From the Minister, Fri Sep 13

Dear Ones,

Prayer for the climate won't lower the CO2 or other greenhouse gases in our atmosphere -- except, perhaps, indirectly. Prayer is the activity by which we orient our intentions. Prayer for the climate is an exercise by which we remind ourselves that our planet matters to us, that the humans and other animals threatened and immiserated by climatic shifts matter to us, that the well-being of future generations matters to us. If we begin with, and return often to, re-orienting our intentions toward mitigating climate change, we become more likely to participate in actions to realize our hopes.

Therefore, let us pray.

These words of prayer are from Interfaith Power and Light:

We Hold the Earth.
We hold brothers and sisters who suffer from storms and droughts intensified by climate change.
We hold all species that suffer.
We hold world leaders delegated to make decisions for life.
We pray that the web of life may be mended through courageous actions to limit carbon emissions.
We pray for right actions for adaptation and mitigation to help our already suffering earth community.
We pray that love and wisdom might inspire my actions and our actions as communities so that we may, with integrity, look into the eyes of brothers and sisters and all beings and truthfully say, we are doing our part to care for them and the future of the children.
May love transform us and our world with new steps toward life.

Amen.

Yours in faith,
Meredith

The Liberal Pulpit

Find videos of many past services at our Youtube channel: HERE

This week, new videos went up from the Sep 8 service:

• Installation of DLREFD Tracy Breneman (5:16)
• The Welcome, Invocation, Prayer, and Reflection of our Walter Celebration Ingathering Service (16:02)

These videos are below. You can also find them at our Youtube channel, along with many others.

Installation of DLREFD Tracy Breneman. (Don't know what DLREFD stands for? The video explains).


Welcome, Invocation, Prayer, and Reflection of our Walter Celebration Ingathering Service, Sep 8:

Practice of the Week: Work with Your Biggest Problem First /You don't need to overcome your biggest problems overnight, nor should you defer them to another time. Pay attention right now to what bothers you the most about yourself in your relationships to others and trust that simply by paying attention, little by little you will see what you need to do. READ MORE.

Your Moment of Zen: Hide Yourself

"Some of the Pharisees in the crowd said to him, 'Teacher, order your disciples to stop.'
He answered, 'I tell you, if these were silent, the stones would shout out.'" (Luke 19:39-40)

The stones are shouting in any case. You pour out from everything in the universe, as the whole universe pours out from you. Nothing can be hidden.

Case

One evening Wolverine appeared and said, "I've been thinking about hiding myself and fasting."
Raven kicked a twig at Wolverine and said, "Hide yourself in that."
Wolverine stepped behind Black Bear and said, "I'm hidden."
Raven said, "Piffle. You don't even dream of my meaning."
Wolverine was silent.
Woodpecker spoke up and said, "What is your meaning?"
Raven said, "Good question, Wolverine."

Verse

We named our car Blue,
and pronouned her
as one does to recognize a personality,
part intrinsic, part projection,
as personalities are.

We wondered at the borders.
When the CD player stopped working,
Was that Blue? Or just Blue's?
"Where does a personality stop?"
I asked my spouse,
after I'd slid in a CD to no effect.
She turned on the left blinker, slowed for a turn,
and said to the oncoming traffic,
"Nowhere to hide."

Case by Robert Aitken; introduction and verse by Meredith Garmon

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