Gathering Prayer for Worship Project

 There is one week left of the semester!  I can't believe how fast this first year at PSR as flown by. I have three papers/projects left to complete before I am done and I have particularly enjoyed one of them.  For my Christian worship class we were asked to design a worship service, create the bulletin and write a theological reflection of the service elements.  I decided the theme of my service would be "Love the 'Other'" using the Good Samaritan text as the basis.  I designed the image above using pictures of people who may be considered on the margins for various reason and assembled them into a cross. 

The last piece of the service that came together today was the Gathering Prayer at the start of the service.  I searched online and in books for something that resonated what I wanted to say but nothing fit quite right.  So, I decided to try to write one.  When I began I decided I would just try it and once I realized that I wouldn't be able to write anything good enough, I would continue to look for something and maybe just settle for something that was ok.  But when I started writing, I found that I really like what was coming out.  So, I thought I would share it with my blog audience.  Here it is...

Gathering Prayer†

Who built the walls that divide “us” from “them”?
Who decided which side is worthy of peace, security, equality and power.
Who taught us that it is acceptable for people to sleep on concrete, to be excluded, alienated and viewed as expendable?
Who determined that power equals righteousness?
Who told us that our skin, our age, our class, or our address makes us better than or less than someone else?
Aren't we all created in God's Image?
I will strive for a world in which walls are torn down.
In which all have peace, security, and equality.
I will work toward a society where everyone has a home, fresh food and a warm bed.An Earth on which our differences are celebrated and embraced.
Where ALL people are our neighbors and treated as God's beloved children.
Amen.

†Congregation reads the bold text.


Pray for me and my fellow seminarians this week as the enter the final push. 
Blessings,
Leslie