A prayer for COP26
In the run up to the UN’s annual Climate Change Conference (COP26) which will take place in November 2021, young Methodists from around the world have created a youth-led campaign for the global Methodist family to act on the climate crisis.
The campaign workers, from Britain, Uruguay, Fiji, Zambia and Italy, have been building a network of volunteers from eleven other countries to help them. The campaign is called ‘Climate Justice for All’ (CJ4A).
CJ4A invites the global Methodist family to undertake three asks as they declare ‘we believe in climate justice for all’:
Listen to those with experience of the climate crisis
Call upon representatives
Commit to personal change
Let us pray.
Lord of all creation,
Thank you for the perfect planet on which we live.
Thank you for the sun and the seasons, the moon and the mountains,
the valleys and volcanoes, the oceans and organisms.
We feel deep remorse for the damage we have wrought upon this planet for so many years.
God we pray that in these difficult times,
we do not lose sight of the importance of caring for your earth,
and that together we might be able to work towards a better world,
free from environmental destruction.
We look ahead to November and the COP26 climate conference that will be held in Glasgow.
We pray for wisdom for world leaders so that they might make decisions that protect, rather than exploit, that put the needs of the many and future generations ahead of short-term profit.
In your name,
Amen
This prayer was written by James Appleby,
a COP26 Worker in the Methodist Church in Britain.