Prayer for the last few days of GC 2015

O Gracious Creator of things we cannot see, have not yet imagined,

so small we forget to consider them,

so large we may not think to look behind or beyond them,

and of us humans, amazingly beloved by you,

but who sometimes think we are at the center of the universe:

may we ask You, honestly,

do You still “need” the Episcopal Church to do your work,

or do You simply “need” people who walk in Jesus’ Way?

Will You show us what about us Episcopalians delights you, gives flesh to Your will?

And will You show us “the back of our heads:” our blind spots, what we haven’t noticed You calling us to live into, what we need to let go of in our journey?

God of our future, God of our history:

some of us remember our Anglican identity as including the gift of “both … and …,” a way of thought sometimes confusing to others, but reminding us that no single point-of-viewing could adequately comprehend your mystery, your holiness, your being;

and we remember being able to laugh at ourselves and enjoy our differences, at “low and lazy, high and crazy, broad and hazy,” laughing at our own “niches” and managing to seek You together;

help us to discern if there is still value in being a “bridge” church which holds together apparently conflicting views, in being a church of “Scripture, tradition, and reason,” and in what new ways you call us to be your people.

God of immeasurable power, who seeks out the lost, the wounded, the forgotten:

be with any of us who feel squeezed out by others in this family because we are different in some way;

be with any of us who are anxious about the odd, rambunctious mix we are;

and help us to discern your presence in each other and in the world in which you call us to bear your love.

God of chronos and kairos: in these last days of this Convention, 
help us to keep going from meeting to meeting, location to location, decision to decision;

to be patient, stay cool enough and warm enough;

and grant us enough focus, enough discernment, and enough of your wisdom to grasp your will as we shape this limb of your church.

Technical Note

I've realized that I need to put alt tags (so visitors with vision problems can hear a description of pictures) into the html by hand, so I'm trying to get the hang of doing it again. I'll wait to use any more pictures until I can code them as I go.

What happens when little icicles grow up

They turn into great big icicles -- think cool if you're in the heat wave area!

Remember when it was cold out?

Today and yesterday I've been busy taking in news and tweets and more from General Convention and the rest of the country. Not much time for writing, so I thought I'd just post a few pictures which might help folks at Convention and other hot spots at least think cool.

"Red & White" -- snow mounded next to and on top of a shed

Skinny little icicles

A cold sunny morning, the trees are wearing coats of ice & snow.

  

   The snow has heaped pillows & blanket on the glider and on the pump cover near the fence posts.

Barred owl sits on one of those fence posts in slight snow flurry.

   Remember the fence posts? 

                                              Those two dots in the field are all that are still above snow.

Front door before shoveling (there are steps up to it).

                    

Looking out the front door after the snow slid off the roof.

The lamp post looks like the one at the entrance of Narnia.
All of it that is above the snow where it stands
is the bit of black post you can see in the picture.

And finally, from my DH: one night when it was 27 degrees

 below zero (Fahrenheit).

Towards a Prayer for GC 2015 (Part 2 -- Thanksgiving)

   Thanksgiving

You who nourish us with gifts of living, of growing, and of serving:

    may we also grow the gifts you give us of appreciation and gratitude.

We thank you for mysterious beauty -- the shimmer of Northern Lights, the austere beauty of desert sands, the haunting songs of ocean waves.

We thank you for memories of cooler weather and for all who were part of the invention and creation of air conditioning and of its delivery to us here.

Rear wheel on Subaru Outback

We thank you for your gifts of life: the colors of butterfly wings, the dance of dragonflies mating, a cow delivering a calf, a devoted couple celebrating their 50th anniversary, organ donors who give a part of their body, the years given to the work of justice for others.

We thank you for people we have met at  past General Conventions, those we have remembered with delight and those we have not, and for those we listen to, we meet, we debate with, and we share your presence with this week.

We thank you for the common faith we share here, even when we understand it or express it in very different ways; for our common ground in your presence as we share prayers and worship, our stories and songs.

We thank you for the differences which enrich us, for how we are like pieces of a great jigsaw puzzle which you put together to surprise us with our need for each other and how you delight in us.

We thank you for all the volunteers who have done, are doing, and will do the tasks needed for us to be here seeking your will for our church and how we can carry it out.

We thank you for those things which challenge us, which seem too hard, which threaten to make us angry and bitter, knowing that when we are empowered by your wild and wondrous Spirit, following Jesus, they can become the rocks we climb to new vision and understanding, the tunnels we squirm through in discovering new life and leaving the old things behind, the ground on which we encounter each other in your healing presence.

