The All Africa Council of Churches holds a conference every five years to bring together religious leaders and lay people from all over the continent to discuss the issues facing the church in Africa. Rev. Phyllis Byrd-Ochillo (with others) was in charge of planning the worship services for the conference. She asked if I would help write one of the prayers for the service that is focused on the church’s response to violence against women. Knowing that I am not the expert on this (especially in the African context) I asked 3 Kenyan women who work with me at Church World Service to write the prayer with me. The process of discussing the issues facing women in Africa and placing them in a prayer with 3 women I greatly admire, was truly a life-giving experience for me. I have attached the prayer that we wrote below, and I hope that it also encourages your spirit knowing that amidst the horrors that many African women experience, God is moving, healing, and creating change.
Oh God of all creation,
You created woman in your image, and you called her good.
You created woman, and you shared with her the ability to create.
You breathed compassion into to her heart and strength into her soul.
You birthed courage and perseverance in the women who have gone before and in the ones who surround us in this life.
Today we celebrate these women.
We are grateful for women because they have taught us, cared for us, guided our steps, loved us, and showed us how to love you.
But even as we gather, celebrating the women of Africa, we must recognize that these women have endured much unnecessary pain and agony.
God you created women, yet often we have opposed your work by breaking them down.
We have broken their bodies by hitting them, kicking them, starving them, maiming them, burning them, raping them.
We have restricted their minds by treating women as property. We have determined a woman’s value by her ability to conceive, not by the truth that you conceived her with numerous gifts to share.
We have damaged women’s spirits, through harassment, stigmatization, isolation and discrimination.
In this moment, we acknowledge the injustices we have committed against women.
We believe that sin against women is sin against their Creator.
Reveal to us the ways that we all participate in these wrongful actions.
Guide us as individuals,
as brothers and sisters who share this continent,
as your Church,
to respond in ways that bring healing, wholeness and hope.
Amen