Day of prayer for war-torn areas set for Friday – Winnipeg Free Press

Anglicans, Lutherans and other Christians in Canada are invited to join a day of fasting and prayer on Friday for peace in Gaza, Israel and Ukraine.

This invitation is issued by Susan Johnson, National Bishop of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Winnipeg, Canada, and Linda Nicholls, Archbishop and Primate of the Anglican Church of Canada.

“Over the past two years, we have watched with horror and sadness as the violence in Ukraine, Israel and Gaza ravaged those regions,” they said, noting the ongoing war in Ukraine and the “horrific violence.” On October 7, Hamas and “Israel's bombardment of Gaza and the displacement of 1.9 million Gazans.”

Johnson and Nicholls also “feel heartbroken for the Christian community in Palestine, caught in the middle of the struggle to be in the Holy Land.”

The call to prayer and fasting is a way for “people to do something,” Johnson and Nicholls said, adding that participants can choose to fast from food, social media, listening to music, watching television or other ways to help them devote time to prayer. .

The day will conclude at 8pm CT with an online prayer service led by Johnson and Nicholls.

The invitation seems personal to Johnson, as he was on the West Coast last month at the invitation of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Jordan and the Holy Land. He met with Lutheran and other Christian leaders in places like Bethlehem, Ramallah and Beit Jala.

“The war in Gaza affects them too,” he said of the people he met in the West Bank, noting that many of them have relatives or friends in Gaza. “There's a lot of sadness there.”

According to Johnson, residents of these communities are suffering because of the loss of income from the decline in tourism, as well as because they are being released from jobs in Israel for security reasons.

“Poverty and hunger are increasing in the West Bank,” he said.

The pastors he met were tired of supporting their congregations, he said, so he pledged the “constant support, prayers and partnership” of his Canadian denomination.

A day of prayer and fasting is one way Anglicans and Lutherans are responding to the wars in Ukraine and Gaza, Nicholls said.

“Many Christians are at a loss as to what they can do,” he said, noting that prayer is one of the most important things they can do to care for victims of war and violence.

In addition to asking people to pray for peace for Palestinians and Israelis, participants are also asked to pray specifically for a ceasefire in Gaza so that humanitarian aid can be delivered, he said.

When it comes to the Middle East, Nicholls and Johnson noted that both faiths condemn all violence perpetrated by Hamas and Israel. The goal is “justice and fairness” for everyone in the region, Nicholls said.

In addition to calling for prayer and fasting, the two faith leaders sent letters to the Canadian government on behalf of their churches calling for an end to arms shipments to Israel, an immediate ceasefire and the opening of a humanitarian corridor in Gaza. and asked Canada to support the International Court of Justice judgment and “do everything possible to call on the State of Israel to fully comply with the judgment.”

For more information about the day of prayer and fasting, including a link to the online service, see http://wfp.to/jKv.

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John Longhurst
Faith reporter

John Longhurst has been writing for the Winnipeg Faith Pages since 2003. He also writes for Religion News Service in the US and blogs about media, marketing and communications at Making the News.

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