As we cry out for the end to violence all around us May we seek to address the violence within us As we demand justice from leaders and systems May we ensure that our actions are just As we declare love as the answser May we seek to ground our work and lives in love… 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
Friday Prayer: Poison Ivy
Oh Lord, I know what I have done. As soon as my words left my lips, I knew. I responded out of hurt. I responded out of my woundedness. I responded out of defensiveness. I was not loving. I was angry – Correction!! I am still angry! Forgive me for my selfishness, my lack of… Read More
Sunday Prayer: The Very Worst Sinners
Holy One of Power and Glory, We wonder why bad things happen and look for explanations that will reassure us, hurrying past disaster and loss. We sometimes think the injured are the very worst sinners, outside the circle of your care and beyond our need to consider. We make assumptions and judgments; we lash out… Read More
Saturday Prayer: An Offering
God, I have some offerings for you today. You probably don’t particularly want them, but I know you don’t want me to have them. So, I offer my resentments for the things I have to do for others for the things no one is doing for me for how early I have to get up,… Read More
Friday Prayer: Flattened
Holy One, This mess we’re in… I know it’s one of our own making, and we’ve managed to mess up your Creation rather completely… But please, Mighty One, save us from ourselves! This stench we smell… I know we have chosen to roll around in the biggest pile of (um) “fertilizer” we can find… But… Read More
Saturday Prayer: The Unity of Kindred
“How very good and pleasant it is When kindred live together in unity,” I read. Really, God? How about Cain and Abel (we all know how that ended) or Joseph and Esau (which, come to think of it, actually did have a happy ending, but only after considerable strife)? But even Jesus who refused to… Read More
Friday Prayer: Lamenting and Confessing
This week I was fortunate to be present for the A.C.T. Now! Anti-Racism Rally on the National Mall in Washington, DC. This prayer was born from my experience. When we do not see in one another the Imago Dei, we “other” them. May all who are Called be change agents for reconciliation and peace. Oh… Read More
Friday Prayer: Ashes Again
I saw the wildfires, Lord. The flames licking at houses, scorching trees. The stuff of homes and families and memories… GONE. I am undone. The raging power of the flames scared me, their passion was so all-consuming. but unlike the fires, You are not capricious. You are not destructive. I searched my heart… In the… Read More
The Pastoral is Political: I Am Racist
Dear white sisters, brothers, siblings: I have a very difficult confession to make. I am racist. I wish so much that I wasn’t. I try so hard not to be. But I am. I think this is such a difficult confession to make because we often think people who are racist are “bad” and are… Read More
