Prayer Service

Christian Scriptures and UDHR

Rdr. 1: All human beings are born free and equal in dignity and rights. They are endowed with reason and conscience and should act towards one another in a spirit of community. (Art. 1)

Rdr. 2: Rich and poor have a common bond: God is the maker of them all. Has not the one God created us? Why then do we break faith with each other, violating the covenant of our ancestors? The ruler will say "I assure you, as often as you did it for one of the least, you did it for me."

Rdr. 1: All people are entitled to all the rights and freedoms set forth in this Declaration, without distinction of any kind, such as race, color, sex, language, religion, political or other opinion, national or social origin, property, birth or other status. (Art. 2)

Rdr. 2: There does not exist among you Jew or Greek, slave or free, male or female. All are one in Christ Jesus.

Rdr. 1: No distinction shall be made on the basis of the political, jurisdictional or international status or the country or territory to which a person belongs, whether it be independent, trust, non-self-governing or under any other limitation of sovereignty. (Art. 2)

Rdr. 2: Peter proceeded to address them in these words: "I begin to see how true it is that God shows no partiality. Rather, those of any nation who fear God and act uprightly are acceptable to God."

Rdr. 1: All people have the right to life, liberty and security of person. (Art. 3)

Rdr. 2: Then God asked Cain: "Where is your brother Abel?" Cain answered: "I do not know. Am I my brother's keeper?" Then God said: "What have you done! Listen: your brother's blood cries out to me from the soil!" I came that they might have life and have it to the full.

Rdr. 1: No person shall be held in slavery or servitude, slavery and the slave trade shall be prohibited in all their forms. (Art. 4)

Rdr. 2: You shall not hand over slaves who have taken refuge with you. Let the slaves live with you, in any one of your communities that please them. Do not molest them. This, rather is the fasting that I wish: releasing those bound unjustly, untying the thongs of the yoke; setting free the oppressed, breaking every yoke. God has sent me to bring glad tidings to the poor, to proclaim liberty to the captives, recovery of sight to the blind and release to prisoners.

Rdr. 1: No person shall be subjected to torture or to cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment. (Art. 5)

Rdr. 2: Be as mindful of prisoners as if you were sharing their imprisonment, and of the ill-treated as of yourselves, for you may yet suffer as they do. You have heard the commandment, An eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth. But what I say to you is: offer no resistance to injury When a person strikes you on the right cheek, turn and offer the other.

Rdr. 1: Behold I am doing a new thing.

Rdr. 2: Then I saw new heavens and a new earth.

Rdr. 1: Every person has the right to recognition everywhere as a person before the law. (Art. 6)

Rdr. 2: There is but one rule for you and for the resident alien, a perpetual rule for all your descendants. Before God you and the alien are alike, with the same law and the same application of it for the alien residing among you as for yourselves.

Rdr. 1: All people are equal before the law and are entitled without any discrimination to equal protection of the law. All people are entitled to equal protection against any discrimination in violation of this declaration and against any incitement to such discrimination. (Art. 7)

Rdr. 2: For God your God, is the God of gods, the great God, mighty and awesome, who has not favorites, accepts no bribes; who executes justice for the orphan and the widow, and befriends aliens, feeding and clothing them. Woe to those who enact unjust statutes and who write oppressive decrees, depriving the needy of judgment and robbing my people's poor of their rights, making widows their plunder and orphans their prey!

Rdr. 1: All people have the right to an effective remedy by the competent national tribunals for acts violating the fundamental rights granted every person by the constitution or by law. (Art. 8)

Rdr. 2: When the just prevail, the people rejoice; but when the wicked rule, the people groan.

Rdr. 1: No person shall be subject to arbitrary arrest, detention or exile. (Art. 9)

Rdr. 2: The oppressed shall soon be released; they shall not die and go down into the pit, nor shall they want for bread. Since their shame was double and disgrace and spittle were their portion, they shall have a double inheritance in their land, everlasting joy will be theirs.

Rdr. 1: All people are entitled in full equality to a fair and public hearing by an independent and impartial tribunal, in the determination of their rights and obligations and of any criminal charge against them. (Art. 10)

Rdr. 2: There shall be norms for you and all your descendants, wherever you live, for rendering judgements. The Romans tried my case and wanted to release me because they found nothing against me deserving of death. When the Jews objected, I was forced to appeal to the emperor, though I had no cause to make accusations against my own people.

