The Peacemaking Program offers a variety of prayers and other worship resources for days and seasons of the Christian year as well as days with particular significance for peace and justice concerns.

Advent and Christmas

• A Prayer for the United Nations at Christmas
• Christmas Eve 2004:  O Little Town of Bethlehem
• 2003 Christmas Reflection

World Water Day — March 22

The international observance of World Water Day grew out of the 1992 United Nations Conference on Environment and Development (UNCED) in Rio de Janeiro.

The General Assembly of the United Nations declared 2008 as an International Year of Sanitation recognizing the slow and insufficient progress made in achieving the global sanitation target, and recognized that progress can be made through active commitment and action by all.

• World Water Day Bulletin Insert
• Worship with the World: Water (from Church World Service)
• Opening Worship Service, Presbyterians Restoring Creation 2005 Conference
• Closing Worship Service, Presbyterians Restoring Creation 2005 Conference

Earth Day 2008 — The Poverty of Global Climate Change

Praising the beauty of God's creation is an essential part of our ongoing faith journey and worship experience and every year we dedicate one Sunday to lift up creation stewardship as a focus through an Earth Day celebration. Each year, the National Council of Churches’ Eco-Justice Working Group focuses on a particular environmental theme and highlights a number of ways individuals and congregations can celebrate and protect God's creation. The theme for 2008 is the interconnectedness of poverty and climate change.  The NCC Eco-Justice Working Group has created a resource for worship, adult study and youth activities. Addressing climate change is a justice issue. The effects of climate change are already being felt the most by those who can least afford to deal with them. As the climate continues to change, the impact will be more keenly felt both by low-income communities in the United States and least developed and developing nations abroad.  Water scarcity, drought, crop failure, increased disease and flooding are just a few of the impacts. The interconnectedness of these two issues cannot be missed.

The Presbyterian Hunger Program provides a number of resources on the intersection of poverty and climate change.

Through Open Source, the Presbyterian Hunger Program provides a library of workshop presentations on local and global issues related to hunger, poverty and climate change.

Presbyterians for Restoring Creation is a national, grassroots organization to support people of faith working towards “environmental wholeness with social justice.”

The United Nations works on climate change in a variety of ways.

The Academy Award-winning video An Inconvenient Truth provides an introduction to issues related to climate change.

International Day of Peace — September 21

The United Nations General Assembly has set aside September 21 of each year as the International Day of Peace — a day of global ceasefire and non-violence when all nations and people are encouraged to honor a cessation of hostilities. In 2008, the World Council of Churches invites congregations worldwide to pray for peace on September 21.

• Prayers from the Presbyterian United Nations Office
• 2008 International Day of Prayer for Peace Bulletin Insert
• 2008 International Day of Prayer for Peace Brochure
• Resources from the Decade to Overcome Violence — Pacific Focus
• International Day of Peace Brochure

Learn more about the ministry of the Presbyterian United Nations Office.

Peace Vigil
People worldwide, representing a wide variety of religious and spiritual traditions, have committed to the task of marking the International Day of Peace with a Peace Vigil that will involve worldwide, 24-hour spiritual observations for peace and nonviolence on the International Day of Peace — September 21 — in every house of worship and place of spiritual practice, by all religious and spiritually based groups and individuals and by all men, women and children who seek peace in the world. Individuals and groups are invited to support this worldwide initiative by committing to hold a 24-hour vigil on September 21.

The Day after Peace
The video The Day After Peace charts the remarkable 10-year journey of award-winning filmmaker Jeremy Gilley to establish an annual Peace Day on September 21. The camera follows Gilley as he galvanizes the countries of the world to recognize an official day of ceasefire and nonviolence.

Human Rights Day — December 10

About Human Rights Day

• Frequently Asked Questions about Human Rights Day
• 60th Anniversary Universal Declaration of Human Rights
• Universal Declaration of Human Rights
• Know Your Rights

New for 2008

• Liturgy for December 10, 2008
• Sixty Years of Hope: Universal Declaration of Human Rights by the Rev. Robert F. Smylie

Worship Resources

• Bulletin Insert for Human Rights Day
• A Candle Lighting Service for Human Rights Day
• Stop Torture, Protect Human Rights —an order of worship for Human Rights Day, including sermon notes and suggestions for speaking with children.
• Human Rights Litany
• Order of Worship for Human Rights Day
• Download these resources
• Children's Sermon
• Life In All Its Fullness: a Reflection

Information about Human Rights

• Presbyterian United Nations Office
• Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights
• Human Rights Fact Sheets from the United Nations

Hymns for Peacemaking

• O God, Each Day You Bless Us
  A Hymn for the Commitment to Peacemaking by Carolyn Winfrey Gillette

Sermons and Liturgies from the 2005 Peacemaking Conference

• "From Fear into Community: Communion" by Laura Mariko Cheifetz
• "The Payoff's Always in Redemption" by Lisa Larges
•  "Not Enough to Go Around?" by Carol Wickersham
• “To See the Stars, You Must Sit in the Darkness” by Rebecca Reyes
• “Christ Is Risen!” — by Elizabeth and Marthame Sanders on service in Israel/Palestine
• “Building Hope, Friendship, Relationship”— by Jennifer Thalman on service in Guatemala
• Monday, June 20, 2005
• Tuesday, June 21, 2005
• Wednesday, June 22, 2005
• Thursday, June 23, 2005
• Friday, June 24, 2005
• Liturgical Resources Developed by Conference Participants