By Abigail Loop
Staff Writer
Courtesy Photo | Baylor Marketing & Communications
Three prayer services Thursday in chapels around campus as well as at Baylor’s residential colleges will take place.
During these services, the Baylor community will pray four prayers of intercession, which are prayers on behalf of another person, said Dr. Burt Burleson, university chaplain.
“We will pray for religious persecution, racial unrest, the crisis of children at the border and the ongoing wars and conflicts happening in certain parts of the world,” Burleson said.
The main service will be at 12:45 p.m. Thursday in Miller Chapel. Two other smaller services will also be open to Baylor’s community at 9:30 p.m. and 4 p.m. at the Bobo Spiritual Life Center chapel.
Burleson said the prayers that will be taking place at these services stem from the persecutions happening in Iraq and Syria right now, as well as the riots in Ferguson and the current conflicts between Ukraine and Russia.
“It’s not new, what’s happening right now,” Burleson said. “But there’s an intensity to it. People are trying to exterminate Christian communities, Ferguson keeps happening and children are refugees at the border as well.”
Ryan Richardson, associate chaplain, said the Baylor community needs to come together when bad things happen in the world.
“Every now and then, we feel like something beyond ourselves is calling us to pray,” Richardson said. “But at certain times, we feel like we need to pray as a community. So much is coming together and it’s hard to wrap our minds around the lack of love and acceptance.”
Carlos Colón, coordinator of worship initiatives, said it is a Christian’s duty to help those who suffer from this lack of acceptance.
“When we bear the cross of Jesus, we’re called to weep for those who suffer and help our brothers and sisters,” Colón said. “We are all equal human beings before our Creator.”
In addition to the services being offered to the Baylor community, a prayer guide with the day’s prayers will be made available to faculty and students through email, Burleson said.
“We’re conveying that our worship of God together must be conscious of what’s taking place in the world,” he said. “We have to remember the realities of the world.”
