<p> Call to Fasting and Prayer</p><p>We invite United Methodists in Western Pennsylvania to join us in a day of fasting and prayer on Wednesday, July 13, 2016. We intentionally set aside our own comfort and freedom to acknowledge that persons of color are often wrongly denied comfort and freedom because of the color of their skin, a situation that leads to mistrust and sometimes violence. We believe that racism and white privilege have no place within the Body of Christ.</p><p>Please join us in fasting from sunup to sundown on Wednesday. You may fast from food, technology, all social media, or another comfort. While we fast, we center our attention on the words of the prophet in Jeremiah 8:18-22, and we prayerfully ask the Holy Spirit to show us how to dismantle racism and bring healing and comfort to our communities and our relationships.</p><p>O my Comforter in sorrow, my heart is faint within me. Listen to the cry of my people from a land far away: “Is the Lord not in Zion? Is her King no longer there?” “Why have they provoked me to anger with their images, with their worthless foreign idols?” “The harvest is past, the summer has ended, and we are not saved.” Since my people are crushed, I am crushed; I mourn, and horror grips me. Is there no balm in Gilead? Is there no physician there? Why then is there no healing for the wound of my people?</p><p>~Jeremiah 8:18-22 (NIV)</p>