Liturgy Guide and Resources

for the Weekend of Prayer and Action Against Hunger October 11-13, 2024

For this Weekend of Prayer and Action Against Hunger, Christians from all around the world will gather for prayer and worship around the theme of global hunger and food justice.

We offer this guide to support worship planners to develop a service of prayer or worship that fits your local context. You will find selections of prayers to choose from, which are offered to be used or adapted for your own community’s context.

“Enough to Share”

There are shared meals one will never forget. Years ago, I visited churches in Zimbabwe. It was a difficult time with incredibly high inflation and political turmoil with violence. We passed by a church building under construction in the suburbs of Harare. It was a working day. Spontaneously people came when they saw our cars. We sang and prayed together.

We were about to leave, but someone asked us to stay. Women went to their homes and came back soon with chicken, rice, and salad. We sat down and shared a meal together. What a sign of love and welcome. I was blessed by the gracious gift of food, hospitality, and care. It was like light rising in the darkness. I was reminded that God’s kingdom is not a future dream. It becomes real in the middle of the injustices and hardships we are facing, such as increase of hunger, wars, armed conflicts, climate change, most affecting those who only cause few carbon emissions, etc. God’s kin-dom is real, today, when we share food with one another, explore new ways to grow wheat and vegetables, see Christ in the stranger and become God’s beloved community.

Follow up questions:

• Do you remember meals that touched and even changed your life?
• With whom could you share food? Perhaps you wish to reach out to people with whom you never met for a meal?
• Look at your life and at your community in the light of God’s promises in Isaiah 58,6-12.

Any thoughts on how these promises transform yourself, your community and the world?

—Bishop Rosemarie Wenner