praying for south carolina

I’m crashing into bed but had thought, seemingly randomly, to myself three days ago how grateful I am to be out of TEC. We’re wildly busy and I don’t ever think about it, except sometimes to pray for local TEC congregations and KJS. But after the Wall Street Journal article and the unfettered exuberance of Good Shepherd on an ordinary Sunday morning, I was just really grateful again, the other day, to be on the other side of such a continuing mess. It is so like a messy and painful divorce–a little space and time brings so much calm and space to pray and reflect and heal.

So I am really grieved, as I pray for Episcopalians all across South Carolina–just reading about it brings that nasty sick feeling in the gut–but also really hopeful. God is going to do something remarkable, I’m sure, multiplied over and over by every person in the diocese, every congregation, every priest, and certainly in Bishop Lawrence as he steers his people through the storm. I pray a steady hand for him and all his clergy. I pray for clear vision and hope. I pray for courage. I pray they will stand firm.