The Blessing of the Backpacks at St. Mary's ~ 19 August 2018

The Blessing of the Backpacks at St. Mary's ~ 19 August 2018

Using Twitter for prayer and worship...from Bosco Peters at Liturgy that Works

Check out the Rev. Bosco Peters' post about using Twitter for prayer and worship, click HERE to see his whole post (also below)  from the blog "Worship that works."

You can also follow "Santos Woodcarving Popsicles" at Twitter by going to @santospopsicles, as well as my personal Twitter @petermcarey.  I've also started "tweeting" items about my new church @EmmanuelGreenwd

~The Rev. Peter M. Carey

______

Twitter is a fast-growing “micro-blogging” site. A person places a post, a “tweet”, of up to 140 characters in length. This is displayed on the user’s profile page and delivered to other users who have subscribed to them (known as followers). This very simple idea has developed with a plethora of online tools and applications. After playing around with it a little, I soon realised it is ideal for sharing short quotes from the liturgy as well as pointing to liturgical resources as well as picking up some of the other interactive conversations that ensue - even non-liturgical 

So you can follow me on twitter http://twitter.com/liturgy or in twitter parlance @liturgy

I am not alone in the realisation that twitter is ideal for “tweeting” short prayers and other church use. It has even been recommended by a cardinal. During Holy Week the Episcopalian church, Trinity Wall Street, realised the potential of twittering the passionfrom various twitter accounts.

One, fairly obvious, aside: within non-virtual communities there is always the danger of intercession degenerating into gossip. That is clearly magnified online.

There are a number of others who use twitter primarily for sharing liturgy or prayers. I note the following who fit this liturgical use of twitter, and if you are on twitter and fit this category or know others who do - please add this in a comment:

@liturgy
@TheUrbanAbbey
@TrinityWallSt
@twiturgy
@twitturgies
@prayinghours
@YourPrayerChain
@prayer4u
@chrysostominter
@prayingpsalms
@prayingpotp
@TrinityPrincetn
@EasternOrthodox
@kindlejoy

Finally, there is “Tweetgrid” of different twitter prayer feeds found athttp://www.prayerontwitter.net this Prayer on Twitter is “where an ancient Christian practice meets a new technology.”

Meetings are worship (!)(?)

Organizations, such as churches and schools, are saturated with meetings...what if meetings were saturated with an awareness of God in our midst, right inside of what we are doing in the meetings? Hmmmm....

A nice article is posted over at The Episcopal Cafe on this topic, check it out HERE or read a selection below:

Meetings are Worship

Charles Olsen notes that we often bookend church meetings with perfunctory invocations and benedictions. He suggests that if we redefine activity of the people of God serving on church boards as worshipful work, then prayer will no longer be relegated to a book-end position; instead, it will saturate the agenda and thread its way throughout the meeting.

Frame the Agenda with Prayer
Use opening and closing prayers that relate to the agenda of the meeting. The invocation might focus on the image of God and create an openness to and awareness of the Spirit’s presence and leading. The closing prayer might be a thankful offertory for the work of the meeting—lifted to God.

Glean for Prayer
At the beginning of a meeting, you might assign four people to keep notes with an eye toward separating out items for prayer. (They do not record the decisions being made. That is the task of the recording secretary.)

Offer Prayers of Confession
Naming “how things really are” and “what is left undone” are healthy processes for a board, but by themselves they can bind and paralyze it; the board needs to have a safe place to work through these issues.

Sing Prayers
Often discussion and discourse are anything but harmonious. Singing together models the harmony to which they aspire. The presence of wonder and mystery in music also helps break up the framework of most meetings by adding some “grace notes.”

Time-out for Prayer
After twenty minutes of debate and discussion over an issue on which people seem divided, the egos take over. Some deliberative groups have found value in taking three to five minutes of silent “time out” for personal refocusing and prayer.

Rotate Prayer
At the beginning of the meeting, assign each person to a certain fifteen-minute segment of the meeting; during that assigned time, members should pray silently for each person in the group and for the deliberative process in which the board is engaged.

Draw upon Model Prayers in Scripture
Olsen suggests using some of the models of prayer offered in Scripture such as using the Psalms, the Lord's Prayer. He also suggests that prayer is modeled in various parts of the New Testament such as Jesus’s prayer for his friends and disciples (John 17) and Paul’s heartfelt prayer of thanksgiving for his friends (Phil. 1:3–11).

Acknowledge Subliminal Prayer
Prayer may be ceaseless and subliminal, even when we engage in active work or deliberation. Such prayer plays just below the conscious level. The old desert saints wanted to pray without ceasing, so they attached the Jesus Prayer (“Lord Jesus Christ, have mercy upon me, a sinner”) to the rising and falling of their breath. For a while the breath carries the prayer. Then in a mystical moment the prayer carries the breath without one’s thinking about it!

Meetings Are Worship
Resistance to infusing the work of a board with prayer tends to come from the conviction that “there is a place for everything and everything should be in its place”—that worship belongs to Sunday and sanctuary and prayer belongs to worship. But an inspirational moment in a meeting does wonders in loosening the strings of resistance, and those inspirational moments will come once worshipful work is attempted. Let the only rule be “meetings are worship.” All else will flow to and from that fountain. Then we can drink from its fullness!

Read the rest here.

God has a way of speaking to us ... I really drove by this yesterday!

On the way back from my grandparents' 65th (!) Anniversary Party, we drove by this sign:

There is no vacation from my vocation, however, this summer, I am learning a deeper level of humility, kenosis (self-emptying), and how to function on little sleep and much caffeine as I continue to care for my two sons (4 yrs, and nearly 2 yrs). I am learning much about caring for their souls (and bodies, and minds...), and learning much about serving those in need while I set aside some of my own wants.

Many of my friends are serving as curates for their transitional diaconate, and the traditional term "curate" meant "cure" or "care" of souls - that to serve as a curate an ordained person would care for those people surrounding the church and would be specifically charged with care for their souls. The role of a deacon is a wonderful calling, or vocation, and really has to do with leading the laos (ALL the people, "laity" and "clergy") into the world to serve those in need, especially the poor, the sick, those in prison, and those in need. In addition, the deacon "brings" the needs of the world into the worshipping community of the church -they are bridge-builders and servant-leaders.

So, there is no vacation from our vocation, and I know I would do well to remember the vocation of the deacon, and also the important vocation of a curate, which all ordained people should remember (imho) and try to embody.

There is no vacation from our vocation!