March 2, 2018
All God’s Creation Is Very Good
A heri grontapu di Gado meki bun doro, dóro!
World Day of Prayer is a global ecumenical movement led by Christian women who welcome all to join in prayer and action for peace and justice. This year, World Day of Prayer is celebrated Friday, March 2. The annual worship service is created by an invited writer country. The 2018 service was created by the World Day of Prayer Committee of Suriname. With Genesis 1:1–31 as their guiding Scripture, the women of Suriname remind us that we are all caretakers of God’s good creation. They write, “What God creates is always good! In the first five days, all that is needed is made ready until humankind is created. We are created in God’s image. We are worthy just because God loves us, but the creator holds us accountable for how we care for the environment and all the beings on earth. We can’t be careless or wasteful. It is time to seriously think about what we have done to God’s creation.”
World Day of Prayer’s guiding principles say “prayer is rooted in listening to God and to one another.” The urgent public and private need to care for God’s creation grows as more is understood about the impact of global climate change, which is expressed through stories in the service. Women’s voices introduce multicultural and multiethnic Suriname communities, tell stories of conservation and living well with creation, and raise concerns about the increasing abuse of human beings, God’s creatures and the environment. They remind participants that we “forget that we are only borrowing the earth,” and call us “to commit ourselves to being better stewards of God’s creation and caretakers of our neighbors with Jesus Christ as our example.”
World Day of Prayer 2018 calls participants to commit to a cooler earth, a place where all of creation can prosper now and into the future.
To learn more about World Day of Prayer and order resources, visit worlddayofprayer.net.
Susan Jackson Dowd, Executive Director, Presbyterian Women, treasurer of the World Day of Prayer International Committee and served for 20 years on the World Day of Prayer USA Committee
Today’s Focus: World Day of Prayer
Let us join in prayer for:
PC(USA) Agencies’ Staff
Carl Horton, PMA
Sy Hughes, PMA
Daily Readings
Morning Psalms 22; 148
First Reading Genesis 43:1-15
Second Reading 1 Corinthians 7:1-9
Gospel Reading Mark 4:35-41
Evening Psalms 105; 130
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