As we are in appointment-making season, Bishop Shelton has encouraged all of us to pray for the Cabinet, clergy and their families, and congregations. We will be sharing prayers over the next few weeks and encourage you to share them with your church.
Read the first prayer in the series written by Rev. Laura Wyant Wittman.
In this appointment-making season, we pray for our Cabinet and the leadership of our conference. We pray for their discernment and their wisdom, and we give thanks for the ways that they represent the clergy and their families as they make difficult decisions. We especially, pray for the children of our clergy. We know that for many children, the process of moving means leaving behind friends, transitioning schools, and adapting to new ways of life. We acknowledge that the children of our clergy have to face being part of new children’s ministries, new youth groups, new confirmation classes, and Sunday school classes, all while finding safe space to be vulnerable and have their needs heard.
So often, our children live in that proverbial glass bowl where so much of what they experience may be watched and commented on by people who may not always see the full picture. We pray for protection and for a safe space to be heard. We pray for their mental well-being and for the connectedness and shelter they find within their families.
As appointments are made and set, we pray for peace of mind, strength, and understanding. We give thanks for their ability to go and be sent to the places where their parents are being commissioned for service. Finally, we ask that as a fellowship of believers, we may all do our best to remember our connectionalism. Remind us to reach out to those clergy children that we know are struggling. May we serve as extra parents, grandparents, aunts, uncles, siblings, and cousins, doing our best to make them feel at home wherever they land. We ask all this in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. Amen.