India is the world’s largest democracy – a country of millions of people, hundreds of languages and various religions. But the diversity isn’t always peaceful. In Kandhamal District, Orissa State in August 2008, a devastating wave of violence against the Christian community resulted in at least 90 deaths and an estimated 54,000 people forcibly displaced.

Five years on, the community is still shattered. There are major flaws in the delivery of justice, as only a few people have been charged with the violence which ruined so many lives.

This week please:

• Pray for the community in Kandhamal: for justice, rehabilitation and reconciliation;
• Pray for the human rights defenders that CSW works with, particularly those helping minority groups;
• Ask God to bless efforts to combat targeted and communal violence;
• Pray that ‘anti-conversion’ legislation (banning religious conversions) would be repealed or reformed;
• Pray for activists pursuing legal cases to challenge anti-conversion laws;
• Pray for pastors and church congregations who experience persistent small scale attacks which don’t make the headlines;
• Pray that the voices calling for peaceful coexistence between different groups will be heard in the lead-up to the elections.