O God, you made us in your own image and redeemed us for the sake of your love: Look with compassion on the whole human family; take away the arrogance and hatred which infect our hearts; break down the walls that separate us; unite us in bonds of love; and work through our struggle and confusion to accomplish your purposes on earth; that, in your good time, all nations and races may serve you in harmony around your heavenly throne.
In your most holy name we pray and give thanks. Amen.
(Prayer for the Human Family, Book of Common Prayer)
As an expression of our Episcopal identity, this prayer calls us to remember Jesus’ message of radical love in divisive times. As we seek to “break down the walls that separate us,” Jesus reminds us to love the most vulnerable and the most despised in society. Jesus ate with and befriended tax collectors, Samaritans, and prostitutes, the mentally ill, the sick, and the poor. Living with the uncertainties and tensions of political polarization, racism, and Covid-19, Jesus’ message of radical love challenges us to create a community in which the dignity of all human lives is valued.
Last Sunday afternoon, Presiding Bishop Michael B. Curry preached the following sermon entitled “Holding Onto Hope.”
In this national, interfaith prayer service, he connects the Latin phrase
E pluribus unum, found on our country’s national seal, to a letter written in 44 BCE by Marcus Tullius Cicero to his son that reads: “When each person loves the other as much as himself, it makes one out of many.”
Bishop Curry calls us to healing and reconciliation through E pluribus unum and Jesus’ message of loving our neighbors as ourselves. Let us hold onto these words in the days and months ahead, as we pray for the healing of the human family.
--The Rev. Katie Solter
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