WCC Ecumenical Prayer Cycle: Italy, Malta, Portugal and Spain

Malta

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 (2/17 - 2/23) are Italy, Malta, Portugal and Spain.  While the paragraph below provides some basic information, check out their WCC page for additional prayer resources.

We pray for the people of Malta and Italy as both countries prepare to hold general elections in the coming weeks. We pray for the people and government of Portugal as their country's unemployment recently rose to 16.9%. We give thanks that Spain has succeeded in stabilizing its banking system, according to a recent report from the European Central Bank. In these days of discernment we also pray for the significant Roman Catholic populations in all this week's countries.

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.