atheism and also those in Belarus and Ukraine who suffer from the continued effects of the Chernobyl nuclear disaster.  

All these things we ask in the name of Jesus. Amen.

Percentage of the population of these countries living below the national poverty line:

Belarus: 5.5
Moldova: 12.7
Russia: 10.8
Ukraine: 8.4

Source: World Bank World Development Indicators as found in the 2016 Hunger Report.

Prayer is a central part of Bread for the World’s work. Learn more about how you can get involved with prayer at Bread. 

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