Prayed at a special CMU prayer chapel
September 11, 2001

Led by John Unger, Canadian Mennonite University. Leaders may choose to insert appropriate silences for reflection and meditation.

Almighty God,
Our world is shattered today.
The foundations are shaken.
Order crumbles.
Panic fills the streets.
Homes and offices and hearts are numb with fear.

How quickly our peace, our sense of security, our self-assurance vanishes.
How easily our self-assurance and self-confidence is torn from us.

Remind us today that you are the Sovereign Lord.
With you there are no surprises,
No threats,
No panic.
Remind us that no matter what happens in the world,
To us, and those we love,
That you are sovereign, still.

And so it is natural that on this terrible day, we turn to You in prayer.

But how should we pray? It is hard to know where to start.

We pray for the United States, our neighbors and our friends.

We pray for those still terrorized, in airplanes or buildings, trapped in rubble, desperate to be found and freed.

We pray for families and friends of those who have died or are missing. (This includes some of us.)

We pray for emergency response teams, firefighters, ambulance attendants and paramedics, hospital emergency units, police and security forces - people who face situations far beyond the scope of their training or experience.

We pray for local governments and authorities, working to coordinate responses amid confusion and smoke, panic and rage.

We pray for President Bush, for the U.S. government, and world leaders everywhere. May they be united in their determination to end violence of this kind. And may their responses be those that make for peace, lest the cure be worse than the disease.

We pray for those who are motivated by hate,
For those who celebrate today.

We pray for the church.
May we find ways to help in helpful ways.
May we not yield to the temptation to adopt the ways of angry words
and violent actions in retribution.
May we work for peace, at local and global levels.

Today the violence is near. We feel it close. But around the world, in many places and in many ways, there have been countless terrorist bombs, mass graves, ethnic cleansings, genocide. We pray for them today.

O God, heal our shattered, tattered world.
Protect us from a growing cycle of violence and retaliation.
Grant to us the opportunity and the grace to be reconcilers,
Even as Jesus, who gave himself, even his life, to reconcile us to Yourself, to each other, to those around us, and to your creation.
O, Lord, we pray for peace in our world.

And now I would invite you to stand and join hands, and repeat the Lord's Prayer together….