My parents live in North Carolina, in the southeastern United States. My dad inspects hog waste lagoons for the state of NC. A lagoon is an open depository for hog waste slurry to manage and treat the waste from a large concentration of animals. Since Hurrican Florence, the count of dead hogs (including sows with… Read More
Friday Prayer
Life-giving Mother, Strengthen me to say… To the spiritual forces that oppose you, Get behind me, Satan! To the political forces that subvert your desire for healing and wholeness, Get behind me, Adversary! To the force within me, struggling for control of others and all situations, Get behind me, Sin! I renounce the forces… Read More
Friday Prayer
Lord, have mercy on Those who feel unable to make it to a safe needle exchange today. The ones who stare at the ceiling and wonder if they have the energy to roll over. A sister who is fumbling for coffee to sober up and A brother who is going to try again for a… Read More
Saturday Prayer – Evening
Whatever we need this night, to prepare us for the morrow – celebration or solitude, prayers or parties, chores or cheer – grant us oh God. Amen. Jennifer Garrison Brownell serves as 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… Read More
Friday Prayer
Holy One of Perfect Love- Your servants have written: perfect love casts out fear. Yet I see so much fear everywhere. Our imperfect love creates fear. Crooked, off-balance love stirs fear. Flawed, self-seeking, other-shaming “love” feeds fear. How do we regain trust in your perfect love? How do we remember that your perfect love is perfecting us? What will it… Read More
Wednesday Prayer
“A sound was heard in Ramah, the sound of crying in bitter grief. Rachel was crying for her children. She refused to be comforted because they were dead.” Matthew 2:17-19 GOD’S WORD Translation “God of our weary years, God of our silent tears, Thou who hast brought us thus far on the way…”[i] Save… Read More
Friday Prayer
Divine Love- I’m out of words. I stare blankly at walls, at floors, at news stories, at my own children. I fight and fight and fight and it does not end, But the struggle is not mine to abandon. If ever you truly did cause the earth to swallow the disobedient, If ever you truly… Read More
Thursday Prayer: Do Not Be A Friend of Job
The Lord answered Job’s friends out of the whirlwind: “Who is this that gives counsel by words without knowledge? What have you done with your freedom, I will question you, and you shall declare to me. “What do you know of Divine Prerogative that comes forth from love? Tell me, if you have understanding. How do you… Read More
Friday Prayer: A Request
Holy God- I do not believe in substitutionary atonement. In my mind, it is anathema that you would require blood, sacrifice, or death to bring things into balance between the Divine Self and the Beloved Creation. However, I could be wrong. If I am wrong… if we are wrong… if so many have been wrong,… Read More
Saturday Prayer: For a Pastor’s “Weekend”
Holy God, On this day that is both weekend and work, Rest and readiness, lounging and labor: Bless our time—the kairos and the chronos; Breathe steadily within our offbeat rhythms; Be our peace in the midst of the calm and the chaos. We pray in the name of Jesus who offers an easy yoke, a light… Read More
