Bloggerlife.blog

07/13/2025

Today’s blog

Lynn Murphy Mark

Sharing a prayer

In February of this year Jan and I joined Parkway United Church of Christ. It is a congregation that is welcoming and progressive. There are many initiatives for social justice activities. It is an open and affirming church, one of more than 1,800 churches and other ministries in the United Church of Christ that welcome LGBTQ+ souls. According to the ONA website, there are more that 350,000 members of this UCC group.

All of the month of June there were pride flags displayed at the front of the church. There was no mistaking the message. All are welcome here. Because of that, our church is the recipient of emails and other communications disparaging our stand on this human right. Our minister read a portion of an email last Sunday. The email stated in very strong terms that by showing our support of LGBTQ+ people, we are offending some in the community who do not agree with our position. Apparently it is this kind of communication that led to us needing a uniformed police officer to patrol church during our service. Sad but true. The officer starts today.

Earlier this week I had a meeting with our minister, Kevin. I have told him about being a Unity prayer chaplain, and how I miss those opportunities to pray out loud with others. He told me there used to be a prayer ministry loosely organized and featuring members of the congregation who volunteered to pray with others at church. Like so many things that disappeared during the COVID pandemic, this ministry died off and has never been reinstated. 

I asked him if I could talk to him about this volunteer opportunity to provide a small prayer program. We set a meeting to discuss how that might look. I shared some details about the role of a prayer chaplain in Unity congregations. I cautioned carefully that a big part of my training is based on material developed years ago by a Unity minister, material that cannot be used without infringing on copyright issues. The other caution? I told him that I would be a part of anything we create, but would not be in charge of anything other than sharing information about different ways to pray.

Growing up there was very little emphasis on or attention paid to the power of prayer. The first prayer I learned was that terrifying little ditty about laying down to sleep and what might happen if I would die before I woke up. That turned me sour on prayer in general. Then I learned that praying was all about asking God to step in on all kinds of situations, sort out a problem, send money, get me a job, and help the starving children in Africa. In other words, I was a supplicant, reaching to a distant God who was overwhelmingly busy and not likely to get my spiritual voicemail.

Unity has a very different understanding of God’s true location. All living things have a spark of God in us, a God that uses love to power us and the universe. As Jesus said, the Kingdom of God lies within. Along with that comes a series of spiritual powers we all possess. In Unity, we work to recognize those inner strengths and use them to live our best life. 

The best lesson I learned during my 13 years as a Unity congregant was how to pray in an affirmative manner. Charles Fillmore, the co-founder of Unity wrote this about prayer:

“Prayer is more than supplication. It is an affirmation of Truth that eternally exists, but which has not yet come into consciousness. It comes into consciousness not by supplication but by affirmation.” As I talked more about affirmative prayer, Kevin’s eyes lit up. The thought of praying with people and encouraging them to use the strengths within appealed to him. 

In this mode of prayer, rather than petition God for a specific outcome, we pray that the congregant will find the ability to go within, looking for inner strengths and the truth of God’s infinite love and presence. We can pray that there will be a transformation of fear and doubt into peace and confidence. We can keep learning that we meet God inside ourselves when we pray. “Positive prayer is the way to form a permanent attitude of mind that reflects the eternal, benevolent action of God so that we may truly express our nature as children of God, created in God’s image to express God’s likeness here on earth.” (Hypatia Hasbrouck, author of “Handbook of Positive Prayer”.)

Later in this month, Kevin and I will present the congregation with the idea of a prayer ministry. Then, in August I will stay after service to pray with anyone who comes forward. All I know is this: more will be revealed.