Rdr. 1: All people charged with a penal offense have the right to be presumed innocent until proved guilty according to the law in public trial at which they have had all the guarantees necessary for their defense. (Art. 11)

Rdr. 2: How long will you judge unjustly and favor the cause of the wicked? Defend the lowly and the orphan: render justice to the afflicted and the destitute. Rescue the lowly and the poor; from the hand of the wicked deliver them. Jesus said: "If I said anything wrong produce the evidence, but if I spoke the truth why hit me?"

Rdr. 1: No person shall be held guilty of any penal offense on account of any act or omission which did not constitute a penal offense, under national or international law, at the time when it was committed. Nor shall a heavier penalty be imposed than the one that was applicable at the time the penal offense was committed. (Art. 11)

Rdr. 2: Here is a man whom the Jews were about to murder. I intervened and rescued him. I subsequently learned that he was in no way guilty of anything deserving death or imprisonment.

Rdr. 1: No person shall be subject to arbitrary interference with that person's privacy, family, home or correspondence, nor to attacks upon that person's honor and reputation. All people have the right to the protection of the law against such interference or attacks. (Art. 12)

Rdr. 2: You shall not bear false witness against your neighbor. Pay careful heed to my speech, and give my statement a hearing. Behold, I have prepared my case, I know that I am in the right. If anyone can make a case against me, then I shall be silent and die.

Rdr. 1: All people have the right to freedom of movement and residence within the borders of each state. All people have the right to leave any country, including their own, and return to their country. (Art. 13)

Rdr. 2: God said to Abram, "Go forth from the land of your kinsfolk and from the house of your ancestors to a land that I will show you." Know that I am with you; I will protect you wherever you go, and bring you back to this land. I will never leave you until I have done what I promised you.

Rdr. 1: All people have the right to seek and enjoy in other countries asylum from persecution. (Art. 14)

Rdr. 2: After they had left, the angel of God suddenly appeared in a dream to Joseph with the command: "Get up, take the child and his mother, and flee to Egypt. Stay there until I tell you otherwise. Herod is searching for the child to destroy him."

Rdr. 1: All people have the right to a nationality. No person shall be arbitrarily deprived of one's nationality, nor denied the right to change one's nationality. (Art. 15)

Rdr. 2: It is God who gave to all, life and breath and everything else. From one stock God made every nation of peoples to dwell on the face of the earth. It is God who set limits to their epochs and their regions. The commander asked "Are you a Roman citizen?" Paul answered: "I am a citizen by birth." At these words those who were about to interrogate him backed away.

Rdr. 1: Women and men of full age, without any limitation due to race, nationality or religion, have the right to marry and found a family.Marriage shall be entered into only with the free and full consent of the intending spouses. (Art. 16)

Rdr. 2: Jesus said "Have you not read that at the beginning the Creator made them male and female," "For this reason, you shall leave father and mother and cling to one another as husband and wife, and the two shall become as one." Let marriage be honored in every way and the marriage bed be kept undefiled.

Rdr. 1: All people have the right to own property alone as well as in association with others. No person shall be arbitrarily deprived of personal property. (Art. 17)

Rdr. 2: You shall sit under your own vine or under your own fig tree, undisturbed; for the mouth of the God of hosts has spoken. Some said: "We are forced to pawn our fields, our vineyards, and our houses, that we may have grain during the famine." Others said: "To pay the king's tax we have borrowed money on our fields and our vineyards. And though these are our own kin and our children are as good as theirs, we have had to reduce our daughters and sons to slavery, and violence has been done to some of our daughters. Yet we can do nothing about it for our fields and our vineyards belong to others."

Rdr. 1: All people have the right to freedom of thought, conscience and religion; this right includes freedom to change one's religion or belief, and freedom, either alone or in community with others and in public or private, to manifest one's religion or belief in teaching, practice, worship and observance. (Art. 18)

Rdr. 2: Many of the Corinthians who heard Paul believed and were baptized. One night in a vision God said to Paul: "Do not be afraid. Go on speaking and do not be silenced for I am with you."

