40 Días de Oración

Dr. Stephen D. Jones, Co-pastor, First Baptist Church, Kansas City, MO, Member, Gamaliel affiliate, MORE2   One challenge of an interfaith movement is how to state our faith in ways that do not offend others of different traditions.  We certainly need to remain true as to our faith.  Yet, can we speak in ways that…

Rev. Dr. Ray Pickett, Rector, Pacific Lutheran Theological Seminary; President, Gamaliel affiliate, Genesis, Oakland, CA   COVID-19 has disrupted our lives and posed enormous economic, social, and spiritual challenges.  After seven months of sheltering-in-place, what I am longing for is face-to-face connection with other people.  The Greek word for “righteousness” from Jesus’ Beatitude is actually…

Reirin Gumbel, Resident Priest of the Milwaukee Zen Center, Member of Gamaliel affiliate, MICAH Peace Statement from a Buddhist Perspective Understanding the true nature of reality, we realize that all beings are interdependent. We cannot afford petty fights for dominance any longer, but have to recognize the dangers that threaten all of us. We must…

Rev. Charles Baugh, Pastor, Waters AME Church, Baltimore, MD; Co-chair, BRIDGE Religious Leaders’ Caucus; Member, Gamaliel National Religious Leaders’ Caucus Steering Committee To the One that is all knowing, seeing and ever present. We come in need of a healing of the very souls of our community. Hundreds of years of divisive ideology has caused…

Janan Najeeb, a founder and president of the Milwaukee Muslim Women’s Coalition and publisher of the Wisconsin Muslim Journal   In the Name of God, The Source of All Mercy, The Dispenser of Grace We pray for healing in our fractured and polarized country and world.  We pray for compassionate and humble hearts, the strength…

Anahkwet (Guy Reiter) is the director of Menikanaehkem (“Community Rebuilders”) organization on the Menominee Indian Reservation in Wisconsin.  Menikanaehkem is dedicated to preserving the Meonominee language, culture and spirituality, and to defending the rights of Nature and all who depend on her for life.   As I look out my window, I reflect on how…

Ben Ramirez, Leader of Gamaliel affiliate, Asamblea de Derechos Civiles, Minnesota    We stand at a precipice of impending doom and falling back into the dark annals of history. The state of Indiana in 1907 passed the world’s first Eugenics Law followed by 31 other states.  Sixty thousand people were sterilized by force, compulsory and…

Rev. Tex Sample, Pastor, Trinity United Methodist Church, Kansas City, MO, Robert B. And Kathleen Rogers Professor Emeritus of Church and Society, Saint Paul School of Theology, and Member of Gamaliel affiliate, MORE2   Gracious God of sovereign love, we give you thanks for the gift of this creation; for the blessings of earth, water,…

Rev. Dr. Heather Entrekin, Retired Pastor and Seminary Professor, Saline, MI   At a national Baptist meeting on racial justice, the speaker asked audience members to share a first memory of racism with someone they did not know.  I am white and 70.  I turned to the African American woman about my age sitting behind…

Rev. Cherisna Jean-Marie, Director of Racial Justice Ministries, Scarritt-Bennett Center, Nashville, TN   I am exhausted.  Scared.  Angry.  Overwhelmed.  Anxious about the future.  I sit in uncertainty about life because I’ve seen death too much in such a short period of time.  This outcry for justice comes from a deep place within.  And it is…