God’s Healing Touch

When God puts us back together again
(with the aid of our willingness to cooperate)
this great Church will be marked by
the dignity and scholarship of the Anglicans,
the order and sacraments of Roman Catholics,
the warm fellowship of the Methodists,
the Presbyterian desire for good preaching,
the Lutheran respect for sound theology.
There will be Baptist concern
for individual salvation,
the Congregational respect for the rights
of lay members,
the Pentecostal reliance on the power of the Holy Spirit
and the Quaker appreciation for silence.
We will find there the Mennonite
sense of community,
the social action of the Salvation Army,
the social justice of the United
and the Reformed love of the Bible,
all wrapped in Orthodox reverence
before the Mystery of God.

I share with you part of his prayer
A Desire for Unity
O lord, grant us the willingness
To work together
For the peace and unity of all your people.
Grant us the wisdom to see
Beyond our differences,
To celebrate our common ground
And to rejoice in barriers already overcome.
(…)

As you say Dan, what if we could all (including all the other faiths) gather together to defeat the corrupt forces … The Ecumenical movement and the Intereligious Affairs have been working toward that goal for many years now. Our diocese has a department devoted to these movements where a lot of good work is being done. But then we see recent incidents like the Catholic boys (some wearing ‘make America great again caps’) the Native American veteran, and a group of Hebrew Israelites altercation. It makes me feel like we take one step forward and two backwards.

Here’s the conclusion of the prayer:
Grant us the ability to truly care for one another,
Always seeking your image in the person before us.
Grant us the strength to draw all creation to you,
Remembering that of ourselves we can do nothing,
But that with you who dwells within us can do all things.
We pray for guidance to join with our brothers and sisters
to heal the wounds of division.
We look to a time when your presence
fills us so completely
that we will yearn to live together in unity,
many as one

God bless