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08641
September 5, 2008
Regional WARC leader asks for prayers for storm victims
Caribbean and North American churches heavily hit, Presa says
LOUISVILLE — The leader of the Caribbean and North American Council (CANAAC) of the World Alliance of Reformed Churches (WARC) has asked its member churches to remember in prayer this Sunday (Sept. 7) victims of the current storm season throughout the region.
The Rev. Neal D. Presa, CANAAC chair and pastor of Middlesex Presbyterian Church in Middlesex, NJ, noted that Hurricane Gustav, which caused extensive damage along the U.S. gulf coast, also wreaked havoc in Jamaica, the Cayman Islands, Haiti, the Dominican Republic and Cuba.
“Now, with the forecasts of the potential damage that will come with Tropical Storm Hannah and Hurricane Ike,” Presa said on behalf of CANAAC, “let us call upon our churches on the Lord’s Day this coming Sunday, Sept. 7, to pray and to respond to this devastation, to bow and unite our hearts.”
Specifically, the Council is asking churches to pray for those who lost loved ones; for those who are missing; for those who lost homes, church buildings and businesses; for first responders, rescue workers, relief agencies, church aid workers; for doctors, nurses and other hospital workers; and for all those evacuated or needing to evacuate.
The full text of a suggested prayer:
Almighty and gracious God, calm the storms, outside and inside us. Bring the waters down. Extend your loving kindness, mercy and compassion upon all, we pray. Thank you for aid workers, first responders, churches, communities and families who are extending a loving, helping hand to one another. Grant us Your grace that we may respond in love, with kind and determined action, and with fervent prayer: mourning with those who have loss, laboring with those who seek to rebuild, and aiding those who seek to prepare for the next storm. Through Jesus Christ we pray. Amen.
The current president of WARC, which includes CANAAC, is former General Assembly Stated Clerk Clifton Kirkpatrick.
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