It’s 5:08 p.m. – Pray for the Church
It shouldn’t startle me, but it always does. The loud crowing of a rooster each day ay 5:08 p.m. The alarm on my wife’s phone has the crowing sound set to go off each day at the same time to remind us to pray for the church. Though I am not always with her at eight minutes after five, a workday that typically has me working in the office from 8:30-4:30 with a mile commute home means I am often around for rooster’s always startling call. Sometimes we are at home talking about how our days went. Sometimes he catches us running errands. Sometimes the phone was left at the other end of our apartment and he won’t stop until one of us picks up the phone and dimisses the alarm. Each day, the rooster’s insistent crowing tells us once more that it is time for for us to pray for the the church to be roused to prayerful discernment and action.
Why 5:08? For Acts 8. Acts is the fifth book of the New Testament and then eight for the chapter in which the church responded to a culture hostile to the Gospel with greater faithfulness. In advance of this summer’s General Convention of The Episcopal Church, a move came about through three bloggers writing together about how we needed not to rush to responses with unintended consequences, but to make room for prayer, discernment, reflection on the scriptures. During the General Convention, interested people met to do just that, to join together in prayer for the church. The group referred to this as an Acts 8 Moment following the example of the church responding to the crisis created with the martyrdom of Stephen, one of the first deacons. What followed was Holy Spirit led with a church ready to be guided where the spirit was leading. I created a video in advance of the Convention to articulate this moment in the church’s life. Since then, my wife, Victoria, and I have remained involved, primarily through the Acts8Moment.org website. Part of this is praying every day for the church.
Praying changes the one who prays and I am finding the daily time of prayer for the Church to have the impact of keeping me focused on this Acts 8 Moment in a way I would not otherwise. I pray for inspiration. I pray for discernment. I pray for others to join us. I pray for us all to have the courage to go where the Holy Spirit will send us. I pray for the Church in expectancy. Each day when the rooster crows, I am reminded that we are in a moment pregnant with potential, and I hope for a Church up for being the Body of Christ to a lost and hurting world. In this, we are not alone. As shown in the video below, the same impulse within the United Methodist and Presbyterian Church and beyond. The Holy Spirit is moving. I am praying for this moment in the church’s life and I hope that you’ll join me.
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The Rev. Canon Frank Logue
Canon to the Ordinary
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