Friday Prayer

Creation understands interdependence Embraces it, models it Reveals to us that in our connection we have our very being Creation is calling us back to life To accountability To communion To joy To healing To freedom I pray we humans get it … The Creator is conspiring on our behalf Revealing a living hope Filling… Read More

Pastoral is Political: Embodied Politics

“This is my Body Broken for You” says the Christ, Jesus, Son of refugees, who had to flee a tyrant’s rage to Egypt. “This is my Body Broken for You” says Jesus Son of a pregnant single–not to mention brown–girl, who had to decide who she would tell that she was pregnant, and plot how… Read More

Friday prayer: communing together

God in all times and places, this weekend is the annual observance of World Communion Sunday. This occasion seems particularly poignant this year. Some clergy and congregations aren’t authorized to celebrate the Lord’s Supper virtually. Many of those that are will do so from separate spaces, given the dangers of the pandemic. And yet, the… Read More

Worship Words for 5 July: I Don’t Do What I Want Edition

Looking for liturgical language that suits this moment in our world — a world of pandemic, uprising against individual and systemic racism, virtual gathering, and so much more? Here we offer some…feel free to use as is, to adapt, or to use for inspiration for your own. If you use these in written materials, please… Read More

RCL: Getting the Point (Bread from Heaven)

Then the Jews began to complain. This line sticks out to me in John 6. What is more human, then to complain? Here is a group of people in the presence of Jesus, and they do not even know why he is existing. I am trying to imagine how Jesus had to tell his story… Read More

Saturday Prayer – Simple Feast

  Board. Bread. Candle. Cup. Friends. Forgiveness. Bounty. Blessing. Grace. Gratitude. Jennifer Garrison Brownell serves as designated term pastor at First Congregational Church -UCC in Vancouver, Washington.  She contributed to the Revgals book There’s a Woman in the Pulpit and is the author of the not-really-about-a-triathlon memoir Swim, Ride, Run, Breathe: How I Lost a… Read More

Saturday Prayer – This is my body.

This is my body, You said, speaking of something beautiful, sacred, whole. It’s a metaphor, meaning all the good gathered together. This is my body, I said, speaking of something un-pretty, disappointing, broken. It’s a reality, meaning all the parts and pieces which propel me unsteadily through the day. This is my body, creaky and worn. And yet,… Read More