Prayer following Gaza school airstrike

Following the airstrike on a school building sheltering Palestinians that killed more than 70 people, the Methodist Church has released this prayer and call to action.

Prayer

Oh God,

How many times must I pray for peace?

Despite all my prayers I see Gazan schools blown apart, lives shattered as people sought refuge and prayed.

I see hostages held and their families suffering every endless minute that they wait for release.

Why, oh why, oh God do my pleas fall on deaf ears, my tears rebound off stony ground and my hope falter under the sheer weight of death, destruction and devastation? Are you immune to this human suffering?

Yet, I know that your tears fall with mine, your hope is tested by the inhumanity of this current conflict and you yearn for that time when the wolf will lie down with the lamb, a time when they will not seek to hurt or destroy each other on your holy mountain.

So I pray again with all my heart for a ceasefire in Gaza, a release for the hostages and for a just solution that peace may flourish in the land where you walked.

Amen.

Call to Action

In an interview on Radio Four’s Today programme (Mon 12 Aug) a Gazan doctor appealed to the new UK government and King Charles to act swiftly and out of their humanity, to do all they could to end the horrific suffering in Gaza. Describing the starvation, the hospitals without medication, the destruction, the loss of past, present and future for Palestinians, he asked, "What can justify this - when the highest price is being paid by innocent people?" He called for an end to the war and for neighbours to live in peace.

You can help amplify his voice by writing to your MP (Find your MP - MPs and Lords - UK Parliament) and asking for the UK government to support:

• An immediate ceasefire in Gaza
• The release of all hostages held in Gaza
• An arms embargo on weapons sales to Israel and any countries that might support Hamas.
• An end to the illegal occupation of the West Bank and East Jerusalem in the light of the International Court of Justice declaration - July 2024 (Experts hail ICJ declaration on illegality of Israel’s presence in the occupied Palestinian territory as “historic” for Palestinians and international law | OHCHR)

Give

It is still possible to give to the Methodist Church’s Gaza appeal (Gaza Appeal - Methodist Church).