40-Day Lenten Prayer & Fasting Guide

Skinner Leadership Institute, Sojourners, Center on Faith + Justice, and NCC have collaborated to create a 40-Day Lenten Prayer & Fasting Guide with the talents of Zina C. Pierre, author, and Leonitha Francis, designer. This comprehensive resource can be downloaded via NCC’s website, using this link. Download 40-Day Lenten Fast & Prayer Guide

Follow the National Council of Churches @nccusa on Our Social Media Platforms to Receive Daily Bible Readings and Updates on the Work of NCC. Now on BlueSky and Threads! If you find our newsletter informative, please forward it to friends and colleagues!    To subscribe to our weekly newsletter, sign up here. Your gifts help us build a more just and equitable community that chooses grace over greed, love over hate, and faith over fear. NCC Needs Your Support! Click Here to Donate

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NCC Christian Unity Gathering: Worship with Us!

The 2021 Christian Unity Gathering (CUG) Closing Worship Service will be held on Tuesday, October 12, 2021, 7 p.m. ET. On the final day of our Christian Unity Gathering, we will worship together virtually around the theme, "In New Wineskins: From Pandemics to Possibilities to Promises" to affirm our commitment to each other and offer hope. Join us for prayers, scripture readings, uplifting music, and an inspirational sermon.  Preacher: Rev. Dr. John Dorhauer, General Minister & President, United Church of Christ, National Ministries, Chair, NCC Governing Board, will deliver the sermon. "New wine is coming!"  Gospel: Luke 5:33-39  Sacred Music will include “Amazing Grace” sung by the National Council of Churches Ecumenical Choir; and "Spirit Break Out,” “Hallelujah, You’ve Won the Victory” and “Center of My Joy” by Dr. Melanie Hill, Violinist.  --- There is still time to register and attend the Christian Unity Gathering! Monday, October 11 and Tuesday, October 12, 2021   For all the details about the Christian Unity Gathering including presentations, sessions, panelists, and speakers, visit the NCC website.

The virtual event is free on the Whova platform. If you would like to attend, please register, then you can sign in on the website using your laptop or computer, or you can download the app for your phone or tablet. The event is free however, attendees must register through the Whova event platform.

Words of Comfort and Prayers for the People

As we grieve the milestone of over 500,000 deaths due to COVID-19 in the United States, we hope our prayer service, “Words of Comfort, Prayers for the People,” helps to sustain and encourage you during this time of mourning and continued struggle due to the pandemic.

We invite you to add your own prayer in the comments for the video or share your prayer on social media using #ATIME2MOURN.

PRAYER SERVICE PROGRAM

WELCOME -Mr. Jim Winkler, NCC President and General Secretary
FOR THOSE WHO HAVE DIED AND THEIR LOVED ONES - Bishop Teresa Jefferson-Snorton, Presiding Bishop of the Fifth Episcopal District, Christian Methodist Episcopal Church; NCC Governing Board Vice-Chair
STILLNESS AND SILENCE - Ms. Christie Duncan-Tessmer, General Secretary, Religious Society of Friends, Philadelphia Yearly Meeting
LAMENTING THE SEASON - Rev. Dr. John C. Dorhauer, General Minister and President, United Church of Christ; NCC Governing Board Chair
FOR THOSE WHO ARE SICK - Rev. Dr. Michael Livingston, PC (USA) Presbyterian Minister; Interim Senior Minister, Riverside Church, New York, NY
FOR THOSE SUFFERING AROUND THE WORLD HOUSE - Rev. Dr. Gina M. Stewart, First Vice President, Lott Carey; Senior Pastor, Christ Missionary Baptist Church
FOR FIRST RESPONDERS AND ESSENTIAL WORKERS - Rev. Dr. Miriam Burnett, M.D., Senior Pastor, Historic Jones Tabernacle, African Methodist Episcopal Church
FOR THOSE STRUGGLING WITH ECONOMIC LOSS - Rev. Dr. Marilyn Pagán-Banks, Senior Pastor of San Lucas United Church of Christ; Executive Director of A Just Harvest, in Chicago, IL
FOR COMFORT - Rev. Paul Tche, President, Council on Christian Unity; Christian Church (Disciples of Christ)
FOR COMMUNITIES OF FAITH SEARCHING FOR WHOLENESS - Rev. Dr. Peter Baktis, Orthodox Church in America
FOR SUCCESSFUL AND EQUITABLE VACCINE DISTRIBUTION - Dr. Barbara Williams-Skinner, CEO, Skinner Leadership Institute, Co-Convener of the National African American Clergy Network
WORDS OF HOPE - Dr. Reshma Phillips, Public Health Advisor; Mar Thoma Church
CLOSING - Rev. Dr. Leslie Copeland Tune, NCC Chief Operating Officer

