wfn.org | Episcopal woman and prayers

[Daphne Mack <dmack@dfms.org>]

For more information contact:
Kathryn McCormick
Episcopal News Service
kmccormick@dfms.org
212/922-5383
http://www.ecusa.anglican.org/ens

99-065
Episcopal women are asked to share their prayers
by Kathryn McCormick
(ENS) Are there some Episcopal women who know a good prayer for a
child's first day at school? A litany for the healing of physical abuse?
A meditation for a displaced homemaker? There is room for all of these
prayers  in a new project launched in April by the church's Council for
Women's Ministries.

These kinds of prayers, and many more, will be collected in a book of
inclusive prayers for women that will make its first appearance at next
year's General Convention in Denver.

"It's such an exciting project," said Ann Smith, director of Women in
Mission and Ministry. "Women's prayers are like women's stories; they
are sometimes reluctant to share them, but when they do they resonate
with other women's experiences."

Smith and Elizabeth Geitz, an Episcopal priest and author of
Entertaining Angels, Soul Satisfaction and Gender and the Nicene Creed,
already have sent out the first requests for submissions to the project
and have counted a few early replies.

The idea for the project came from an ecumenical women's book of prayers
distributed at the World Council of Churches' Decade Festival last
December in Harare, Zimbabwe. Called Sing Out New Visions: Prayers,
Poems and Reflections by Women, the book was produced for the Justice
for Women Working Group of the National Council of Churches by the
Commission for Women of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America,
aided by grants from the Lutheran Brotherhood Foundation and the United
Methodist Church.
Speaking to God in prayer
A book by Episcopal women became a focus of discussion at a meeting last
winter of presidents and chairs of Episcopal women's organizations,
Smith and Geitz explained.

"Our intent is twofold," Geitz said in a letter to be distributed to
women throughout the church. "First, to lift up the ways women speak to
God in prayer, and in so doing, to reveal ourselves to one another and
to the church at large.

"Second, to help those women in our society who are victims of violence
by donating all profits to the Episcopal Women's Foundation."

The money received will be given to programs and projects that address
the issue of violence against women and girls, she said. "This dual
nature of the project ignites our imagination and satisfies our soul as
we reach out to those women in our society most in need of the tender
touch of God's love," she added.

Geitz said she, Smith and Marge Burke, chair of the Committee on the
Status of Women, are seeking a variety of prayers written in inclusive
language-collects, psalms, litanies, mantras, guided imageries, poems,
meditations, rituals, graces, blessings, personal and corporate prayers,
as well as prayers for specific people, occasions and issues. The
overall theme will be prayers for a woman's life cycle.

Some of the topics might include women's friendships, relationships,
menstruation, pregnancy, childbirth, miscarriage, menopause, suffering,
comfort, healing of all kinds of abuse, separation, divorce, remarriage
and death.

In addition, they suggest, there could be prayers for unsafe
neighborhoods, for pregnant teenagers, for widows, for women who pave
the way, for lesbians, for women in the workplace, for caregivers, for
the acceptance of change, for affirmation, or for nearly any subject a
woman may feel is important.
Looking for ideas
Smith said that diocesan contacts, leaders of groups and persons in
church networks would be asked to help coordinate submissions, which
will be sent to Marge Burke, 120 Simonds Road, Lexington, MA 02173. All
submissions must be double-space and typed.

The deadline for submissions to collectors across the church is June 15.
The designated collectors of the material will do an initial screening.
Their final deadline is August 15-a firm date, Smith said, because the
book's production demands will prevent any later cutoff time. An
editorial board will review the prayers for inclusion in the book.

"I hope that people will see this as a confirmation of their own prayer
life," she said, "that they can see that 'My prayers count, my prayers
are good, too.' There's often a tendency to leave all that to people who
are theologically trained."

She added, "It also gets at the idea that prayer is just for Sundays and
in a church. Religion isn't just on Sunday, it's a way of life."
--Kathryn McCormick is associate director of the Office of News and
Information of the Episcopal Church.