Staying Safe and Staying Connected
Good Morning Saint Stephen’s Church,
We continue our life of daily prayer. The Lord be with you!
Today’s Prayer
God, Giver of Life, Bearer of Pain, Maker of Love,
Janet Morley
you are able to accept in us what we
cannot even acknowledge;
you are able to name in us what we cannot bear to speak of;
you are able to hold in your memory
what we have tried to forget;
you are able to hold out to us
the glory that we cannot conceive of.
Reconcile us through You
to all that we have rejected in our selves,
that we may find no part of your creation
to be alien or strange to us,
and that we ourselves may be made whole.
Through Jesus Christ, our lover and our friend. Amen.
Janet Morley is the author of a number of books, which include books of prayer, and also has edited poetry anthologies fit for different liturgical seasons. Morley is now retired, but has previously worked for the Methodist Church in the U.K. and the relief organization Christian Aid.
From Our Prayers of the People
Today, let us pray:
For the just and proper use of your creation: for the victims of hunger, fear, injustice, and oppression.
For comfort and healing for all who are affected by the Coronavirus: for physicians, nurses, and all others who minister to the sick and the suffering, may God grant them wisdom and skill, sympathy and patience, and may God keep them healthy and safe.
For all essential workers: for police, firefighters, EMTs, postal workers, sanitation workers, grocery personnel, delivery and transport workers, and all who must report to work because what they do is essential for our well-being, health, and safety.
For those on the Parish Prayer Chain: Mary Frances, Jim, Eunice, Jane, Bruce, Pauline, John, Bill, Stephanie and Hank.
For those who are homebound: Stephen, Pauline, Joan, Janet and Marilyn.
Our Government Leaders: Donald Trump, President of the United States; Andrew Cuomo, Governor of New York State; Gary McCarthy, Mayor of Schenectady
Our Church Leaders: Justin Welby, Archbishop of Canterbury, Michael Curry, Presiding Bishop, William Love, and Daniel Herzog our bishops; James and Dennie our priests; Pat our deacon and Allison our Lay Reader
Those who are imprisoned: those particularly vulnerable at this time, especially the women in the Schenectady County Jail.
For those in need of healing: Sid, Vicki, Jean, Cindi, Mary Frances, Debbie and Joe.
For all the blessings of this life.
For our dioceses in the Anglican Communion: Nova Scotia & Prince Edward Island (Canada), Bida (Nigeria), Karachi (Pakistan).
For all who have died: especially Mary.
For one another.
Something to share
Everything is a gift,
David Steindl-Rast
the degree to which we are awake to
this truth
is a measure of our gratefulness,
and gratefulness is a measure of our
aliveness.
Fermentation
When the growing season ends, we make sauerkraut.
Mom shreds the cabbage, knife rasping against
tightly layered leaves. Then she adds salt and whey,
pounds everything until it bruises and weeps, and
shoves the limp cabbage into a quart jar.
She screws the lid on tight.Every now and then, I go to the basement and
check on the sauerkraut. I peer through the glass
jar and see little bubbles. Sometimes they rise to
the surface as I watch. The brine seeps out
beneath the lid and trickles down the sides,
pooling on the floor. Inside, the cabbage
is steeping, changing, becoming.New wine, Jesus said, and surely he knew
Eileen R. Kinch
about dark, cool silence, the sour smell
of ripening. But he also knew how life breaks
the seal and comes bursting out one morning,
green and pungent, fresh with salty
tang on its lips.
News & Updates
How to be an Anti-Racist – Dr Kendi will speak on July 27th, this evening through Proctors tech system, and then there will be a 21 day anti racist follow up challenge with emails and readings sent every day to all who sign up. Schenectady Clergy Against Hate, among many others is a community partner for this event. Here is the link to sign-up: https://www.proctors.org/antiracism.
Reminders
If you have an update/news, a prayer or poem or something inspirational you would like us to share with the congregation, please send it to us. Please also send us any prayer requests. We will incorporate these into the Morning Prayers as best we can.
If you need a prayerbook, and are not in a position to purchase one, please contact me: james.ross.mcd@gmail.com. I will make sure you have your own Book of Common Prayer.
Prayerbook Morning Prayer in Zoom – each morning. Join Dennie and me for an inter-active service of Morning Prayer at 9 am. Time to bring your prayer concerns will be provided. (contact me for the link: james.ross.mcd@gmail.com)
Our church campus is closed, except for our Eucharistic Ingathering on Sundays at 9:00 am. Please see our website for further information: https://st-stephens.church. All other parish meetings and gatherings are canceled and postponed until further notice.
Our goal is for all of us to stay in touch and connected in this time of isolation.
Share this news, and spread some love, not the virus!
Irish Blessing
May the road rise up to meet you,
May the wind be at your back,
May the sun shine upon your face,
The rains fall soft upon soft upon your fields,
And until we meet again
May God hold you in the palm of his hand.
Be of good courage. We are in this together, and we will be together again soon. God bless you and may God be with us in the days ahead.
Peace,
James+