Pray for G7
Some of the world’s most influential leaders meet in Cornwall over the weekend of 11th – 13th June. As they do so, most of us will be crucially aware – as they will surely also be – of the multiple and severe challenges facing the world today. The ravages of Covid 19, by no means over yet in many places, have altered the perspective of peoples the world over and sharpened the perceptions of many on how we might live together more effectively in a world that seems to be growing smaller all the time. One of the things Covid seems to have done is to highlight the way in which human aspirations are the same all over the world. For so many of us, our hopes for the future resonate around the wellbeing of our children and the health of the planet, around a just sharing of the world’s resources and the flourishing of all people - even if at the same time we express these rather differently and propose very different ways of achieving them.
It is around these global human aspirations that the G7 leaders will gather in Cornwall on June 11th and as we pause to reflect on the scale of the challenges that confront them – and us – perhaps our first response is to bring ourselves before God and to pray both for the world and for those on whom the responsibility for the direction of the future of the world lies.
In the South retrochoir and St Mary’s aisle of Truro Cathedral some visual displays have been prepared to help visitors ponder some of these issues. As you walk around this area of the building we invite you to reflect on the crises of poverty, disease, climate change and environmental degradation that are rife across the globe, to pray for those affected, for the world leaders as they meet in Cornwall and for the young people of the world, that they may have hope for a just and fair future wherever they may live. If you would like to leave a written prayer or message of hope for the future, please add your contribution to the wave of prayer, also in St Mary’s aisle.
Revd Canon Elly Sheard, Canon for Creation Care