Bøn fra verden
Kærlige Gud,
jeg giver mig hen til dig.
Lad mine tanker tænke på dig,
og mine øjne se andres behov.
Lad mine ører høre verdens råd
og lad min mund fortælle
om dig.
Lad mine hænder arbejde
for dit rige
og mine fødder gå ad din sti.
Lad mit liv blive brugt
i din tjeneste
og lad mit hjerte elske dig
mere end alt andet.
Lad Herrens glæde være min
styrke til at tjene ham
alle mit livs dage.
Amen.
Bøn fra Mellemamerika
24 Hours for the Globe
Vesterbro City Church in Copenhagen sets the sharpest church focus on the Climate Conference
For 24 hours from 12.00 on December 13the Vesterbro City Church - a new parish merger of 8 city churches - has the most comprehensive of all the church programmes up to the Copenhagen Climate Conference. Elsewhere there are pilgrim walks, church debates and plenty of bell-ringing but in Vesterbro a 24-hour programme offers no fewer than 7 different services, including and ecumenical service, a children's service, a climate service and a gospel service. There are concerts of Celtic hymns, a panel debate on the climate, a polar researcher's report from Greenland, a 24-hour café, and, through the city streets from 23.00, a Lucia processesion to which everyone is welcome. From 00.15 the church will be in the hands of a DJ and VJ with a sound and picture show, followed by a Night Lounge with readings and music before the early morning Taizé service and breakfast at 07.30.
Other initiatives around the world
But it is not only in Copenhagen that churches have planned for the COP15. Groups ranging from the Anglican Church in Tilba Tilba, Australia, to the Lutheran congregation in Sibiu, Romania, will ring their bells, while children at the Lutheran Epiphany Church in Hamburg, Germany, will draw stars of hope as the bells ring and 350 drum beats are sounded ahead of the congregation's advent concert.
"We pray that decision makers everywhere take seriously the responsibility implicit in God giving humankind dominion over His creatures upon the earth," says Dr Mogens Lemvig Hansen, explaining why the Danish Lutheran Church in Vancouver, Canada will ring its bells.
Bill McKibben, a well-known writer and a Sunday school teacher in the United Methodist Church, says, "Where I live, in the United States, before we had radio when somebody's house caught fire we rang the church bells so that everybody would come out to do something about it. Well, something's on fire now."
The Global Peace Initiative of Women has announced that 35 spiritual leaders will gather in Copenhagen with strong representation from the Eastern traditions and including faith leaders from countries especially affected by climate change.
The Conference of European Churches (CEC) and the Council of European Bishops’ Conferences (CCEE) have endorsed the campaign.
The English version of the new ‘climate hymn’ written by Torben Borbye Nielsen is now available in text and score at
Archbishop Desmond Tutu, who will be attending the special climate change service in Copenhagen Cathedral on December 13th, has posted his message, Change Climate Change, at
www.information.dk/215763. His former church, St- George’s Cathedral, Cape Town, will also be ringing the bells 350 times.
www.gronkirke.dk