wfn.org | Title: A Prayer for Peace In Kosovo

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A Message from
The Rev. Elder Troy D. Perry
UFMCC Moderator

On The Human Tragedy of Kosovo

April 8, 1999

Dear Saints:

All of us have been deeply affected by the terrible tragedy now taking place 
in Kosovo.

I have been especially touched by the plight of refugees.

As you know by now, more than 430,000 ethnic Albanians have become 
international refugees, and must be resettled before the onset of winter. 
Another one million have been uprooted inside Kosovo. And the human tragedy 
of fleeing refugees and displaced persons has now been compounded by the 
collapse of the health care system within Kosovo.

Accordingly, I am calling upon all UFMCC congregations to set aside Sunday, 
April 11th -- or an alternative Sunday according to your church's schedule 
and obligations -- as a Day of Prayer for Kosovo.

I specifically ask that your congregation pray for the refugees of Kosovo, 
and for end to war and the soon establishment of peace.

In Christ,

/signed/
The Rev. Elder Troy D. Perry
Moderator of UFMCC

A PRAYER FOR PEACE IN KOSOVO
And For All Touched By The Horrors of War

authored by The Rev. Justin Tanis, Director of Clergy Development

We pray to you, our Savior, Jesus Christ, who proclaimed, "Blessed are the 
peace makers for they shall be called the children of God."  We celebrate the 
wonder of your resurrection and the promise of eternal life and yet we live 
in a world racked by violence.  In this Easter season, we pray to you,

God have mercy

We lift up to you, O Christ, the war in Kosovo. We know that the tensions 
between your peoples there have gone on for many centuries and we acknowledge 
that we have been unable to stop the violence. We give this situation to you, 
for we know that you are able to bring life to places of death, peace to 
places of war, hope to places of despair. We pray to you,

God have mercy

Into your loving arms, O Christ, we commend all those who have died in this 
conflict, Albanian and Serbian. We know that you comfort and unite them in 
your heavenly realm where all divisions fall and peace reigns. May your 
presence comfort and heal those who mourn for their lost loved ones, we pray 
to you

God have mercy

For the more than 1 million ethnic Albanians who have been uprooted in this 
crisis and the 430,000 refugees who have fled Yugoslavia, we pray to you

God have mercy

For all who live in terror of bombs and guns, for all who sleep fitfully 
amidst the fear and noise of war, for all who do not understand why this is 
happening to them, for all the children unable to play and go to school, for 
those of every race, we pray to you

God have mercy

For the people of Albania, Macedonia, and Montenegro who have opened their 
hearts and homes to welcome strangers, providing them with a living witness 
of your hospitality, we pray to you

God have mercy

For all who hold hatred in their hearts, we pray that you bring peace, for we 
know that hatred poisons all whom it touches. Melt the hatred of the past 
that the peoples of the earth may know and share a future. You are the God of 
transformations and so we pray to you

God have mercy

For the soldiers of NATO, Yugoslavia and the ethnic Albanians, for their 
fears, their freedom and their lives, we pray to you

God have mercy

For the leaders of our nations that they may see a way to bring peace to 
Kosovo -- a lasting peace, a just peace for all involved -- we pray to you

God have mercy

May the power of your resurrection sweep across our world, for your love and 
the eternal life you bring know no boundaries of nation or race. May we be 
agents of that resurrection power and may we be witnesses to all that you are 
doing in our world. May we be your peace makers until that day when you reign 
over all the earth in justice and in peace. We pray to you

God have mercy

(END)

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