Patrick Comerford
In my prayer diary on this blog at 6:30 each morning throughout the week, I draw on the reflections and daily prayers in Pray with the World Church, the prayers diary of the Anglican mission agency USPG (United Society Partners in the Gospel).
My morning prayer diary also includes the day’s Gospel reading provided in the lectionary for the Eucharist each day, and the Collect and Post-Communion Prayer.
The next edition of Pray with the World Church covers June to November 2025 and is being sent out to USPG supporters as I write. I have been invited to contribute two pages of reflections and prayers for seven days in July (20 to 26 July) arising from our recent visit to Kuching, when I visited churches throughout the Diocese of Kuching.
USPG’s Prayer Diary provides the opportunity to come alongside our sisters and brothers across the Anglican Communion in the unity and fellowship of Christ. The new edition includes reflections and programme updates From Zimbabwe and the Welsh valleys, to Japan, the Middle East and Sarawak.
The prayer diary is designed to be used during a daily time of prayer and reflection, or as part of a church service. It is an invitation to explore how the truths of God’s nature and character continue to bring hope and encouragement today.
The latest edition includes reflections from Joyaline, a participant in the ‘Whom Shall I Send?’ youth programme run by the Episcopal Province of Jerusalem and the Middle East. Soshi, an ordinand in Tokyo who joined the Emerging Leaders’ Academy, also shares some thoughts, as well as a few members of FeAST – the Fellowship of Anglican Scholars of Theology – who guide the prayers for Sri Lanka and Zimbabwe.
My reflections, ‘Diversity in Sarawak’, and my seven days of prayers cover the week from Sunday 20 July to Saturday 26 July. I spent five weeks some months ago travelling throughout the Diocese of Kuching in East Malaysia.
Sarawak, on the island of Borneo, is the largest of the 13 states in Malaysia, spanning 48,000 square miles and about 3 million people. The Anglican presence on Borneo dates from 1848, when Thomas McDougall arrived in Kuching at the invitation of the Rajah of Sarawak.
During my stay, I worshipped regularly in Saint Thomas’s Cathedral but also went on a whirlwind tour of churches and chapels, mission stations and schools, with Father Jeffry, was a most genial host, who leads churches in the mission area of Mambong.
Other contributors to the new edition of Pray with the World Church include the Revd Rajendran Ruben Pradeep, Vicar of Holy Trinity Church, Nuwara Eliya, Diocese of Colombo, Church of Ceylon; Joyaline Rajamani, Administrator at the Church of the Epiphany, Doha, Anglican Church in Qatar; Dr Jo Sadgrove, Research and Learning adviser, USPG; and the Right Revd Antonio Ablon, Chaplain of Saint Catherine’s Anglican Church, Stuttgart, and the Iglesia Filipina Independiente Chaplain for Filipinos in Europe; and the Revd Mark Woodrow, a Parish Priest and Rural Dean in Suffolk.
Rachael Anderson, former Senior Communications and Engagement Manager, USPG, offers a week of reflections to coincide with USPG’s annual conference this year at the Hayes Conference Centre in Swanwick, Derbyshire (1 to 3 July), on the theme ‘We Believe, We Belong?’, marking the 1,700th anniversary of the Nicene Creed, agreed at the Council of Nicaea in the year 325.
But more about these prayers, reflections and updates in the weeks to come, from June to November, hopefully, as I invite you to join my prayer diary on this blog each morning.
