Embracing the World: Praying for Justice and Peace

In the face of so much injustice and coercion in the world, many people feel immobilized or overwhelmed by the flood of needs and opportunities for action. Grounding her vision in a expansive view of prayer as relationship with God, Jane Vennard teaches the reader many forms of prayer through which we can embrace the world and focus our lives on seeking God's peace and justice in the world. We don't all have to do it all. We are all invited into relationship with God. This work is based on a circular process of prayer as involving a pattern of intercession, transformation, renewal and action. Vennard explores how praying in each of these modes both engages the world and transforms the person(s) who pray. Her writing is clear and evocative, carried along by wonderful stories from many persons, communities, and traditions. For individuals or communities seeking to integrate lives of contemplation and action, this is a very helpful and practical guide.

Jane Vennard's new book, Embracing the World: Praying for Justice and Peace is a touching response to the terror, fear and grief present in today's world. The book provides illustrations of the many ways that spirituality connects with the work of justice and peace, and helps us to discover the quiet activist within. Vennard's book emphasizes the relational aspects of prayer and the need to make room for God's guidance, action and grace in our hearts. It also helps us to understand the ways in which prayer draws us more completely into the world.Jane Vennard's style is embracing and accessible. She has written a book that can speak to us differently at different times in our own lives or the world's history.

Embracing the World....Praying for Justice and Peace by Jane E. Vennard Jossey-Bass 2003"Teach a course connecting spirituality with the work of justice and peace? When I have never ever marched, when I had never been involved in the civil rights movement, when I had lived abroad in the sixties and lacked awareness and inaction during a critical period of a nation's history, when I had never been on a mission to a poor country, never even spent Thanksgiving in a food line serving the homeless and the hungry? How could I teach a course and then turn the contents of the course into a book?"A wise spiritual director set me straight," wrote the author. "You have many advantages. You are white, educated, economically comfortable. How can you use your gifts to serve God?"As the author reflected on her own life, she discovered she HAD served God by praying and acting for justice and peace. What actions did Vennard find in her life that would promote peace and justice? She told of these actions in her lectures and later included in her book her own struggles to be a peaceful and just person. She taught about issues of sexual orientation, lessons which she experienced after her 38 year old ex-husband said he was gay. Her ministry in the Center for Women and Religion helped heal wounds of oppression for women. She began to see herself as a peace-maker among her family and friends.In her lectures she included stories of stay-at-home moms who learned to solve family conflicts; young adults who spoke out against prejudice; teenagers protecting a youngster from a bully. Without too much delving, Vennard discovered activities in her own neighborhood. She found enough material for a course, and then opened up the prayer arena, relating examples of intercessory prayer, action prayers, prayers of renewal, transformation, and prayers of discernment.What was the result? A timely bridge-building book which offers powerful personal stories and practical guidance for those seeking to bear witness as peacemakers in our day.

During this time of fear of terrorists and the threat of a major war that would be so devastating to many countries, it is difficult to remain hope filled. This book has helped me regain hope and be more aware that I can be a peacemaker in many ways. Reading it, I am reminded that many people doing small acts could change our world.

Embracing The World: Praying For Justice And Peace by Jane E. Vennard (Iliff School of Theology, Denver, Colorado) is a unique guide specifically written for Christians who place their faith in the wisdom and mercy of God. Individual chapters offer helpful advice and penetrating insight for praying through actions, praying for renewal, living in God's light and according to his Will, as well as the power of spreading prayer as love for God and for one's fellow human beings. Embracing The World is very highly recommended to the Christian community as a profound, meaningful, and reverential treatise on changing the world through the power and practice of prayer.