A transcript is available below.
Holding Onto Hope: A National Service for Healing and Wholeness
The National Cathedral is hosting Holding Onto Hope: A National Service for Healing and Wholeness on Sunday, November 1, 2020, at 4:00 pm. You can watch on their Facebook Page here or online here. The event will be led by Presiding Bishop Michael Curry and will feature:
- The Most Rev. Michael Curry, presiding bishop of The Episcopal Church
- The Rev. James Martin, bestselling author and editor at large of America magazine
- Valarie Kaur, filmmaker and civil rights attorney
- Eboo Patel, founder and president of Interfaith Youth Core
- The Rev. Elizabeth Eaton, presiding bishop of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America
- Rabbi Shoshana Conover, Temple Sholom in Chicago
- Shane Claiborne, bestselling author and social justice activist
- The Right Rev. Mariann Edgar Budde, bishop of Washington
- The Very Rev. Randolph Marshall Hollerith, dean of Washington National Cathedral
Forward Movement Election Prayers
Forward Movement has released prayer resources for the week leading up to the election. You can download the prayer sheet here.
Transcript
– Hi, this is Bishop Brian.
In 1976, I was in the third grade and as the presidential election was approaching, my homeroom teacher, Mrs. Doris, decided it would be a great idea if we had a debate. So I volunteered to debate on behalf of President Ford and a young boy named Mark Leonard volunteered to debate on behalf of Governor Carter. What began as a civil debate in our homeroom quickly descended into rock throwing at recess.
So I want to tell you that story as a way of acknowledging we are now in the midst of an election cycle where many of us have cast votes or will be casting votes at various levels, local, state, national, making decisions about the future of our country. As a Episcopalians, as a people of the prayer book, I wanna remind you to turn to page 820 through 823, mindful that we have prayers for our country, prayers for our nation, prayers for elections, prayers for government officials.
We are a church that in every season, we pray for those who lead and serve, regardless of party. We pray for them because we believe together we seek the common good and those are the values that we hold up, to seek the common good, to seek peace and justice for all, and to consider not simply votes that benefit me but votes and decisions that benefit all. So we are a people called to engagement, called to prayer, called to vote. But then when we leave that voting booth, called to return back to friends and neighbors and to fellow citizens, believing that just as in the life of the church we are a body that needs each other.
We are never called to have any sense of, I have no need of you. That kind of schism, that kind of fracture is a grief to God and a grief to community. The same in our country. We are a people called to be a United States. Even as we cross state lines or cross commonwealth lines we serve together and we seek a common good. We seek a more perfect union.
So I would encourage you to pray, pray as you make decisions. Pray for those who will make different decisions than you. To know that we need each other. We need each other in the church. We need each other in the public square. We are a people constantly seeking to grow deeper in our faith and grow deeper in our service to all people.
So, do not lose heart in this time of pandemic. And in this time of uncertainty in our country, God is still with us. God has not left us to this hour. God will continue and is doing a new thing in and through us.
Listen, listen, listen.
Pray, pray, pray.
Vote, vote vote.
Amen.