The President of the Uniting Church in Australia Stuart McMillan and UnitingWorld National Director Dr Sureka Goringe have written to churches in Indonesia to express sadness and solidarity after the tragic church bombings in Surabaya, Java on Sunday.
11 people were killed in the explosions and more than 43 were wounded in what has been called the worst terrorist attack in Indonesia in more than a decade.
A congregation of our partner church in Java was one of those targeted, wounding an Elder and several young members.
Rev Dr Ji Zhang has written a prayer for the victims of the Surabaya attacks. We encourage Uniting Church members and UnitingWorld supporters to pray with us in solidarity with churches in Indonesia.
It has also been translated into Bahasa Indonesia and can be downloaded here.
Letter to churches in Indonesia
Letter to our partner church GKI in Java
A prayer for the victims of church bombings in Java
Almighty God, we come to you with our hearts full of thoughts.
But you are our refuge and strength,
the light in the darkness,
and so with confidence we offer our prayers to you.
Lord hear us
Lord hear our prayers.
We stand in solidarity with all good citizens in Java
pray for the churches of Catholic, Protestant, and Pentecostal traditions,
and we are confronted by the attacks on Christian worshipers.
We bring to you all the deceased,
and our trust that in God’s peace their souls find rest.
Lord hear us
Lord hear our prayers.
We pray for those who grieve the loss of life,
for those who are traumatized during Sunday worship,
for those who are separated from the loved ones and friends;
we ask for your healing presence in their lives
and we commend to your love all the injured.
Lord hear us
Lord hear our prayers.
We give to your care all those
who have been involved in the rescue operation.
Be with local churches and government forces
as they minister to the suffering communities.
Sustain them through this time of stress.
Lord hear us
Lord hear our prayers.
We commend to your care those who are cleaning up,
for those burdened by unimaginable losses
and who have found themselves
like refugees in their own locality.
We ask that the emotional and spiritual support
already offered by local communities and beyond
will encourage and lift their spirits.
Lord hear us
Lord hear our prayers.
We pray for communities that have been devastated
– especially in East Java and West Java.
May your peace bring people together
to rebuild their lives and communities,
and bring them healing from all evil.
Lord hear us
Lord hear our prayers.
We pray for families and friends in Australia
who feel far away from the loved ones in Indonesia,
and those who had been through racial and religious attacks
– still trying to make sense of the past.
Comfort them across the physical and emotional distance.
Lord hear us
Lord hear our prayers.
We give thanks to God for the blessing in our lives,
especially the gifts of joy we so often take for granted
until they are in danger of being taken away from us
- the gift of family, friends, a home, our possessions.
Most of all we praise God for the gift of life itself.
Lord hear us
Lord hear our prayers.
God of light over darkness,
come into our hearts in the moment of now!
Come to transform our sorrow over the lost
into blessings to the living.
Come to reassure us your eternal truth
in the resurrection of Christ Jesus:
Life is always stronger than death.
Lord hear us
Lord hear our prayers.
(Rev Dr Ji Zhang 张骥, Assembly Theologian in Residence, for our Partner Church GKI and Indonesian Communion of Churches. The prayer is rewritten based on the prayer of 2004 Asian Tsunami by Homebush Uniting Church)