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Watch "Words of Comfort, Prayers for the People" on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/nationalcouncilofchurches/videos/432261507992839

Watch "Words of Comfort, Prayers for the People" on YouTube: https://youtu.be/LqDxc15uOQU

Uniting Prayer and Action

Even as our world continues to wrestle with the ramifications of COVID-19 and the economic crisis, we are bombarded with acts of escalating racism. As people of faith we must ACT NOW to end racism— action that is accompanied by prayer for guidance, healing, and protection. These posts are offered to unite our actions and our prayers for the sake of God’s justice. The Call of Wisdom (Proverbs 1, selected verses, NRSV) The Scripture reading is drawn from Sunday’s lesson in the Uniform Lessons Series, ©Summer 2020. 1 The proverbs of Solomon son of David, king of Israel: 2 For learning about wisdom and instruction, for understanding words of insight, 3 for gaining instruction in wise dealing, righteousness, justice, and equity; 4 to teach shrewdness to the simple, knowledge and prudence to the young— 5 let the wise also hear and gain in learning, and the discerning acquire skill 7 The fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge; fools despise wisdom and instruction. 8 Hear, my child, your father’s instruction, and do not reject your mother’s teaching; 10 My child, if sinners entice you, do not consent. 20 Wisdom cries out in the street; in the squares she raises her voice. 21 At the busiest corner she cries out; at the entrance of the city gates she speaks: 22 “How long, O simple ones, will you love being simple? How long will scoffers delight in their scoffing and fools hate knowledge? 32 For waywardness kills the simple, and the complacency of fools destroys them; 33 but those who listen to me will be secure and will live at ease, without dread of disaster.” Prayer of Confession Today’s prayer by Jim Winkler is taken from United Against Racism, ©New York: Friendship Press, 2018, p. 39. The book can be purchased through NCC's publishing arm Friendship Press on their website at store.friendship-press.org. We confess to you once again that we have not loved you with our whole hearts nor with all our minds. Neither have we loved our neighbors as much we love ourselves and those who look like us. Rather, we have divided ourselves based on false distinctions of skin color and systematized those differences to permit lighter hued peoples to exploit those with a darker hue. This is sin. We know that with your forgiveness comes the responsibility to forego privileges based on lies, theft, cruelty, murder, and slavery. Give to those who benefit from systemic sin the strength and resolve to make atonement, to rectify injustice, and to walk humbly alongside you. Release the privileged from the imprisonment of false stereotypes. Grant them vision to see their sisters and brothers as your children and not as “others.” Give to those who benefit from white privilege the courage to renounce their entitlement and to accept that God’s justice requires not only societal change but alternations in the lives of each person. Make us instruments of truth and transformation. It is to you we turn for renewal. It is to you we turn for restoration. Lead us to the hour when we will end racism and heal the nation. May you, O God, our God, bless the houses of worship of our land that they work together to build the beloved community. Amen. You can follow our daily readings, prayers, and meditations on our website at http://nationalcouncilofchurches.us/topics/daily/.  Be safe, healthy, and blessed during this time.

NCC NOW is a periodic, timely email with brief updates and news from the National Council of Churches. Serving as a leading voice of witness to the living Christ in the public square since 1950,  the National Council of Churches of Christ in the USA (NCC) brings together 38 member communions  and more than 40 million Christians in a common expression of God's love and promise of unity.  http://nationalcouncilofchurches.us

WCC NEWS: USA churches offer “A Time to Mourn" as COVID-19 deaths near 100,000

As the names of thousands of loved ones scrolled across their computer screens, many in the USA paused to mourn as the nation observed Memorial Day weekend. On 24 May, the National Council of Churches (USA) hosted “A Time to Mourn,” an online ecumenical memorial service for lives lost to COVID-19.

