Moderator's Prayer: Counter Terror With God's Peace

Forty-nine people murdered.
More than forty others wounded.
In Christchurch.
At worship. 
At prayer.

Forty-nine people murdered.
More than forty others wounded.
For one reason:
because they were Muslim.

Forty-nine people murdered.
More than forty others wounded.
Hundreds grieving the death of family and friends.
Thousands even more afraid
for their loved ones and for themselves.

Forty-nine people murdered.
More than forty others wounded.
Because of fear, turned into rhetoric,
turned into anger, turned into
white supremacist hatred.

It is time to pray.
It is time to act.

It is time to stand, together,
to counter acts of hatred, 
large or small,
with acts of love;
to counter acts of hatred, 
wherever we encounter them,
with all that we have and all that we are;
to counter terror
with God's peace.

Grieve. 
Pray. 
Act.
Love.

And my prayer, this day?
God... help us to do so.

—A prayer in response to the March 2019 New Zealand mosque attacks by the Right Rev. Richard Bott, originally posted on Facebook. Moderator Bott encourages the sharing of prayers he posts throughout his term.