Today, February 25, men and women are wearing orange to signal their support for the United Nations campaign against violence against women UNiTE. During the weekly chapel service at the Ecumenical Centre in Geneva this morning, the general secretary of the Conference of European Churches, Guy Liagre, offered a prayer of hope and affirmation for women and girls. The prayer is reproduced here with permission.
Staff of WCRC are wearing orange today in support of UN campaign to end violence against women
Orange Campaign against violence against women
25 February 2013
L: O God who gave your servants the gifts of courage, faith and cheerfulness and sent people out to carry the word of your gospel to every creature, grant, we pray, a spirit to your church at this time. Further in all things the purpose of churches that hidden things may be revealed to the world and new ways found to touch the lives of all.
SING: Oh Lord hear my prayer, oh Lord hear my prayer. Come and listen to me. (1X)
L: On this day marking the Orange Campaign against violence against women, we thank you God for women and their mission to the human community. We pray for the woman who is a daughter, that she be accepted and loved by her parents, treated with tenderness and kindness. We pray for the woman who is a sister, that she be respected and defended by her brothers.
SING: Oh Lord hear my prayer…
L: We pray for the woman who is a wife, that she be recognized, valued and respected by her husband so that living both the communion of hearts and of desire they are blessed with fertility, thus participating in the creation of human life. We pray for the woman who is a mother, that she recognizes in motherhood a flourishing of her femininity.
SING: Oh Lord hear my prayer…
L: We pray for women who are feeling alone, women who are do not find meaning to life; for the marginalized and those used as an object of pleasure and consumption; women who have been mistreated, raped and murdered.
SING: Oh Lord hear my prayer…
L: We pray, Lord, for all of us, men and women, that we may know, understand, appreciate and help each other so that in a relationship which is friendly and positive we may collaborate together in the service of family, society and life. Through Jesus Christ.
ALL: Amen
Prayer offered by Guy Liagre, General Secretary of the Conference of European Churches
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