Closing Prayer from the Post-Inaugural Prayer Service
National Cathedral January 21, 2009
The Most Reverend Katharine Jefferts Schori

Presiding Bishop and Primate of The Episcopal Church

On this radiant day we give thanks to you, O God,
for the freedom to gather united in prayer.

Strengthen and sustain Barack, our President,
that in the days to come he may lead your people
with confidence and compassion.

Grant patience and perseverance to the people of this Nation.
With malice toward none, with charity for all,
may we strive to finish the work you have given us to do
that we may achieve a just and lasting peace.

In this time of new beginnings, new ventures, and new visions,
light in us the fire of justice, and the passion for forgiveness.
Give us the strength to hold fast to what is good
that we may go forth renewed and committed to make hope a reality.

Amen.

Drawn in part from Abraham Lincoln’s Second Inaugural Address
March 4, 1865

http://www.nationalcathedral.org/presidents/service.html

Inaugural Prayer by the Rev. Dr. Lowry

The Rev. Dr. Joseph Lowery began with James Weldon Johnson's hymn text, Lift Every Voice and Sing:

God of our weary years, god of our silent tears, thou who has brought us thus far along the way, thou who has by thy might led us into the light, keep us forever in the path we pray, lest our feet stray from the places, our god, where we met thee, lest our hearts, drunk with the wine of the world, we forget thee.

Shadowed beneath thy hand, may we forever stand true to thee, oh God, and true to our native land.

We truly give thanks for the glorious experience we've shared this day.

We pray now, oh Lord, for your blessing upon thy servant Barack Obama, the 44th president of these United States, his family and his administration.

He has come to this high office at a low moment in the national, and indeed the global, fiscal climate. But because we know you got the whole world in your hands, we pray for not only our nation, but for the community of nations.

Our faith does not shrink though pressed by the flood of mortal ills.

For we know that, Lord, you are able and you're willing to work through faithful leadership to restore stability, mend our brokenness, heal our wounds and deliver us from the exploitation of the poor, of the least of these, and from favoritism toward the rich, the elite of these.

We thank you for the empowering of thy servant, our 44th president, to inspire our nation to believe that yes we can work together to achieve a more perfect union.

And while we have sown the seeds of greed -- the wind of greed and corruption -- and even as we reap the whirlwind of social and economic disruption, we seek forgiveness and we come in a spirit of unity and solidarity to commit our support to our president by our willingness to make sacrifices, to respect your creation, to turn to each other and not on each other.

And now, Lord, in the complex arena of human relations, help us to make choices on the side of love, not hate; on the side of inclusion, not exclusion; tolerance, not intolerance.

And as we leave this mountain top, help us to hold on to the spirit of fellowship and the oneness of our family. Let us take that power back to our homes, our workplaces, our churches, our temples, our mosques or wherever we seek your will.

Bless President Barack, first lady Michelle. Look over our little angelic Sasha and Malia.

We go now to walk together as children, pledging that we won't get weary in the difficult days ahead. We know you will not leave us alone.

With your hands of power and your heart of love, help us then, now, Lord, to work for that day when nations shall not lift up sword against nation, when tanks will be beaten into tractors, when every man and every woman shall sit under his or her own vine and fig tree and none shall be afraid, when justice will roll down like waters and righteousness as a mighty stream.

Lord, in the memory of all the saints who from their labors rest, and in the joy of a new beginning, we ask you to help us work for that day when black will not be asked to get in back, when brown can stick around . . .

. . . when yellow will be mellow . . .

. . . when the red man can get ahead, man; and when white will embrace what is right. Let all those who do justice and love mercy say Amen.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/21134540/vp/28738420#28738420

A Prayer for new beginnings. New beginnings for President Obama. New beginnings for the United States and the family of nations.

Ground of all being, Mother of life, Father of the universe,
Your name is sacred, beyond speaking.
May we know your presence,
may your longings be our longings
in heart and in action.
May there be food for the human family today
and for the whole earth community.
Forgive the falseness of what we have done
as we forgive those who are untrue to us.
Do not forsake us in our time of conflict
but lead us into new beginnings.
For the light of life, the vitality of life, and the glory of life
are yours now and for ever.
Amen
(The Casa del Sol Prayer of Jesus)

Bishop Gene Robinson's Prayer

A Prayer for the Nation and Our Next President, Barack Obama

By The Rt. Rev. V. Gene Robinson, Episcopal Bishop of New Hampshire

Opening Inaugural Event
Lincoln Memorial, Washington, DC
January 18, 2009

Welcome to Washington! The fun is about to begin, but first, please join me in pausing for a moment, to ask God’s blessing upon our nation and our next president.

O God of our many understandings, we pray that you will…

Bless us with tears – for a world in which over a billion people exist on less than a dollar a day, where young women from many lands are beaten and raped for wanting an education, and thousands die daily from malnutrition, malaria, and AIDS.

Bless us with anger – at discrimination, at home and abroad, against refugees and immigrants, women, people of color, gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender people.

Bless us with discomfort – at the easy, simplistic “answers” we’ve preferred to hear from our politicians, instead of the truth, about ourselves and the world, which we need to face if we are going to rise to the challenges of the future.

Bless us with patience – and the knowledge that none of what ails us will be “fixed” anytime soon, and the understanding that our new president is a human being, not a messiah.

Bless us with humility – open to understanding that our own needs must always be balanced with those of the world.

Bless us with freedom from mere tolerance – replacing it with a genuine respect and warm embrace of our differences, and an understanding that in our diversity, we are stronger.

Bless us with compassion and generosity – remembering that every religion’s God judges us by the way we care for the most vulnerable in the human community, whether across town or across the world.

And God, we give you thanks for your child Barack, as he assumes the office of President of the United States.

