Prayer for the Genocide against the Tutsi in Rwanda
The Holocaust, Nazi persecution of other groups, and subsequent genocides in Cambodia, Rwanda, Bosnia and Darfur had specific impacts on some faith communities, meaning HMD has a special resonance for many faiths. HMD can be marked by all faith communities.
Download Prayer for the Genocide against the Tutsi in Rwanda
God who is full of mercy and dwells on high, under whose pinions rest the souls of
our beloved departed,
We cry out to you as we remember the Rwandan Genocide of 1994, one million men
women and children, young and old, strong and weak,
Cruelly hacked to death, mutilated and left to rot in the heat and the sun because of
their tribe.
O Lord! To whom we cried in horror in 1945 when the full devastation of the Nazi
terror became finally clear, to whom we pledged ourselves in the words Never Again,
Help us in our frail humanity to realise that we all have the potential to choose to do
wrong or to act justly.
Help us to be worthy of your gift of free will, so that we can hasten the time when
peace and harmony banish prejudice and hate,
And the words of the Prophet can be fulfilled –
Nation shall no longer lift up sword against nation, neither shall they learn to make
war any more .
May the resting places of all victims of Genocide be a constant reminder of our
human duty
To love our fellow, who is like us.
Comfort and heal all who suffer in the aftermath of genocide.
Shelter the souls of the dead victims under your wings, and let their resting place be
peace and honour.
We thank you for the safe refuge and warm coexistence we have found in our
Borough of Reading
May He who makes peace in high places grant peace and fellowship to us,
To the People of Rwanda, And to the whole World, And let us say,
Amen.