Rev. Dr. Leslie Copeland-Tune, the council’s chief operating officer and minister of Congregational Life for Clifton Park Baptist Church in Maryland, expressed gratitude for the opportunity to come together.

“Faith leaders from across the country and from a broad spectrum of Christian traditions are participating in this service, but we are doing it online to try to remain safe and healthy,” she said. “We know that, in all things, Jesus bears our burdens and we do not bear them alone.”

Being severely limited in the ability to gather makes grief even more painful, reflected Jim Winkler, the council’s president and general secretary.

“Traditional funerals are not available to us,” said Winkler. “Therefore, today the ecumenical community holds this online memorial service for the more than 300,000 people worldwide who have lost their lives to COIVD-19,” said Winkler. “We do not know when this plague will leave us or even if we will exercise the collective discipline to hold it at bay.”

In a sermon, presiding bishop of The Episcopal Church, Rev. Michael Curry, reflected that, while coping with death is not easy for anyone, grieving in these times is even more difficult because we must remain physically distant from each other.

“Because in times like this we need to hold each other up,” said Curry. “Those who have died during this time, many have not had the comfort of having family and loved ones around them.”

And many people have not been able to bury their dead, he said. “Families have not been able to gather in the same way,” Curry said. “There is sadness, there is grief, there is mourning, there is hardship.”

Archbishop Dr Vicken Aykazian, World Council of Churches (WCC) Central Committee member and a legate of the Armenian Apostolic Church, offered a prayer, asking people to reach out with love and mercy to each other.

“All over the world, parents hold dying children, children tearfully bury parents, brothers and sisters are lost to eternity,” he said. “Friends and neighbors mourn.”

Our global family is sharing a grief that is both overwhelming and consuming, Aykazian said. “Humbly and with a heavy heart, I stand before you searching for words that will bring a sense and comfort in this time of anguish,” he said. “We all feel helpless but this is a time we must look to our Lord for his intervention.”

He urged people to play for an end to the deadly scourge. “Today I urge we pray for families and friends who mourn the loss of loved ones,” he said. “Today I urge we pray for those first responders, many of whom have given the ultimate sacrifice of their own lives.”

And pray for each other, Aykazian said. “We are brothers and sisters in this global community and must reach out with love and mercy.”

Bishop Teresa Jefferson- Snorton of the Christian Methodist Episcopal Church, who also serves on the WCC Central Committee, prayed for those whose hearts are breaking. “We especially pray for those who are mourning during COVID-19 because our rituals and traditions have been radically altered,” said said. “For those who today live with uncertainty because they cannot see loved ones or they don't know what tomorrow brings, we pray for them as well.”

Link to NCCCUSA

The World Council of Churches promotes Christian unity in faith, witness and service for a just and peaceful world. An ecumenical fellowship of churches founded in 1948, today the WCC brings together 350 Protestant, Orthodox, Anglican and other churches representing more than 550 million Christians in over 120 countries, and works cooperatively with the Roman Catholic Church. The WCC acting general secretary is Rev. Prof. Dr Ioan Sauca, from the Orthodox Church in Romania.

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Daily Prayers and Scriptures: Sunday, May 24

