White Flags & Blank Canvas
Prayers for Peaceful Protest
February - Peace
This month in our Virtual Prayer Room our prayers are about peace. Each week, two prayers will be shared on the following themes:
Week 1 - Peaceful Protest
Week 2 - Peaceful Engagement
Week 3 - Peaceful Rest
Week 4 - Peaceful Journey
Read more about what’s coming up this year in our 2025 Virtual Prayer room in this post.
Peaceful Protest
Peace is not passive. Peace requires action. Striving for peace doesn’t mean being agreeable or complicit what what is going on around us, nor can it by it’s very nature spread hatred, discontent and injustice. For followers of Jesus, being a peacemaker means finding pathways to protest unfairness, to yearn for justice and to show God’s kindness to others.
Our world in 2025 is complicted and strewn with discontent, disharmony and injustice. How can we respond prayerfully to what is around us? From the big things happening in the world between countries and in governments, to closer to home in our own relationships with family, neighbours and colleagues, peace can feel out of reach. Finding a path for peace requires intention, committment and courage. Where do we even begin?
Let’s begin in prayer
In today’s prayers we ‘run for peace for all we’re worth’. The prayers are visual and tactile. You don’t need to be artistic or creative to participate. There are two prayers and both can be carried out with equipment easy to source, if not directly available in your home or meeting place.
Inspired by “We Walk Together”
The prayers are inspired by the image of veteran protester, Tama Iti’s beatiful art protest at Waitangi last February. Tama Iti is a well known Māori activist and artist of Ngāi Tūhoe. “We walk together” was a protest to promote peace and unity. I wasn’t at Waitangi in person, but I’ve heard from others who were, and they tell me how moving and powerful it was to see the hundreds of protesters carrying white flags arrive in silence. As another Waitangi Day approaches, protest, part of the fabric of Waitangi Day will again be on display. I expect we will see all kinds of protest, but the example set by Tama Iti last year will surely inspire further peaceful protest to encourage justice and unity.
Summing up: Be agreeable, be sympathetic, be loving, be compassionate, be humble. That goes for all of you, no exceptions. No retaliation. No sharp-tongued sarcasm. Instead, bless—that’s your job, to bless. You’ll be a blessing and also get a blessing.
Whoever wants to embrace life
and see the day fill up with good,
Here’s what you do:
Say nothing evil or hurtful;
Snub evil and cultivate good;
run after peace for all you’re worth.
God looks on all this with approval,
listening and responding well to what he’s asked;
But he turns his back
on those who do evil things.
1 Peter 3:10-12 - The Message MSG
White Flag Prayer
You’ll need:
Short sticks such as skewers, wooden chopsticks, pieces of dowel or bamboo
White fabric
Scissors
Glue
Tray of sand or dirt
Make a white flag by cutting a piece of white fabric and attaching it with glue to a short stick. As you make your flag, contemplate the things around you such as disharmony, injustice, intolerance and division around you that stir feelings within you of anguish, anger and contempt. Hold firmly to your white flag. As you hold your flag, pray for peace in these situations you’ve thought about. Go further with your prayer and invite God to help you give all that you can to be a holder of peace in the way you live out your life. Plant your white flag in the tray of sand as a declaration of your committment to peace.
Hints for groups: Premake the white flags and hand one to each person or have stations set up around the meeting space for easy assembling of flags.
Blank Canvas Prayer
You’ll need:
Blank canvas or white card
Permanent markers in a variety of colours
It can be hard when looking at a blank canvas to know where to begin. Spend a minute or two staring at your blank canvas and contemplating where you’re finding peace hard to find right now and what road blocks there are in the way for you to begin being a peace maker. Where do you feel yourself protesting internally for peace? What is stirring within you right now? When you’re ready to begin creating, you’ll use the permanent markers to doodle your prayer on your blank canvas. Try to draw images or patterns rather than praying a words based prayer. Let your prayer be a reflection of your desire for peace in your own journey. Place your finished artwork somewhere you can view it to remind yourself to never give up protesting for peace.
Hints for groups: Use felt tips rather than permanent markers - just in case some of the younger members extend their doodling beyond the card! Place baskets of card and pens at the end of each row to be passed along for quick distribution.
Further inspiration
Watch Tama Iti’s Ted talk on Mana and what it means to see ‘eye to eye’.
Listen to Amy Grant’s song ‘Eye to eye’ about seeking peace in relationships
Well, I'd like to figure out a way
To leave a troubled past behind
To forget those angry words and wars we fought
Across the battle lines
Cause tomorrow we could find a road to peace
For you and me
And our children in their innocence
Will follow what they see
Oh, we've got to find a way to live our lives
Tho' we don't see eye to eye
Read the full lyrics here.
All Scripture quotations are taken from THE MESSAGE, copyright © 1993, 2002, 2018 by Eugene H. Peterson. Used by permission of NavPress. All rights reserved. Represented by Tyndale House Publishers, Inc.
I find myself very drawn to this months peaceful prayer protest week. I remember hearing the term Worship as Protest - Mark Pierson Upper Room , years ago and finding a way within that.
I'm looking at the canvas often, blank and mine to do what I wish with - conscious that if made public it will draw scrutiny. Regarding blank canvases , if you don't like what you have painted you can always paint over it.
My most difficult issue currently is finding peace in situations where people are offensive to me personally and feel justified in that . Generally I let it ride and present my petitions for myself and my agressors privately to God, may be the answer.
Recently I have addressed a few personal attacks and am ill equipped in peaceful confrontation as the opposing parties have negated my being to enable their own ways, = they just don't want to be friends. I pray for inner peace and the ability to let go of the past, be it fifty years ago or yesterday.
So I return to Worship or Praise as Protest. Turning inwardly to the Creator , acknowledging my own shortcomings and being grateful for today. Perhaps a canvas as well as a few songs today godwilling.
From the luxury of time to think , I wish you peace today.