This is an archive of prayers and song composed for, or relevant to, the Earth, our collective home and life support system. If you have composed a prayer for the Earth, please share it here. Filter resources by Name Filter resources by Tag Filter resources by Category Filter resources by Language Filter resources by Date Range
Avi Dolgin’s translation of תהילים כט (Psalm 29) interweaves between the original Hebrew (הָב֣וּ לַֽ֭יהוָה בְּנֵ֣י אֵלִ֑ים | havu l’YHVH b’nei eilim) and an English language interpretation. The interpretation, while faithful to the original, leans heavily on environmental concerns, especially as seen from a North American West Coast perspective. Categories: Tags: Contributor(s):
A supplemental Hoshanot liturgy for Sukkot confessing a selection of humanity’s crimes against creation. Categories: Tags: Contributor(s):
This earth pledge can be found in the Church of All Worlds’s newsletter, Green Egg, vol. 5, issue 47 (11 May 1972), p. 28. The quote, appearing after a line break of asterisks, concludes an essay by the newsletter’s editor, Tim Zell (a/k/a Oberon Zell-Ravenheart), entitled “personal affirmation of awareness.” Categories: Tags: Contributor(s):
This earth pledge can be found within “Earth Day” an essay by the writer and Unitarian Universalist minister Clarke D. Wells (1930-2006, and included in his collection Sunshine and Rain at Once (1981), p. 20. It is the only place we have so far located an earth pledge in the context of a prayer. Although published in 1981, the essay, including the prayer and pledge, was likely written the previous year in the lead up to Earth Day 1980. Categories: Tags: Contributor(s):
This earth pledge by Carol T. Gaddy and Marianne Wolfman-Dawn is included in a short essay by Gaddy entitled “Our New Pledge of Allegiance.” The essay can be found in What Will It Take to Prevent Nuclear War: Grassroots Responses to Our Most Challenging Question (ed. Pat Farren 1983), p. 149. Carol Gaddy writes that the pledge “was composed spontaneously by me and Marianne Wolfman-Dawn as we marched on the road to Damascus, Arkansas, April 25, 1981, protesting the nuclear missile site where a Titan missile had exploded the previous November, endangering the people it was meant to protect.” Categories: Tags: Contributor(s):
This earth pledge appears without attribution in a justice, peace, and environmentally conscious Catholic textbook, Peace through Justice ((Diocese of Cleveland, 1983) by Louise Marie Prochaska. Sister Prochaska, however, does not recall composing it and it may have been circulating for some time in newsletters or other ephemeral works beforehand. On the page following the quoted pledge, the curricular resource recommends contacting the Union of Concerned Scientists for more information, but that recommendation may have more to do with the pedagogical theme of the section that included the text of the pledge. Among the earth pledges, it is unique. Instead of following the form of Bellamy’s Pledge of Allegiance, it uses an ABCB rhyme scheme. Categories: Tags: Contributor(s):
This “Global Pledge of Allegiance” was written by Edna A. Meisner-Reitz in reaction to the 1988 US Presidential Election between George W. Bush (R) and Michael Dukakis (D) and was first published a year afterward in The Quest, vol. 2, issue 4, Winter 1989 (Theosophical Society of America). Categories: Tags: Contributor(s):
The “Pledge of Allegiance to the Family of Earth” was offered by the Women’s Foreign Policy Council (co-chaired by Bella Abzug and Mim Kelber). The earliest publication of the pledge that we were able to located is as found in the article, “Earthlings Unite” by Nina Combs in Ms. Magazine, vol. 18:1&2 (July/August 1989), p. 19. Categories: Tags: Contributor(s):
This Earth Pledge is attested in The Earth Pledge Book: A Call for Commitment (1994), an environmentalist work compiled and introduced by John F. Ince. While Ince did not author this Earth pledge himself, on page 143 in his The Teacher’s Guide To The Earth Pledge, he includes the following detail: “On the 20th anniversary of Earth Day in 1990, the [following] Earth Pledge was introduced at Stanford University.” Categories: Tags: Contributor(s):
This earth pledge was offered at the first of a series of lectures by Benjamin Ferencz at Kean College, New Jersey on 16 April 1991. Although the video recording of the lecture has not been digitized, the pledge was included in its description by the United States Holocaust Museum. Categories: Tags: Contributor(s):
“Between the Fires: A Prayer for lighting Candles of Commitment” was composed by Rabbi Arthur Waskow, drawing on traditional midrash about the danger of a Flood of Fire, and the passage from Malachi. Categories: Tags: Contributor(s):
Sh’sh’sh’ma Yisra’el —
Listen, You Godwrestlers!
Pause from your wrestling and hush’sh’sh
To hear —
YHWH/ Yahh Hear in the stillness the still silent voice,
The silent breathing that intertwines life; YHWH/ Yahh elohenu
Breath of life is our God,
What unites all the varied
forces creating
all worlds into one-ness,
Each breath unique,
And all unified; YHWH / Yahh echad!
