Please don't ask me to pray only for the people of Ukraine

On this Easter Day, let us pray for everyone

With my family, attending our local church today for the Easter Service, I was confronted with the familiar sight of video screens illuminated in the yellow and blue of the Ukrainian flag, with the invocation that our prayers stand with the people of Ukraine.

And, of course, my prayers are with the people of Ukraine today, too. They are also with the people of Russia, affected by the war, the people of Gaza suffering under unspeakable terrors of the IDF, the people of Israel who have lost loved ones to terrorism, including on October 7 2023. To the people of Rwanda and the Democratic Republic of Congo, caught up in the violence unleashed by the M23 rebels. In Syria, when Alawites have been murdered wholesale, shot and beheaded on video, as western leaders elevated a former Al Qaeda terrorist as the Middle East’s most progressive democrat. Or Myanmar, where vital humanitarian aid after the recent earthquake was held up by the raging civil was, a place where Rohingya Muslims have been systematically terrorised for many years. And to the very many other places where people suffer today through poverty, disease, conflict and war.

Please don’t ask me only to pray for the people of Ukraine.

I have friends of every religion. Muslims, Jews, my oldest friend is a Hindu and my closest friends, are Buddhist. I have Christian friends across many denominations. I care not that the Baptists undertake Christenings in plastic swimming pools and have Ribena at communion rather than actual wine. That Orthodox folk stand up during their services which are meant to show their willingness to suffer, as Christ suffered. That Catholics think they are holier than everyone. That new church types raise their hands and closing their eyes while singing the most syntactically dreadful (in my humble opinion) modern hymns. I forgive my atheist friends their godlessness.

Any person of faith and any atheist with even of dose of self-reflection, cultivates, or tries to, an awareness of their own imperfection. When I attend Church, it is a chance for me to reflect on what is important in life, to reflect of my sins in a spirit of repentance, and to look ahead, in the hope of doing better unto others in the spirit of Christ.

I don’t expect you to share my faith or my values. But I hope we might find common ground in agreeing that conflict, wherever it happens, emerges from sin, wickedness, or whatever you might like to call it.

No person of faith or good thought should kill, injure or rape another. That we can become desensitised to videos of children being beheaded talks to a deep brokenness in our world. Or when we hear of women being raped in Congo, or villages being torched in Myanmar. That anyone can carry on calling for a war to continue in Europe that has already killed or injured one million people, shows they have turned their back on what is good, to focus on what they view to be right.

But when anyone puts themself in the role of judge and juror over what it moral and good, they forget that they, too, stand of feet of clay.

Asking me to pray for the people of Ukraine feels like an invitation not to pray for the people of Russia. Or the people of every nation suffering conflict. Or any person who feels hurt or bereaved today. Or men of Religion who are persecuted by the state, or persons in government who try to legislate on state faith,

On Easter, I rejoice in the Risen Christ, while coming to Him, alone and afeared, in a spirit of repentance.

Today, I pray for anyone suffering in places of conflict whatever their race, religion or nationality. I pray that our leaders reflect on the heavy burden of their decisions and ask themselves, far more often than now whether, their actions serve the good of all humanity. And I pray for those who, through the intoxicating thrill of conflict, have fallen deep into the worst recesses of sin, that they might find light and repentance too.