Saying Words, Thinking Thoughts about Prayer

We all know that when we gather in our parishes, a lot of what we do is praying. We pray by ourselves, we pray together; we watch and listen to the deacon or priest pray. We stand up in front of the congregation and pray the Prayers of the People, or we watch and listen while someone else does. Maybe we put our head down, or rest it on our arms and speak to God from our heart, or maybe we say prayers we’ve always known and said, or maybe we say them and they just don’t mean much that day, Maybe we close our eyes but the prayer just won’t come.

Sisters and brothers, it’s all prayer. Prayer is any part of us that is trying to connect with God. It defines our walk as Christians, because we’re imitating Jesus, who also prayed alone, prayed with and for other people.

We who are charged with looking for candidates for Bishop Coadjutor for the Diocese of Long Island also pray. We’ve done a lot of praying about making choices and organizing this search process. Now our committees are together and we’re going about our business, doing the best we can, when we can. We always pray before our meetings. I’m sure many of us pray while the meetings go on.

However, we have something we want to ask of you. We want you to pray with us.

We all want a really good man or woman to be bishop: who will be coadjutor and then succeed our own Bishop Walker. God knows we want that. You might ask, "How can prayer help us in this search?" "How can prayer help us find and attract that really good woman or man?"

The same way prayer helps you, prayer can help us to see clearly, to see reality. Reality, after all, is where God lives! So we on your Search and Transition and Joint Oversight Committees ask you to help us pray for sight and reason and passion in doing the next right thing to bring this search to fulfillment in God’s Good Time. We are also providing links for some prayers in our Book of Common Prayer specifically written for this important occasion. However, please feel free to pray as you wish for the above are here to assist, and not to dictate. If you pray with us and we with you, then we can all rest easy because our success in calling the next Bishop CoAdjutor for this Diocese will be assured!

Click here for Prayers from the Book of Common Prayer

Click here for Prayers for the Bishop Coadjutor Search

Click here for Prayer Cards that you can download.

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