Week of Prayer For Christian Unity 2018Sample

No longer as a slave but a beloved brother 

Human trafficking is a form of modern-day slavery in which victims are forced or tricked into sex work, child labour and the harvesting of organs for the profit of the exploiters. It is a global, multimillion-dollar industry. It is also a growing problem across the Caribbean. Reformed Churches in the Caribbean have joined with the Council for World Mission and the Caribbean and North American Council for Mission to educate Christian communities to end the scourge of human trafficking.

Reflection

One of the first things we learn about God in the Hebrew and Christian Bible is that God created humankind in his own image. However, this profound and beautiful truth has often been obscured or denied throughout human history. For instance, in the Roman Empire, the dignity of those enslaved was denied. The Gospel message is entirely different to this. Jesus challenged the social norms that devalued the human dignity of Samaritans, describing the Samaritan as the ‘neighbour’ of the man who had been attacked on the road to Jericho – a neighbour to be loved, according to the Law. And Paul, made bold in Christ, describes the once-enslaved Onesimus as ‘a beloved brother’, transgressing the norms of his society and affirming Onesimus’s humanity. 

Christian love must always be a courageous love that dares to cross borders, recognising in others a dignity equal to our own. Like St Paul, Christians must be ‘bold enough in Christ’ to raise a united voice in clearly recognising trafficked persons as their neighbours and their beloved brothers and sisters, and so work together to end modern-day slavery.

Prayer

Gracious God, 

draw near to those who are victims of human trafficking, 

assuring them that you see their plight and hear their cry. 

May your Church be united in compassion and courage to work for that day 

when no one will be exploited 

and all will be free to live lives of dignity and peace.

This we pray in the name of the Triune God 

who can do immeasurably more than we can ask or imagine.

Amen.

The right hand of God 

is lifting in our land, 

lifting the fallen one by one; 

each one is known by name, 

and rescued now from shame, 

by the lifting of the right hand of God.