These prompts are provided for worship leaders as they prepare the prayers of intercession for weekly worship. The prompts are prepared by several leaders in the ELCA and reflect current world and national events. You are encouraged to adapt and add other concerns for your local context, including staying informed of events and concerns in your synod.

Worship resources for the crisis in Eastern Europe:

Worship resources are available to assist worshiping communities as they respond to the crisis in Eastern Europe. Visit this link to access a wide variety of resources and prayers for general use. Additional newly-composed worship texts for Good Friday and Easter are available here.

Intercession prompts:

For loved ones of the six million people who have died of Covid-19 around the world…
For our Jewish neighbors, siblings in God’s covenant, observing Passover…
For the people who have been displaced by the war in Ukraine and for refugees seeking safety everywhere…
For victims and loved ones of those affected by the subway shooting in New York…
For people living in poverty and all who are struggling to pay their bills…
For farmers and farmworkers as they plant their fields for the coming season…
For the preservation and renewal of the earth, God’s creation entrusted to us…

Other notable events and observances:

Commemoration of Olavus Petri, priest, died 1552; Laurentius Petri, Bishop of Uppsala, died 1573 (April 19)
Commemoration of Anselm, Bishop of Canterbury, died 1109 (April 21)
Earth Day (April 22)
Commemoration of Toyohiko Kagawa, renewer of society, died 1960 (April 23)
Passover (April 15-23)
Ramadan (April 2-30)

Suggested prayers and hymns:

Hymns for the peace and well-being of our world:

Morning Has Broken (ELW 556)
Mercy, We Abide in You (ACS 1077)

A prayer for interreligious cooperation and understanding: 

O God, whose name is above all names, your grace cannot be contained within human limits. We offer our thanks for holy wisdom that comes in other voices, in religions and worldviews different form our own, and in prayers offered in the wideness of your love. Move us more deeply into understanding and partnership, willing to work together in mutual respect, always open to the grace that we have experienced in Christ Jesus, our light and our life. Amen. (ACS p. 51)

A prayer for refugees, migrants, and immigrants: 

O God, as you guided the Israelites to a new land by pillars of cloud and fire, now travel alongside all people who seek safety from persecution and a better life. (Especially we pray for ___.) Provide them with what they need as they travel, and guide them to places of welcome and sanctuary. We ask this in Jesus’ name. Amen.

ELW = Evangelical Lutheran Worship

ACS = All Creation Sings: Evangelical Lutheran Worship
Supplement

Additional topical prayers are found in Evangelical Lutheran Worship (pp. 72–87) and All Creation Sings (pp. 46–55), as well as in other resources provided in print and online at sundaysandseasons.com.

Further assistance for composing prayers of intercession can be found here: Resources for Crafting Prayers of Intercession

Crafted intercessions for every Sunday and festival are provided in the Sundays and Seasons worship planning guide published in-print and online by Augsburg Fortress.

Prayer Ventures, a daily prayer resource, is a guide to prayer for the global, social and outreach ministries of the ELCA, as well as for the needs and circumstances of our neighbors, communities and world.

These prompts are provided for worship leaders as they prepare the prayers of intercession for weekly worship. The prompts are prepared by several leaders in the ELCA and reflect current world and national events. You are encouraged to adapt and add other concerns for your local context, including staying informed of events and concerns in your synod.

Worship resources for the crisis in Eastern Europe:

Worship resources are available to assist worshiping communities as they respond to the crisis in Eastern Europe. Visit this link to access a wide variety of resources and prayers for general use. Additional newly-composed worship texts for Good Friday and Easter are available here.

Intercession prompts:

For the victims of violence in Bucha, Ukraine, and for all witnesses of the atrocities of war…
For the victims and survivors of the mass shooting in Sacramento, CA…
For our Muslim neighbors observing the holy month of Ramadan and for our Jewish neighbors preparing for Passover…
For all areas suffering damage, injury, or loss of life in spring storms…
With thanksgiving for the gifts of people with autism and for all who offer care and support to them…

Other notable events and observances:

Ramadan (April 2-April 30)
Commemoration of Mikael Agricola, Bishop of Turku, died 1557 (April 10)
Passover (April 15-April 23)

Suggested prayers and hymns:

When Our World Is Rent by Violence, ACS 1052
Christ, Our Peace, ACS 1037

A prayer for time of conflict, crisis, disaster:
God most mighty, God most merciful, our sacred stories tell us that you help and save your people. You are the fortress: may there be no more war. You are the harvest: may there be no more hunger. You are the light: may no one die alone or in despair. God most majestic, God most motherly, grant us your life, the life that flows from your Son and the Spirit, one God, now and forever. Amen. (ACS p. 51)

ELW = Evangelical Lutheran Worship

ACS = All Creation Sings: Evangelical Lutheran Worship
Supplement

Additional topical prayers are found in Evangelical Lutheran Worship (pp. 72–87) and All Creation Sings (pp. 46–55), as well as in other resources provided in print and online at sundaysandseasons.com.

