A Prayer for London

God of all,

So much has happened this week that it's hard to take it all in. Our hearts have leaped for joy and ached with pain. Amid the turmoil, help us to know your peace – which surpasses all understanding.

Thank you for Bob Geldof, and for Live 8. Please don't let the passion and creativity of such a beautiful event be lost, but let its chords of hope continue to reverberate throughout the world.

Thank you for the 220,000 souls who took part in the biggest peaceful demonstration ever seen before a G8 summit. We pray that their presence on Saturday in Edinburgh will help to persuade the leaders of the G8 that we all want to Make Poverty History.

Thank you, too, for the privilege this country has in leading the G8 at this time, and for the conviction of the Prime Minister and Chancellor to put climate change and poverty at the top of the agenda. We pray that all the planning, diplomacy and effort will not go to waste, despite the events in London. May good, yet, come out of evil.

Thank you for the joy and surprise of London's Olympic victory. So much effort, again, which has the potential to change so many lives, especially in the east end. Thank you for the power of sport - to unite, to uplift, and simply to help us smile through harder times. It's a gift from you.

And thank you that you do not leave us when the world seems to come crashing down around us. We pray, within the sadness, confusion and horror of yesterday's bombings, that your spirit will comfort those who mourn, heal those who are hurt, and strengthen those who feel weak.

Help us, somehow, to love our enemies, and in so doing, to bring heaven a little closer to our broken earth.

And as Bono, who has helped to challenge and encourage the G8 this week, sang in London recently:

Take this city -
A city should be shining on a hill.
Take this city,
If it be your will.
What no man can own, no man can take.
Take this heart -
London's heart –
Take this city, and keep it safe.

Amen.

-A Prayer said by London Institute for Comtemporary Christianity