Bishop DeDe Duncan-Probe invites the people of the Diocese of Central New York to join her in prayer for one another and for our nation in this election season. One prayer resource you might consider is A Season of Prayer: For an Election, a churchwide nine-day period of devotional prayers that begins October 27th.
Pray that somehow we may, together, find the love of God uniting us and empowering us. Pray…for a nation in which each person experiences the love of God in their lives.
Dear friends:
I hope that you are well—that in this time you’re finding places to offer your service and places to be generous and kind with one another.
There can be no doubt that as a people we are passionate about what we believe. Republican, Democrat, Independent, undecided: we long for a world we are not seeing. I hear so many voices clamoring to be heard. Seeking to propose a way or an opinion.
But it is time for us as people of God, as people who’ve made covenants to follow the teachings of Jesus Christ, to turn down the rhetoric of partisanship and to focus instead on the commandments of God and how we live our lives.
Loving God with all that we are.
Loving Jesus in all whom we meet.
Loving our neighbors as we wish to be loved.
Loving our neighbors means that our opinions and our passions are tempered by our care for one another.
I pray that you and I together might be a witness for something greater: a Love beyond knowing. A Love that calls us to be our best selves when we are faced with the hardest tasks.
I hope that we can pray together leading up to the election. When we pray, let’s seek God’s call not only for our our nation but for each one of us in our own communities.
How might we take the message of Love to our neighbors and especially to those with whom we disagree passionately? It is good to have passionate debate. It is good to talk and to reason together about answers. But when that passion for debate turns to dehumanization and degradation of one another, when it reduces to calling one another names and dismissing each other’s opinions as unfounded, we have lost our way. You and I know better. And as Maya Angelou would tell us, once we know better, we must do better.
So I invite you to pray with me for our nation, and to pray for those with whom you disagree. Pray that somehow we may, together, find the love of God uniting us and empowering us. Pray that the things for which we hope may indeed come to pass: pray for a nation in which each person has freedom, and liberty, and experiences the love of God in their lives.
Blessings to you this day,
The Rt. Rev. Dr. DeDe Duncan-Probe
Bishop of Central New York
