How It Should Be

This morning I was part of one of the most powerful public prayer gatherings I have ever seen. Today is the National Day of Prayer and I was at the Mayor’s Prayer Breakfast in Manchester, CT hosted by the Manchester Area Conference of Churches (MACC). The event took place at MACC’s homeless shelter and community soup kitchen.

I normally hate (and avoid) anything that feels like “civil religion”. I have no patience for “faux spirituality” and public religiosity. I am also a big proponent of the separation of church and state, mostly because I believe when that separation falls, the church’s mission suffers.

But today was something special. Almost 80 of us gathered in the soup kitchen to pray… the mayor, several former mayors, other town officials, clergy, MACC staff, local citizens, teenagers, and homeless folks from the shelter. And we gathered to pray.

There was no politics nor posturing nor anything perfunctory.

Just prayer. 

One of the things we prayed through was Psalm 121:

¹ I lift up my eyes to the hills—
       where does my help come from?

 ² My help comes from the LORD, 
       the Maker of heaven and earth.

 ³ He will not let your foot slip— 
       he who watches over you will not slumber;

 ⁴ indeed, he who watches over Israel 
       will neither slumber nor sleep.

 ⁵ The LORD watches over you— 
       the LORD is your shade at your right hand;

 ⁶ the sun will not harm you by day, 
       nor the moon by night.

 ⁷ The LORD will keep you from all harm— 
       he will watch over your life;

 ⁸ the LORD will watch over your coming and going 
       both now and forevermore.

It was powerful and brought focus to our time together.

But the most powerful part to me was to see who had gathered together. How often do you see mayor’s and business executives praying with (not just for) homeless people and teenagers?

Not often.

And it wasn’t awkward or forced or artificial.

We just gathered together to pray.

And it was great!