Prayer Squares: A Prayer for Climate Action (SDG #13)

Our Prayer Squares are a freely-printable resource to help you pray for women and girls, and the world, using the United Nations' Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) as an engaging framework.

Download the Sustainable Development Goal Prayer Squares
Read more of the Salvationist Prayers for Sustainable Development Goals

The United Nations has set 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) as 'an urgent call for action by all countries - developed and developing - in a global partnership. They recognize that ending poverty and other deprivations must go hand-in-hand with strategies that improve health and education, reduce inequality, and spur economic growth – all while tackling climate change and working to preserve our oceans and forests.'

We believe that prayer is the biggest action a Christian can begin with. Will you join us in an urgent call for prayer, as we intercede for women and girls through each of the Sustainable Development Goals?

Prayer for Sustainable Development | Whakakāhore Hāhoretanga
Goal #13: Climate Action | Find out more
Take urgent action to combat climate change and its impacts

• Women and men have different relationships to the environment, such as their access to land and natural resources and their engagement in environmental management. They also tend to differ in their vulnerability to environmental challenges.

'Tēnā rā, ui atu ki ngā kararehe mā rātou koe e whakaako; ki ngā manu o te rangi, mā rātou e kōrero ki a koe; kōrero atu rānei ki te whenua, ā, māna koe e whakaako; ka whakaaturia mai anō hoki ki a koe e ngā ika o te moana. Ko wai i kore te mōhio ki ēnei mea katoa, he mea mahi tēnei nā te ringa o Ihowā? Kei tōna ringa nei te wairua o ngā mea ora katoa, te manawa hoki o ngā kikokiko tāngata katoa.' - Hopa 12:7-10

E tō mātou Matua I te rangi,                                                                

Please open the eyes of your people and those that do not know you, so that we may see, hear and acknowledge the injustices against our earth and our climate. Injustices that have been allowed to happen not in your name, but in the name of profit and “progress.”

Please remind us of a time when we worked together as communities; to sustain ourselves and our whenua. E pā, please help nations to acknowledge the voices of indigenous peoples, whose collective approaches have always sought out ways in which to sustain and heal your creation; to live out the covenant of stewardship you gave us over your earthly creations. 

Please uplift the knowledge of our tūpuna, of those who belong to the land so others may learn from them. You created our tūpuna with the knowledge that we are the earth and the earth is us; just as Adam was.

Our tupuna acknowledges this connection by having the same name for the placenta and land; whenua. Through this connection, the importance of both women and land to the survival of humankind is also acknowledged. So Lord, please remind us of these teachings before it’s too late. Remind us that the earth gives us lessons that we must learn; one way or the other.

He wāhine, he whenua, ka ngaro te tangata.

For women and land, man will perish.

Āmine'

- Irene Farnham, Kaiāwhine-Ā-Wehenga Te Waipounamu, Manatū Māori (Divisional Assistant For Southern Division Māori Ministry)