When children are young it seems to be a high compliment that they "play well with others." Too often church folk act childishly when it comes to getting along with those from other denominations and I always figure it reflects badly on us to a world looking for some signs that organized religion is still worthwhile.
Today about 100 Christians and leaders from local government (they may also be Christians!) are gathering for what is being called the Mayor's and Community Leaders Prayer Breakfast. Here is the explanation:
The purpose of the Mayor's and Community Leaders Prayer Breakfast is to invite
leaders to meet in the spirit of Jesus Christ in order to pray together. You are
invited to join other leaders of Clarington for breakfast and fellowship as we
pray for the leaders in our Business Community, Political Leaders, Police and
Emergency Services, Schools, Hospital and Churches.
Honestly, this is something evangelical churches are more inclined to do but I am a member of the Bowmanville Ministerial and support all efforts for ecumenical dialogue. This is the most active and collaborative ministerial I have been in through the years.
There are about fifteen St. Paul's folk who will attend and I trust it will be a positive event as we "pray well with others."
What do you think?
4 comments:
At first blush, this idea sounded very 'American' to me, but your point on ecumenical dialogue soon made more sense to me than my initial knee-jerk reaction.
I am at a loss for words!!
I think it is a great idea...
So often opposing groups are brought to the tables to talk about the problems, and their own point of view but to begin as people who share a common home, and a common spirit in Jesus, seems a progressive and concillatory starting place to find that spirit to work together for the good of our whole community.
This turned out to be a very positive event. Our speaker was effective and succinct. He emphasized integrity, so I'm not sure whether it was good or bad that a certain federal politician was not in attendance.
Then several people prayed for those who govern us, hospital and nursing care workers, first responders, others.
It was a reminder that while it is important to separate church and state in decision-making, leaders in various capacities are often people of faith who appreciate prayer. After all, Mayor Foster is married to a United Church minister and identifies as a Christian himself.
Our Charter of Rights and Freedoms protects the freedom of religious expression, and together we exercized that right. No government money was involved, no politician spoke.
Of course more than half our time together was spent just eating breakfast and schmoozing. Hardly a threat to democracy!
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