Equal Partners
Grant, O God, that all
may recognize women
as equal partners in
creation and prophesy.
By the grace of the Holy Spirit,
empower women
at home,
at work,
in government, and
in the hierarchies of
churches,
temples,
mosques,
synagogues, and
all other places of worship.
Provide safety and protection,
O Gracious Divinity,
and inspire just laws
against all forms
of violence against women.We ask this through Christ our Savior, Amen.
Episcopal Relief
Leader: O Living God, we pray for your holy people and for the Church. We ask that every member may be freed to serve you in truth and grace. We remember our foremothers. We remember all women who have recognized that to be a person of faith is to respond in action. We give thanks for Hagar, cast out in the wilderness, Miriam, poetess of the Exodus, leader through the wilderness, Deborah, a mother and a judge in Israel, the women who bathed Jesus’ feet with her tears, the Samaritan woman at the well, who was one of the first to spread the good news, Mary Magdalene, first apostle of the resurrection …
All: We give you thanks, O God.
Leader: Let us remember all those women who have faced the unknown in faith and met fear with courage. We give thanks for all those women who have dared to step forward and lead, for all those women who have challenged the stereotypes of society and risked standing alone, for … (lift up names of women in your own countries and communities).
All: We give you thanks, O God.
Leader: Let us remember women who have struggled to reform our history, who have sought in their time to minister to the needs of those who are hurt, disadvantaged and alienated in our land. We give thanks for … (lift up names of women in your countries and communities), for those women whose faces and names are unknown, yet whose work helps to fulfill your vision of shalom on earth.
All: We give you thanks, O God.
Leader: Let us remember those women, known and unknown, who have labored in the struggle before us: We give thanks for … (lift up names of women in your countries and around the world)
All: We give you thanks, O God
World Council of Churches
God of the poor, come to us as a devout woman offering two mites.
God of the lost, come to us as a prudent woman seeking a hidden coin.
God of the outsider, come to us as an alien woman begging for crumbs off our table.
God of the sick, come to us as a bleeding woman grasping for a healing tough.
God of the condemned, come to us as a judged woman fallen before her accusers.
God of the hurt, come to us as a repentant woman washing our feet with her hair.
God of the dying, come to us as a mourning woman grieving for her brother.
Compassionate God, open our hearts to receive you so that we may mark this day as a time when we recommit ourselves and our churches to be in solidarity with women.
You have visited us through the women who have been filled with your Spirit. You have blessed us all with dreams for a common future
and gifts for a common life, in all things keep us faithful to the message of your gospel, that as women and men we may together bear witness to your love in Christ Jesus.
Amen.
World Council of Churches
Leader: Noah’s wife and daughters have no names. Moses’ adoptive mother, the daughter of Pharaoh, has no name. The wife of Minoah, mother of Samson, has no name.
All: The names of the mothers have been lost.
Leader: The woman who dried the feet of Jesus with her hair and perfumed them, the Canaanite woman whose faith prompted Jesus to heal her daughter, the woman who touched Jesus’ garment and was cured of hemorrhaging.
All: The names of these faithful women have been overlooked.
Leader: Sarah, Rebekah, Rachel, Dinah, Mary Magdalene – all women unfairly treated by men of their time or ours. Tamar, Deborah, Judith, Esther – all female heroes that take a back seat to males.
All: The stories of the women have been ignored. God, help us to remember and learn from all the people and strive to know all of Your Truth. Amen.
Ministry From the Two Poles
Click on these links for more prayers:
Ecumenical Women at the United Nations
The Forward Movement of the Episcopal Church