For use while lighting a candle in a virtual gathering space: As spirits gather in this virtual space, in the midst of another virus that brings up old pain, reveals old prejudices, and calls us again to take care of each other, we light this one candle as a symbol of the many. We bear witness to the thousands upon thousands of candles that have been lit over the years in prayer, remembrance, desperate hope, and deep grief. We remember the lives behind the candles. The millions of beloveds no longer with us. The companions and caretakers. The left-behind. The surviving. The fighting. The...

Donated to the liturgy library by Collegiate UMC in Ames, IA for whom this service was originally crafted as a custom liturgy request Opening prayer  Spirit of Love, We welcome you. We celebrate your coming to abide with us. And we remember the ways you have been faithfully companioning us since the beginning. It was you who wove all life together. Your glory is painted across all of creation. Throughout history, over and over again, you have taken on flesh, in the ordinary and the extraordinary, in the vulnerability of infants, the fierce proclamations of prophets, the enduring hope of...

I. They say all is calm and all is bright, but our spirits toss and turn and our hearts are not glad. They say angels echo a joyous strain, but our thoughts are looping on what we have lost. They say a place was made in a manger for a wondrous child, but there are empty spaces in our beds, vacant chairs in our workplaces; we reach for the phone to call a familiar voice that will not answer. Our anger points us towards what should not yet be gone. Institutions prize profit over people, Illness and war break bodies and spirits, The last of a species, even now, breathes its final breath. We...

season of advent. active preparation. radical play and sacred pretendings - we practice the future, making the impossible possible with the fearlessness of children, unrestrained by the stale logics of what is. a divine invitation extends: do not be afraid. try on dreams of tomorrow. experiment with and for each other moving together imaginatively, in conflict. in rest. in material distribution. we play until practice makes possible; counter-performance constructs a counter-reality. community preparing the way. this is the time to try on the world to come; to bring it close(r) one small,...

On this longest night, listen to the wailing of the wild. Hold vigil with the grief of the earth. Remember: from soil humanity was made and to soil humanity will return. Sources of life forgotten and betrayed. Relationship ruptured by violent ideologies. White supremacy’s destruction more reliable than the seasons it disrupts. Power plants grow where poverty does too. Bodies exposed to toxins. Clean air is a luxury. Life choked from water by pipelines and runoff. Consumerism and colonization - kindle for fires of destruction. Slaughterhouses cut off all respect for creaturely life. Corporate...

(Commissioned for Lenten resource in 2020 by St. Paul's UMC, Houston, TX) All prayers written by Rev. M Barclay, enfleshed #1 Spirit of God, when paths of transformation lead me into times of wilderness - periods of learning and unlearning, realities winding and unruly, may your presence be my steady companion. If I feel afraid of the unfamiliar or unknown - a stranger to where you are leading, remind me I do not go alone. All who seek your Wisdom are wandering. When I forget, remind me this is part of Love’s work. Help me to be patient with my journey, letting Love set the pace. If I feel...