Further assistance for composing prayers of intercession can be found here: Resources for Crafting Prayers of Intercession

Crafted intercessions for every Sunday and festival are provided in the Sundays and Seasons worship planning guide published in-print and online by Augsburg Fortress.

Prayer Ventures, a daily prayer resource, is a guide to prayer for the global, social and outreach ministries of the ELCA, as well as for the needs and circumstances of our neighbors, communities and world.

ELCA Worship has provided a worship resource responding to the war in Ukraine. These resources are available from the ELCA.org Worship Resources area: https://elca.org/resources/worship#Liturgy.

As we approach Holy Week and the Easter season, you may desire worship texts that hold in tension the joy of the resurrection with the reality of violence and suffering in our world in Eastern Europe and around the globe.

Below are three newly composed worship texts by Gail Ramshaw available for use in your context during Holy Week. Guidance for use precedes each selection.

 For Good Friday

From the third century on, a central feature of Good Friday worship has been a lengthy bidding prayer (See ELW Leaders Desk Edition p.636). You may consider inserting the following after the petition for God’s creation.

Let us pray for peace in the world.
Silent prayer.
Almighty and eternal God,
it is your will that the people of all nations dwell in peace and concord.
Grant that wars throughout the world will cease,
and lead all people away from turmoil and strife
toward dedication to the common good.
We ask this through Christ our Lord.

For the Easter season

If you begin your service with a thanksgiving for baptism, you may consider this contextualized thanksgiving which begins with words of lament and then follows with Thanksgiving at the Font V, ELW p. 71.

In the name of the Father, and of the +Son, and of the Holy Spirit.
Amen.
or
Blessed be the holy Trinity, +one God,
the fountain of living water, the rock who gave us birth, our light and our salvation.
Amen.

The presiding minister addresses the assembly.
Rejoicing in the resurrection of Jesus Christ,
joined to Christ and to one another in the waters our of baptism,
we yet call to mind a world so filled with suffering—
from war and violence, Covid and hunger,
homelessness and prejudice,
national disaster and personal loss.

We who are clothed with God’s mercy and forgiveness
give thanks for the gift of baptism,
and we plead for the Spirit to strengthen us
by the mystery of Christ’s resurrection.

Continue with Thanksgiving at the Font V.
Water may be poured into the font as the presiding minister gives thanks.

Holy God, holy and merciful, holy and mighty, you are the river of life, you are the everlasting wellspring, you are the fire of rebirth.

Glory to you for oceans and lakes, for rivers and streams. Honor to you for cloud and rain, for dew and snow. Your waters are below us, around us, above us: our life is born in you. You are the fountain of resurrection.

Praise to you for your saving waters: Noah and the animals survive the flood, Hagar discovers your well. The Israelites escape through the sea, and they drink from your gushing rock. Naaman washes his leprosy away, and the Samaritan woman will never be thirsty again.

At this font, holy God, we pray: Praise to you for the water of baptism and for your Word that saves us in this water. Breathe your Spirit into all who are gathered here and into all creation. Illumine our days. Enliven our bones. Dry our tears. Wash away the sin within us, and drown the evil around us.

Satisfy all our thirst with your living water, Jesus Christ, our Savior, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and forever.
Amen.

Eastertide Lament

This lament may be used as part of the gathering rite or at another appropriate time during the fifty days of Easter. For more on lament in worship, see the Frequently Asked Question, “How is lament included in worship?

We assemble, praising the God of creation,
rejoicing in the promise of the resurrection,
and renewed in the gift of baptism.
Yet we stand with those who suffer throughout the world:
victims of war, both soldiers and civilians;
refugees fleeing violence;
those forced into the loss of freedoms;
the oppressed seeking justice and social acceptance;
those sick with the coronavirus;
the millions mourning their dead;
the hungry and the homeless.

A Kyrie or a hymn such as ELW #751, ELW #752, ACS# 1055, or ACS #1075 is sung.

Hear us, O God.
Hear us, O God.

Keep us in the joy of the resurrection.
Keep us in the joy of the resurrection.

Sustain us to serve all in need.
Sustain us to serve all in need.

Give us your life.
Give us your life.

Here follows a time of silence or a short musical interlude.

Hear these words and receive their power:
God the Father, in wondrous mystery, daily sustains the whole earth.
God the Son accompanies us through death and promises us new life.
God the Spirit empowers us to turn our Easter joy into service for others.

Thanks be to God.
Thanks be to God.