Please Pray - David@Montreal

dear Giants
i'd ask your prayers for Johnnie & Vaughan
Johnnie is a post-graduate student in ministry who has had to put aside his academic year to look after Vaughan his beloved spouse who has been diagnosed with a particularly aggressive cancer.
Johnnie and Vaughan are a truly beautiful couple and were married in the United Church of Canada just a year ago by Rev. Arlan Bonner.

i'd also ask your prayers for the successful realization of public health coverage in the United States. for the safety and protection of all those who speak truth to power, speak truth to insanity, speak truth to greed and fear.

prayers for the American Church, that those who have been able to afford vacations will return refreshed and ready to lovingly support those in reduced & frightening circumstances, and that together they will be open to the wondrous work the Holy Spirit is working in their province, that together they will take strength & comfort from the post- Anaheim realities for God' larger Church.

I'd also ask prayers for Terry & Demi, and all those personally impacted by the drastic budget cuts in the American Church.

(Yes, I'm still Canadian, and gratefully so, but the prophetic place the Episcopal Church finds itself in right now has been much on my heart)

and lastly a Mary Oliver poem which was waiting for me when I returned home fromr a lovely evening, a wonderful meal and fellowship and a viewing of' Susan & Louise's 'Claiming the Blessing.' (at long last!)


From Thirst - by Mary Oliver

Another morning and I wake up with thirst
for the goodness I do not have. I walk
out to the pond and all the way God has
given us such beautiful lessons. Oh Lord, I
was never a quick scholar but sulked
and hunched over my books past the
hour and the bell; grant me, in your
mercy, a little more time. Love for the
earth and love for you are having such a
long conversation in my heart. Who
knows what will finally happen or
where I will be sent, yet already I have
given a great many things away, expect-
ing to be told to pack nothing, except the
prayers which, with this thirst, I am
slowly learning.

(emphasis, mine)

David@Montreal