Friends, Collects are gathering prayers at the beginning of our Sunday services. A collect not only brings us together to worship, it gathers together in a common prayer the shared yearnings and longings of our hearts and minds. Our Book of Common Prayer (BCP) provides collects for each Sunday, for Holy Days, for Saints and for various occassions. The contemporary version of our collect for Independence Day reads: Lord God Almighty, in whose Name the founders of this country won liberty for themselves and for us, and lit the torch of freedom for nations then unborn: Grant that we and all the people of this land may have grace to maintain our liberties in righteousness and peace; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen. (BCP, p.242) In 2010, when July 4th fell on a Sunday, The Honorable Byron Rushing, Massachusetts State Representative and long time Deputy to General Convention suggested use of alternative collects, writing: Let me take this opportunity to remind Episcopalians in the United States that many of us do not consider the words--the founders of this country won liberty for themselves and for us--in the Independence Day collect ... to be accurate. Look around your congregations and reflect if all the ancestors of the us got their liberty then. (The Lead, July 3, 2010) So this Independence Day, I hope we will all take time out from our celebrations to join in praying the Collect for the Nation (BCP, p. 258): Lord God Almighty, you have made all the peoples of the earth for your glory, to serve you in freedom and in peace: Give to the people of our country a zeal for justice and the strength of forbearance, that we may use our liberty in accordance with your gracious will; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen. Blessings, Beth
Posted on: Sat, 05 Jul 2014 00:00:51 +0000
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