The Church of England has published a prayer for the World Cup. It doesn’t cover which team we would like to win, but it does cover the spirit in which we would like the tournament to be conducted, bringing nations and people together, celebrating God’s hand in the creativity of the game.
At a time when the number of active state-based armed conflicts has reached its highest level since World War II, with over 130 ongoing armed conflicts globally, the biggest ever World Cup – with more hosts, more teams, and more newcomers – offers possibly a unique opportunity for people from different nations to meet, to share and maybe to begin to understand some of the things we all have in common.