A Prayer Attributed to St. Francis

Lord, make us instruments of your peace.

Where there is hatred, let us sow love; where there is injury, pardon;

where there is discord, union; where there is doubt, faith;

where there is despair, hope; where there is darkness, light; where there is sadness, joy.

Grant that we may not so much seek to be consoled as to console; to be understood as to understand; to be loved as to love.

For it is in giving that we receive; it is in pardoning that we are pardoned; and it is in dying that we are born to eternal life. Amen.

Thursday, September 10, 2009

Alexander Crummell, Priest, Missionary, Educator 10 September 1898


Alexander Crummell was born in New York City in 1819, and wished to study for the priesthood, but received many rebuffs because he was black. He was ordained in the Diocese of Massachusets in 1844, when he was 25 years old, but was excluded from a meeting of priests of the diocese, and decided to go to England. After graduating from Cambridge, he went to Liberia, an African country founded under American asupices for the repatriation of freed slaves. Crummell hoped to see established in Liberia a black Christian republic, combining the best of European and African culture, and led by a Western-educated black bishop. He visited the United States and urged blacks to join him in Liberia and and swell the ranks of the Church there. His work in Liberia ran into opposition and indifference, and he returned to the United States, where he undertook the founding and strengthening of urban black congregations that would provide worship, education, and social services for their communities. When some bishops proposed a separate missionary district for black parishes, he organized a group, now known as the Union of Black Episcopalians, to fight the proposal.

written by James Kiefer

Prayer

Almighty and everlasting God, we thank you for your servant Alexander Crummell, whom you called to preach the Gospel to those who were far off and to those who were near. Raise up in this and every land evangelists and heralds of your kingdom, that your Church may proclaim the unsearchable riches of our Savior Jesus Christ, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever. Amen.

Intercessory Fall 2009

By Faith Chatham - September 2009
We pray Father, for those who are lost and bewildered,
For those who are angry and confused,
For those who seek You and those who are running away.
We pray Father, for those who are displaced
and for those who fear being displaced.
We pray for those who are mistaken and for those who are sure.
We pray that your comfort and forgiveness will fill our hearts
and we will comfort and forgive others.
We pray that any Spirit other than your Holy Spirit will be dispelled
from your houses of worship, your people, and your land.
We accept You Father and reach for You
through Your Grace.
Please fill us anew.
May we come together in Your Spirit
to serve and worship and know that as You atone for me,
there is no one beyond your reach.
O Father God, Jesus Christ and Holy Spirit.
Amen.