In a time when many of us find ourselves off center in terms of national and international events and in terms of our relationships with our sisters and brothers, I am reminded of the late Walter Wink writing in The Powers That Be: Theology for the New Millennium: “History belongs to the intercessors who call out of the future the longed-for new present. . . . Prayer, in the integral world view, becomes absolutely central to bringing in God’s domination-free order.”

Wink writes about the principalities and powers: “The sobering news that the Powers can thwart God is more than matched by the knowledge that our intercession will ultimately prevail.” Christians in South Africa understood this and prayed around the clock for two years before the fall of apartheid. Christians in the East German city of Leipzig believed God would intervene in their behalf for the fall of the wall that separated East and West.

I believe we are in a time when Wink would counsel us to find again our center — intercessory prayer — and pray that the Powers would be thwarted and the reign of God would come to Earth.

A. Richard Weaver
Lititz, Pa.