Prayer Needed Again

This weekend our good friends and neighbors St. Betty and The Old Marine had to make the difficult decision to move their oldest daughter to hospice care. She suffered complications following a routine surgery and has been in ICU for more than a month to no avail.

Prayers for her, their family and friends are appreciated. It's been tough to go through this again so soon.

History of Inaugural Prayers

With all the fuss over who is praying at the Inauguration and how they are praying, I found Saturday's article in the Wall Street Journal: The Power of Prayer by Steven Waldman, a very interesting history of how this tradition evolved.

If you're not up to reading the very lengthy article, here is my brief summary.

Surprisingly to me, this tradition is of recent origin. While the first presidents issued "prayer proclamations" periodically that drew controversy, pray-ers were not included in their inaugural ceremonies. This tradition dates only from 1937.

Although most would agree that America was a less tolerant and diverse nation then, the roster of "prayers" was more diverse than it later became. Truman had a Protestant minister, a Catholic priest and a Jewish rabbi. From 1937 until 1985 (except for the Carter inauguration) inaugural prayers were offered by what Waldman dubbed "the four person prayer scrum." (Love that term!) The prayers given were all explicitly and unabashedly Christian or Jewish.

Ronald Reagan invited just his personal pastor to his first inauguration, but then returned to the four person prayer team at his second inauguration. After that, both Bush 41 and Bill Clinton only invited "America's pastor", Rev. Billy Graham. Bush 43 invited only Franklin Graham (Billy's son) to his first inaguration and then reinvited him and added Rev. KirbyJon Caldwell to the second inauguration.

Barak Obama followed these precedents by inviting only one pastor to pray at his inauguration--Rick Warren. And Rick Warren's prayer was made in the name of Jesus and he closed it with the Lord's Prayer, following the explicitly Christian model of recent history.

It's fascinating that, as Steven Waldman pointed out, the prayers at Presidential inaugurations have become less inclusive as the country grows more diverse. That's not what I would have predicted.

Prayers for Our Moderator's Family

Brian Pugh, the brother-in-law of the PCUSA Moderator Bruce Reyes-Chow was killed in a workplace shooting in the San Francisco Bay area Friday evening. He and his wife have two young children.

You can leave prayers for the family on Bruce's blog. Or at this remembrance website.

We got the news Saturday morning at the presbytery meeting fromRev. Shawn Coons, a friend of Bruce's. Shawn led the presbytery in prayer for the family and all involved.

Lord, hear our prayers!

Some Thoughts on Presbytery-Prayers

One of the responsibilities of the Moderator at a presbytery meeting is to choose the open and closing hymns and to give opening and closing prayers. The stated presbytery meetings for this year are planned with themes for the day, often focusing on a guest speaker's topic. That makes it easier to choose hymns for the day that reflect the theme and to offer prayers that are appropriate for the meeting. Called presbytery meetings present a different challenge because they are usually called for the purpose of deciding issues that could be contentious.

Although I am comfortable offering prayers in public, offering prayers before a large assembly containing many pastors is another matter. Here are some of my thoughts about praying at presbytery meetings, both stated and called:

• It's a prayer, not a sermon. Keep it short and avoid opinionated pronouncements.
  
• Be specific and pray about the purpose of the meeting. Remember that God already knows why you are meeting and doesn't need an explanation.
• Ask for God's direction and help, don't give instructions to the LORD.
  
• Some phrases to avoid: "we just", "the ways in which we blah blah blah", "live into whatever".
• Too many adjectives are like a verbal stutter--one or two suffice.
• Choose hymns with text that is appropriate to the meeting and then repeat an appropriate phrase in the prayer to reinforce the message of the hymn text.
  
• Be prepared with an outline in order to avoid rambling, but allow the Holy Spirit to guide the prayer through the outline.

Comments and additional suggestions from my Gentle Readers are appreciated!

Now He Tells Me

Rev. Mark D. Roberts is writing a good series about praying in the "public square" that I wish he had written a couple of weeks ago when I was preparing for that invocation at the Literacy Council event. Check it out here.

Beyond the Non-Sectarian Prayer

Help!! I've been asked to offer the prayer at the local literacy council's Book and Author event Sunday. I'm not a fan of the secular public prayer, but it is a cultural convention deeply ingrained around here.

Here's my concern and where I could use some help from my Gentle Readers. The crowd in attendance will include not just every possible flavor of Christian denominations (with extra dollops of born-again evangelicals mixed in) but also significant numbers of Jews, Hindus, Buddhists, Muslims and Sikhs, representing the wide diversity of folks in our community. Of course, I could stifle my habit of closing the prayer in the name of Jesus, but how to come up with an appropriate pan-theological invocation?

El Jefe suggested that I begin thusly:

Dear God (hereinafter referred to as "God" whether one or more irrespective of gender, or quality or spirituality) .....

Ummm. I don't think so. Suggestions?

Monday morning UPDATE: At last night's event I opened the invocation "Creator God" and closed "In Your Holy Name we pray." Thanks for your suggestions, they were quite helpful. A couple of people came up and complimented me on the prayer.

A Woman of Valor

The service for Jan Schiff yesterday was beautiful. Crowded into the sanctuary at Temple Beth Israel were hundreds of people, mostly Christian. Many police and fire department officials from Sugar Land were there in uniform as well, paying tribute to our friend. Her two adult children gave beautiful presentations about their mother. We all wondered at their ability to do this, and knew how proud Jan would have been of them both.

The rabbi presiding did an excellent job of keeping the mostly Christian crowd included in the traditional Jewish service. He and the cantor both choked up a couple of times, evidencing their own grief.

I was struck by the reading of Proverbs 31. In the translation used by the rabbi, the term is "A Woman of Valor." Isn't that wonderful? Proverbs 31 is often included in memorial services for women, but the translations I have heard use the terms "a capable wife" (NRSV), "a woman of noble character" (NIV) and "a good woman" (The Message). Jan truly was "a woman of valor", who left this world much better than she found it. May we all strive to be Women of Valor.

Thank you for your prayers. We're all still reeling from her loss, but I am confident that her legacy will live on.

Return to Tragic News

Thanks to all of you for your good wishes on our 30th anniversary.

Sadly, we returned to the news that one of our good friends and neighbors was killed in an accident on Saturday afternoon. Jan was a wonderful person who worked tirelessly to better our community. She was truly "ever mindful of the needs of others." We worked together in several nonprofit groups and on her husband's city council campaigns. Her legacy will live on while her family and friends mourn her loss.

Prayers appreciated.