And we thank you for bringing us all together, for this messy, often confusing, sometimes exhausting, awe-filled work of continuing to become your Body.

Especially we thank you for love known to us in Jesus, who teaches us and frees us to embody Love.

Jerusalem Cross?

We are awestruck at the gifts you give us:

help us, your children, to live our lives in delight and thanks.

Towards a Prayer for GC 2015 (Part 1)

I committed to a discipline of praying daily for our diocesan contingent at the Episcopal Church's General Convention 2015 in Salt Lake City, and for a number of other folks I know who are attending. I'd like to have one prayer / series of prayers to help me focus as I pray, help me to remember some of what I want to be offering to God throughout the day. I may have put it into words (and pictures) by the time GC is over! Meanwhile, here is a start:

Adoration

Our Source, our Beloved, our Strength:

    may we rest in your presence, be simply with you, bathed in your Being.

( Silence)

You have created us:

Our hearts leap for joy in Your presence…

Praise

Sovereign of the universe,

  Creator of hawk and hadron, helium and hummingbird, hemoglobin and human beings,

       You are more majestic than the Rocky Mountains or the Andes,

            Wiser by far than all the greatest human leaders together,

                  More wonderful than words can tell.

You are justice, you are mercy, you are wisdom, you are joy,

   You are the love, we are its instruments, created to play your love for the world.

We long to be known

Wherever we are hidden, you call us each by name --

    we appear like the stars at night singing praise and thanksgiving!

  (to be continued)

A Prayer for Our Vermont Contingent at General Convention, 2015

Prayers

O God,

by whose goodness this rock-strewn land, tended by your people, feeds us;

to whom the trees in fall wave their many colored branches;

at whose command snow and ice and rain will gently kiss the earth;

before whom the catamount and the deer will dance together:

we hold in your presence our brothers and sisters from this Diocese who serve at General Convention:

Our Deputies: Tom, Scott, Anne, Stan, Rick, Nanci, Jennifer, Lee Alison, Linda, and Josh; our Communications Minister, Kathleen; and our Bishop, Thomas.

May your Spirit fill them with the understanding, passion and vision of your Pentecost followers; may Christ strengthen them in lifting up those seen as the least, the weakest, the  shunned; and may you, Creator of time, of earth, and of Sabbath, help them to be good stewards of our earth, our church’s resources, and their own time and energy.

Be with us as well, that when your servants return, we may listen without fear or blame to news of changes we do not feel ready for, and changes not made which we believe are overdue, and that we join them in seeking your will as we “do justice, love mercy, and walk humbly with” you.

About this blog...

Seraphina, one of my prayer partners.

Recently during my “midday” prayer time, I thought about how much of my prayer seems to be “hoofing it.” That is, prayed on the run, or moving around, or in the middle of doing other things. Some of those are prayers I pray regularly when driving or taking a shower or engaged in other mundane activities. Some are arrow prayers. Some, longer prayers which I may come back to and write down.


Once upon a time, which is to say, a couple decades or so ago and in my imagination, I thought it would be fun to gather some of the prayers I said, or had written down, into a little book of/about prayer for my children. That never did happen. But during that recent midday prayer time, I thought about that old idea and decided to use a blog as a home range for some of my prayers, reflections on prayer, and perhaps some prayer related poems. And maybe some photos. Let them all graze here, so to speak.


After a little time getting the blog started, I decided I would not be able to ignore the large elephant that shows up in almost every room I spend time in. The elephant is Attention Deficit /Hyperactivity Disorder.Especially anything involving Executive Function. That includes things like remembering what you were just about to say or do, having some sense of how much time has passed while you are working on something or of how much time you need to get ready on time. And more. Planning, organizing, deciding… all those important ways of thinking and doing that most people take for granted. So some of my posts, will deal with topics related to struggling with ADHD.


“Prayers on the Hoof” came to mind not only in relation to hoofing it, but to “beef on the hoof.” I wondered how vegan/vegetarian family and friends would respond to this meaning, related to the amount or value of the meat after the cow is butchered. But since no animals are being killed or eaten, perhaps they won’t mind. And I hope no prayers will be killed in the making or reading of this blog.

Please be patient!

From the computer of Milo T. Hedgehog:

                                

It will take a few days to figure out how this works and begin posting "real" blog entries.

Meanwhile, may the Source of All Creation, bless this blog with creativity and joy!