Evening Prayer – 19 June 2018

The sun has set and the Vesper Lights flicker and glow

A full day of Committee work

A time to take the church to the streets

Rallying to support our Immigrant neighbors

A time to protest and call out the horrific treatment at the hands of our government

A time of weeping, anger, passion, hope

Marching with hundreds of Presbyterians

Marching against the injustice of a Cash Bail system that oppressed the poor and people of color

Presenting our offering from opening worship

$47,000 to help the Bail Project

The church being the church in the streets

We didn’t simply preach or pray

We acted as Jesus and the Prophets have called us to do

Set the Prisoners free

Do Justice

Love Mercy/Kindness

Walk Humbly with God

With hearts full of hope and tears we pray

We pray for all of God’s children

We especially pray for the poor, the oppressed, Sisters and Brothers of color

We pray for the families on the border

We pray for the children and parents

We pray from the depths of our very being

Lord, in your mercy, hear this humble prayer

Dona Nobis Pacem et in Terra

Grant Us Peace on Earth

A wee prayer from the heart of your Padre…

**A note about the picture. The Rev, Dr Steve Yamaguchi who is a Presbyterian Pastor and one of the leaders of the PC(USA) General Assembly Committee that I am on shared the story of the bowl which was used in our opening worship. His Mother spent three years in a Concentration Camp in Arkansas. He made a pilgrimage a few years ago which was very difficult and yet also very healing. A family he met at the little Baptist Church which stood on the site of the Concentration Camp gave him this bowl. It was a bowl used in the Concentration Camp Kitchen! At our opening worship we all added salt (representing our tears) to the water… it stood before us the entire time we were deliberating and working. At closing worship he told the story of the bowl and then each of us were invited to come to the bowl where we each dipped our fingers into the bowl and anointed each other with the tears… a truly sacred moment for each one of us!