Give him wisdom beyond his years, and inspire him with Lincoln’s reconciling leadership style, President Kennedy’s ability to enlist our best efforts, and Dr. King’s dream of a nation for ALL the people.

Give him a quiet heart, for our Ship of State needs a steady, calm captain in these times.

Give him stirring words, for we will need to be inspired and motivated to make the personal and common sacrifices necessary to facing the challenges ahead.

Make him color-blind, reminding him of his own words that under his leadership, there will be neither red nor blue states, but the United States.

Help him remember his own oppression as a minority, drawing on that experience of discrimination, that he might seek to change the lives of those who are still its victims.

Give him the strength to find family time and privacy, and help him remember that even though he is president, a father only gets one shot at his daughters’ childhoods.

And please, God, keep him safe. We know we ask too much of our presidents, and we’re asking FAR too much of this one. We know the risk he and his wife are taking for all of us, and we implore you, O good and great God, to keep him safe. Hold him in the palm of your hand – that he might do the work we have called him to do, that he might find joy in this impossible calling, and that in the end, he might lead us as a nation to a place of integrity, prosperity and peace.

AMEN.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kWWAnitUCw4

Archbishop of Canterbury Rowan Williams' New Year Message

Archbishop of Canterbury Rowan Williams, in his New Year Message delivered on BBC television on January 1, questioned the importance placed on material wealth, and emphasized the need to "turn outwards" and appreciate the treasure that is "our fellow human beings" during this time of financial crisis. The YouTube video is available here. The full text follows.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------


It's always a relief to have a bit of space after the busyness of Christmas to relax at home and mull over the past 12 months and the hopes and possibilities of the year ahead. The prospect of this coming year, though, is one that produces a lot of anxiety and insecurity for countless people. There are fears about disappearing savings, lost jobs, house repossessions and worse. While the headlines are often about the big figures, it's the human cost that makes it real for us.
A little before Christmas I visited a new academy in Scunthorpe named after St. Lawrence. Lawrence was a Christian minister in Rome in the days when you could be arrested and executed for being a Christian, nineteen hundred years ago or so.
When he was arrested, he was told to collect all the treasures of the Church to be given up to the courts. He got together all the homeless, the orphans and the hungry that the Church looked after in the city, and presented them to his judges, saying, 'These are the Church's treasures.'
Like any really good school, St. Lawrence's treats its children as treasures. In the last few months we've had to think a lot about wealth and security and about where our 'treasure' is.
But it set me thinking - what would our life be like if we really believed that our wealth, our treasure, was our fellow-human beings? Religious faith points to a God who takes most seriously and values most extravagantly the people who often look least productive or successful- as if none of us could really be said to be doing well unless these people were secure.
And as we look around in our own country as well as worldwide, this should trigger some hard questions – whether we think of child soldiers in Africa or street children in Latin America, or of children in our midst here who are damaged by poverty, family instability and abuse, street violence and so much else. Children need to be taken seriously, not just as tomorrow's adults but as fellow-inhabitants of the globe today, growing human beings whom we approach with respect and patience and from whom we ought to learn.
One of the most damning things you could say about any society is that it's failing its children. That's why I was really encouraged recently to be invited to open a project in Springfield in Birmingham - a church-based initiative supporting children and their parents from across the whole community. Here the church community took the brave decision to open up their church building for work with local families and to seek funding for further buildings and resources from the local authority. What's more, they've worked throughout in close collaboration with the local mosque and have a joint program with them for young people. There's a community with its eye unmistakably on its real treasure.
So what about a New Year in which we try and ask consistently about our own personal decisions and about public polices, national and international, 'Does this feel like something that looks after our real treasure, something that keeps our real wealth safe - the lives and welfare of the youngest and most vulnerable?'
Jesus said where our treasure is, that's where our hearts will be. Our hearts will be in a very bad way if they're focused only on the state of our finances. They'll be healthy if they are capable of turning outwards, looking at the real treasure that is our fellow human beings. A very happy and blessed New Year to you.

The Magi, Gordon Cosby and Transformed Hearts

I had been thinking since Sunday about Francie's Epiphany sermon, especially about her description of the demeanor of the Three Magi as portrayed in the Boar's Head Feast at the cathedral in Cleveland. Amidst a wildy boisterous procession they arrive unhurriedly, with dignity and composure, focused on their journey in a non-emergency kind of way.

Since Sunday I have been imagining what might have possessed them of such calm focus and dispossessed them of anxiety and striving. I also imagine them to be quietly pleased about being on the journey.

Then today I read the story in the Washington Post (cited below) about Gordon Cosby's last sermon and the changes afoot at Church of the Saviour in Washington, DC. I remember with immense gratefulness our meeting with Gordon last summer arranged by the Berkshire Servant Leadership Center. He, too, was calm, unhurried, dignified, composed, pleased to be with us.

Two days ago, at our executive committee meeting, we prepared for the vestry meeting and the upcoming annual meeting. With the budget deficit and the closed, fallen, broken building, it has been easy for me to forget the most basic reason for our existence as part of this body of Christ--the transformation of hearts.

Remembering Gordon's journey these many years, one thing that has remained constant and evident is his fidelity to that transformation of heart that can only but result in transformed relationships with others.

It is breathtaking when I think that that may be, after all, what we are really called to do here in Great Barrington. Could my own heart really be transformed into one that would greet everyone with peace, calmly and with dignity, no matter how I have been treated by them? I do not yet know. But I do know that there is no way I can begin to do this without others. Their prayers, their companionship, their teaching, their examples.

Church of the Saviour

I am posting here a link to a story about the Church of the Saviour. You may recall that several of us from the diocese went to a retreat there this summer. They are entering a new phase and may change into something quite different. It is like no other church.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/01/05/AR2009010503341.html?wprss=rss_print/asection