By The Rev. Claire Dietrich Ranna,
Christ Episcopal Church Los Altos, CA
Her words:
I was invited to give the opening invocation today for a meeting of the Santa Clara County Board of Supervisors (via Zoom). It was a first, and for some reason what came to me was essentially a poem. I'm including it and my opening comments here ...
As an Episcopal priest, I am accustomed to praying in the name of a gracious and loving God, or in the strong name of the Trinity. But as the wife of a Muslim immigrant, the step daughter of a Jewish academic, the sister in law of a Buddhist woman of color, immersed in a wider network of family and friends of many faiths and no faith at all, I’m also accustomed to sending light and love, to holding those in pain with intention, to simply stating a hope or a word of kindness and calling it sacred. So as I sat down to write this invocation, I was reminded of the diversity of the people you serve, the great and beautiful and complicated mass of perspectives and hopes and faiths and needs and longings they hold, and instead of praying in the name of God today, I’ve decided to pray in the name of them.
Let’s begin with a moment of silence.
In the name of the holy, of love, and of peace;
In the name of the lost, the lonely, the least;
In the name of the anxious, uncertain, and scared;
In the name of the name of the desperate, and all those who dared;
In the name of the faithful, the angry, the ill;
In the name of the hungry, those eating their fill;
In the name of the refugee, native, and lost;
In the name of the doctor, weighing the cost;
In the name of those building, creating, inventing;
In the name of the cashier, the addict, repenting;
In the name of our children and our elders, too;
In the name of executives, the unsheltered, and you;
In the name of this earth, which we steward with care;
In the name of the boring and those with some flair;
In the name of the citizen, resident, stranger;
In the name of all those who live lives filled with danger;
In the name of the educated, the queer, and the cold;
In the name of the shy ones and those who are bold;
In the name of real people, so messy and glorious;
In the name of hilarious, heartbreaking, uproarious;
In the name of those hoping, and all those despairing;
In the name of those who find it hard to keep caring;
In the name of the people you understand and respect;
In the name of all those to whom you’d object;
In the name of the sick, the thriving, the dying;
In the name of the grieving, the struggling, the trying.;
In the name of all those you have been called to serve;
May you connect with your values and summon your nerve;
May you breathe this sweet air and feel it a gift;
May you be rooted and present, no longer adrift;
May you do the courageous, if challenging, thing;
In awe of the opportunity every day brings;
May you open your hearts and your minds to the true;
To beauty, and justice, which make all things new;
May the work that is set before you this day;
Connect with your purpose, your passion, your way;
May you lead and yet listen, being held in a love;
That is sacred and timeless, perhaps from a above;
Perhaps from below, perhaps from within;
Still a power that turns us from strangers to kin;
May grace and wisdom be yours in the work of this hour;
May your discernment be thoughtful, your decisions empowered;
May you remember what is at the heart of your call;
To see, hear, and turn toward these, one and all.
Amen.
(The cadence of this is definitely informed by a project I'm working on at Ventana School based on the children's book, "We Give Thanks," by Cynthia Rylant, and I'm sure somewhere in the recesses of my mind the first part was inspired by Padraig O'Tauma's gorgeous poem, "In the Name." Highly recommend.)
Shared by Judith Mayotte
4 February 2022