Rdr. 1: All people have the right to freedom of opinion and expression; this right includes freedom to hold opinions without interference and to seek, receive and impart information and ideas through any media and regardless of frontiers. (Art. 19)

Rdr. 2: "To stop this from spreading further among the people we must give them a stern warning never to mention that man's name again." So they called them back and made it clear that under no circumstances were they to speak the name of Jesus or to teach about him. Peter and John answered: "Surely we cannot help speaking of what we have heard and seen."

Rdr. 1: Every person, as a member of society, has the right to social security and is entitled to realization, through national effort and international cooperation and in accordance with the organization and resources of each State, of the economic, social and cultural rights indispensable for a person's dignity and the free development of one's personality. (Art. 22)

Rdr. 2: They shall live in the houses they build, and eat the fruit of the vineyards they plant. As the years of a tree, so the years of my people; and my chosen ones shall long enjoy the produce of their hands. They shall not toil in vain, nor beget children for sudden destruction; for a race blessed by God are they and their offspring. If a brother or sister has nothing to wear and food for the day, and you say to them, "Good-bye and good luck! Keep warm and well fed." but do not meet their bodily needs, what good is that?

Rdr. 1: All people have the right to work, to free choice of employment, to just and favorable conditions of work and to protection against unemployment.... to equal pay for equal workto just and favorable remuneration ensuring for themselves and their families an existence worthy of human dignity.. (Art. 23)

Rdr. 2: Provide yourselves with neither gold nor silver nor copper in your belts, no traveling bag, no change of shirt, no sandals, no walking staff. Workers after all, are worth their keep. >From the fruit of your words you have your fill of good things, and the work of your hands come back to reward you.

Rdr. 1: All people have the right to rest and leisure, including reasonable limitation of working hours and periodic holidays with pay. (Art. 24)

Rdr. 2: God is my shepherd; I shall not want. In verdant pastures, God gives me repose; Beside restful waters God leads me; God refreshes my soul. Come to me all who are weary and find life burdensome, and I will refresh you.

Rdr. 1: All people have the right to a standard of living adequate for the health and well-being of a person and of one's family, including food, clothing, housing and medical care and necessary social services, and the right to security in the event of unemployment, sickness, disability, widowhood, old age or other lack of livelihood in circumstances beyond one's control. Motherhood and childhood are entitled to special care and assistance. (Art. 25)

Rdr. 2: Likewise, you shall not pick your vineyard bare, nor gather up the grapes that have fallen. These things you shall leave for the poor and the alien. I am your God.

Rdr. 1: All people have the right to education.Education shall be directed to the full development of the human personality and to the strengthening of respect for human rights and fundamental freedoms. It shall promote understanding, tolerance and friendship among all nations, racial or religious groups, and shall further the activities of the United Nations for the maintenance of peace. (Art. 26)

Rdr. 2: My prayer is that your love may more and more abound, both in understanding and wealth of experience, so that with a clear conscience and blameless conduct you may learn to value the things that really matter, up to the very day of Christ. It is my wish that you may be found rich in the harvest of justice which Jesus Christ has ripened for you, to the glory and praise of God.

Rdr. 1: All people are entitled to a social and international order in which the rights and freedoms set fourth in this declaration can be fully realized. (Art. 28)

Rdr. 2: The whole law has found its fulfillment in this one saying: "You shall love your neighbor as yourself." Lo, I am about to create new heavens and a new earth; the things of the past shall not be remembered or come to mind. Instead there shall always be rejoicing and happiness in what I create; for I create Jerusalem to be a joy and its people to be a delight; I will rejoice in Jerusalem and exult in my people. No longer shall the sound of weeping be heard there or the sound of crying; no longer shall there be in it infants who live but a few days, or the old who do not round out a full life time.

The General Assembly proclaims this Universal Declaration of Human Rights as a common standard of achievement for all peoples and all nations, to the end that every individual and every organ of society, keeping this Declaration constantly in mind, shall strive by teaching and education to promote respect for these rights and freedoms and by progressive measures, national and international, to secure their universal and effective recognition and observance, both among the peoples of the Member States themselves and among the peoples of territories under their jurisdiction.