Philip Kakungulu engaging with refugee children as part of his peace ministry
Prayer is not a private ritual detached from life’s struggles but a courageous act of opening our beings to God, transforming how we live with others. In African spirituality, prayer is communal, binding us to God and neighbor (Mbiti, 1990). To pray with Jesus, as the disciples did, is to align our desires with His Shalom—a vision of peace, justice, and flourishing (Luke 18:1). As Martin Luther King Jr. said, prayer is not a substitute for action but its essential source (King, 1963).
The Lord’s Prayer (Matthew 6:9-13) offers six primal questions for flourishing:
“Our Father” – Who is God? God as Parent frees us from competition, which John Mbiti notes hinders African communal harmony (Mbiti, 1990).
“Hallowed be thy name” – How should we talk about God? Reverence strips away certainty, opening us to divine mystery (Giles, 2022).
“Your Kingdom come” – What do you want? This ignites imagination for God’s dream of Shalom (Decort, 2022).
“Give us our daily bread” – How much is enough? A vision of abundance rejects consumerist indifference (Acts 2:45).
“Forgive us as we forgive others” – How do we begin again? Forgiveness disrupts shame and revenge, as seen in Desmond Tutu’s reconciliation work (Tutu, 1999).
“Deliver us from evil” – Can violence save us? Peter’s zeal for violence (Matthew 16:22) reflects evangelicalism’s sin, countered by Jesus’s nonviolent love.
Andrew Decort’s Flourishing on the Edge of Faith reminds us that prayer with Jesus animates our actions for a hurting world (Decort, 2022). In Uganda, where colonial legacies divided communities, prayer must unite us in action, as seen in the Pan African Peace Network’s conflict transformation trainings.
Call to Action: Pray with Jesus by acting for peace. Join African Peace Warriors to foster communal prayer that heals and transforms.
Philip Kakungulu is one of our Peace Warriors and co-editor of the Global Peace Warriors website. A citizen of Uganda, Philip has engaged in peacemaking and conflict transformation in many countries in eastern and central Africa and even around the world. He is currently working on drawing together a network of peacemakers across the continent and diaspora called African Peace Warriors. For more about Philip, click here.
NOTE: To check out Andrew Decort’s book, Flourishing on the Edge of Faith: Seven Practices for a New We, click here. Decort digs so deep into this prayerful Vision of Shalom, providing the outline related to the Lord’s Prayer that Philip uses as the structure for this blog.
Decort, A. (2022). Flourishing on the Edge of Faith: Seven Practices for a New We. Independently published.
Giles, K. (2022). Sola Mysterium: Celebrating the Beautiful Uncertainty of Everything. Quoir.
Holy Bible, New International Version. (2011). Matthew 6:9-13, Luke 18:1, Matthew 16:22, Acts 2:45.
King, M. L., Jr. (1963). Strength to Love. Harper & Row.
Mbiti, J. S. (1990). African Religions and Philosophy. Heinemann.
Tutu, D. (1999). No Future Without Forgiveness. Image.
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