Yahh is One.
Listen, You Godwrestlers!
No one people alone
owns
this Unify-force;
YHWH / Yahh is One. Categories: Tags: 21st century C.E., 58th century A.M., Deuteronomy 11:13-21, Deuteronomy 6:4, eco-conscious, interpretation as prayer, Numbers 15:37-41, paraliturgical shema, Philadelphia, Pnai Ohr, Prayers as poems, והיה אם שמע v'haya im shemo'a Contributor(s):
A pun filled ditty by the Fall 2010 Jewish environmental educators of the Teva Learning Center. Categories: Tags: Contributor(s):
Rabbi Seidenberg’s Prayer for the Earth is focused on global climate disruption (aka “global warming”), healing the skies, and the original blessing of creation. The liturgy is closely based upon the sun-blessing liturgy we used April 8th 2009. It is partly based on the Sefaradi liturgy for the Ushpizin on Sukkot, and on “Pri Ets Hadar” (The Fruit of the Majestic Tree) — the first ever Tu biShvat seder, included in the 17th century mystical work, Ḥemdat Yamim (ed. Rabeinu Yakov Ben Yom Tov Algazi). The prayer was first posted at neohasid.org, here. The prayer is based on the Pri Ets Hadar, Birkat Hachodesh, Sefaradi liturgy for Sukkot, and Malakhi 4, Genesis 9:14; Psalms 36, 78, 146; Deuteronomy 32:11, 11:12. Categories: Tags: Contributor(s):
The prayers for hurricane victims that are circulating through the Open Siddur Project and elsewhere are poignant and heartfelt, but they don’t speak an important piece of the truth that we need to hear. What about our collective responsibility for climate disruption that undoubtedly increases the harm caused by this and every major storm? And what about the Deuteronomic promise that God brings us recompense for our actions davka through the weather? Here’s an attempt at a prayer that incorporates a deeper understanding of our responsibility. For the final version of this prayer, I started with an anonymous Hebrew translation of my original English prayer, then I tweaked it and wove in scriptural references, and retranslated it back into English. Categories: Tags: 21st century C.E., 58th century A.M., בקשות Baqashot, danger, eco-conscious, ecoḥasid, emergency, Hebrew translation, Hurricane Florence, Hurricane Harvey, Hurricane Sandy, taking responsibility, תחינות teḥinot, weather Contributor(s):
A midrashic translation/ interpretation of the second paragraph of the Sh’ma. Categories: Tags: Contributor(s):
May the words we are with Your help sharing today,
Speak deeply –- with Your help — to our nation and the world.
Help us all to know that the sharing of our breath with all of life
Is the very proof, the very truth, that we are One. Categories: Tags: Contributor(s):
Opportunities to express gratitude on civic days of patriotic thanksgiving demand acknowledgement of an almost unfathomably deep history of trauma — not only the suffering and striving of my immigrant ancestors, but the sacrifice of all those who endured suffering dealt by their struggle to survive, and often failure to survive, the oppressions dealt by colonization, conquest, hegemony, natural disaster. Only the Earth (from which we, earthlings were born, Bnei Adam from Adamah) has witnessed the constancy of the violent deprivations we inflict upon each other. The privilege I’ve inherited from these sacrifices has come at a cost, and it must be honestly acknowledged, especially on civic days of thanksgiving, independence, and freedom. I insert this prayer after Al Hanissim in the Amidah and in the Birkat Hamazon on national days of independence and thanksgiving. Categories: Tags: 21st century C.E., 58th century A.M., acquisition, על הנסים al hanissim, colonization, conquest, eco-conscious, Gratitude, hegemony, immigration, Indigenous Peoples, מודים Modim, Needing Translation (into Hebrew), נודה לך Nodeh L'kha, primordial scream, refugees, sanctuary, settlement, shomrah ul'ovdah, stewardship, subjugation Contributor(s):
This Haraḥaman (prayer to the merciful or compassionate One) for the Shmitah or sabbatical year can be added to Birkat Hamazon (blessing after meals) during the whole Shmitah year, in order to remember and open our hearts to the sanctity of the land. Say it right before the Haraḥaman for Shabbat, since Shmitah is the grand shabbat, and right after the paragraph beginning with Bamarom (a/k/a, Mimarom). Categories: Tags: Contributor(s):
An ecumenical prayer by Pope Francis from his encyclical, Laudato Si (praise be to you) from May 24th, 2015. Here’s my draft of a Hebrew translation of Pope Francis’ prayer for our earth. It turns out no one had translated it yet. The translation includes sparks from the High Holiday liturgy. I thought we should have it available for Rosh Hashanah, even though I’m sure the translation could use more work and more feedback. Categories: Tags: Contributor(s):
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