WCC Ecumenical Prayer Cycle: France and Germany

French troops preparing to be airlifted to Mali.

As I wrote about in a recent post, part of my vicarage at Saint Peter's Church this year is providing a supplemental paragraph about countries in the weekly Ecumenical Prayer Cycle created by the World Council of Churches. We pray for each country listed in the prayer cycle during the Intercessory Prayers at Saint Peter's on Sundays and the paragraph is included in our bulletin insert to provide context for those intercessions.

This week's countries (2/24 - 3/2) are France & Germany. While the paragraph below provides some recent information, check out their WCC page for additional prayer resources.

We give thanks this week that the highest court in Germany recently ruled in favor of adoption rights for same-sex couples. We pray for France, especially seven of its citizens who were kidnapped by armed individuals in Cameroon last Tuesday. We pray for the many French troops who began an operation last month in Mali to support its army and other African forces in restoring government control to the north of the country.

God's peace,
Dustin

Dustin is currently a vicar at the Lutheran Office for World Community and Saint Peter's Church in Manhattan, having recently completed his second year of a Masters of Divinity program at the Lutheran Theological Seminary at Philadelphia. While seeking ordination in the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America, his focus is on the intersection between worship, service and justice building in de-centralized faith communities unencumbered by a traditional church building. In his free time, Dustin likes playing frisbee, hiking and pretending to know how to sing.