As we enter the seventh week of Easter, countries around the world implement diverse reopening strategies after COVID-19 shut-downs. Even in these uncertain times, we rely on the stability of our faith and find sustenance in joining together for prayer, spiritual reflection, and a reading of God’s word. Do you know someone that would benefit from these emails?  Please forward this link to friends, family, and your church. Sunday, Seventh Week of Easter Repent of Injustice (Jeremiah 22:1-10, NRSV) The Home Daily Bible Readings for Monday through Saturday are selected in support of the print passage for Sunday’s lesson in the Uniform Lessons Series, ©Spring 2020. 22:1 Thus says the Lord: Go down to the house of the king of Judah, and speak there this word, 2 and say: Hear the word of the Lord, O King of Judah sitting on the throne of David—you, and your servants, and your people who enter these gates. 3 Thus says the Lord: Act with justice and righteousness, and deliver from the hand of the oppressor anyone who has been robbed. And do no wrong or violence to the alien, the orphan, and the widow, or shed innocent blood in this place. 4 For if you will indeed obey this word, then through the gates of this house shall enter kings who sit on the throne of David, riding in chariots and on horses, they, and their servants, and their people. 5 But if you will not heed these words, I swear by myself, says the Lord, that this house shall become a desolation. 6 For thus says the Lord concerning the house of the king of Judah: You are like Gilead to me, like the summit of Lebanon; but I swear that I will make you a desert, an uninhabited city.[a] 7 I will prepare destroyers against you, all with their weapons; they shall cut down your choicest cedars and cast them into the fire. 8 And many nations will pass by this city, and all of them will say one to another, “Why has the Lord dealt in this way with that great city?” 9 And they will answer, “Because they abandoned the covenant of the Lord their God, and worshiped other gods and served them.” 10 Do not weep for him who is dead, nor bemoan him; weep rather for him who goes away, for he shall return no more to see his native land. The 72 Return (Luke 10:17-24, NRSV) Today’s Gospel lesson is selected from the Book of Common Worship: Daily Prayer (Louisville, KY:Westminster/John Knox, 1993). 10:17 The seventy returned with joy, saying, “Lord, in your name even the demons submit to us!” 18 He said to them, “I watched Satan fall from heaven like a flash of lightning. 19 See, I have given you authority to tread on snakes and scorpions, and over all the power of the enemy; and nothing will hurt you. 20 Nevertheless, do not rejoice at this, that the spirits submit to you, but rejoice that your names are written in heaven.” 21 At that same hour Jesus rejoiced in the Holy Spirit and said, “I thank you, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, because you have hidden these things from the wise and the intelligent and have revealed them to infants; yes, Father, for such was your gracious will. 22 All things have been handed over to me by my Father; and no one knows who the Son is except the Father, or who the Father is except the Son and anyone to whom the Son chooses to reveal him.” 23 Then turning to the disciples, Jesus said to them privately, “Blessed are the eyes that see what you see! 24 For I tell you that many prophets and kings desired to see what you see, but did not see it, and to hear what you hear, but did not hear it.” Show Us, Lord Submitted by Rev. Steven D. Martin, United Methodist Clergy, Director of Communications and Development, National Council of ChurchesMost gracious God, we come to you with mixed emotions today.  While we are relieved that many are able to return to activities and gatherings that they love, we mourn the loss of nearly 100,000 precious lives to COVID-19.  While many are returning to worship services today, many are not because of the danger of contracting this disease.  For those of us who live lives of privilege, breathe Your Spirit into us and show us what the poor already know, that each day is a gift from You and You alone.  For those of us who live on the razor's edge each day, give us life and hope during this most uncertain of times.   Be with us as we come together tonight to worship you and mourn the loss of so many lives during this pandemic.  It is in your holy and precious name we pray, Amen. Want to know how these emails are created? Click here to find out more. You can follow our daily readings, prayers, and meditations on our website at http://nationalcouncilofchurches.us/topics/daily/.  Be safe, healthy, and blessed during this time.

Serving as a leading voice of witness to the living Christ in the public square since 1950,  the National Council of Churches of Christ in the USA (NCC) brings together 38 member communions  and more than 40 million Christians in a common expression of God's love and promise of unity.  http://nationalcouncilofchurches.us

A Time to Mourn: An Ecumenical Memorial Service for Lives Lost to COVID19

A Time to Mourn:  An Ecumenical Memorial Service for Lives Lost to COVID19 Online Sunday, May 24 at 6 p.m The National Council of Churches USA invites you to join us for a very special virtual memorial service on Sunday, May 24 at 6 p.m. to honor and remember those who have died from COVID-19. The service, “A Time to Mourn: An Ecumenical Memorial Service for the Lives Lost to COVID-19,” will broadcast on YouTube and Facebook Live. Register to receive the latest updates. Several Christian denominational leaders will be a part of this service, where we will scroll the names we’ve collected of those who have died from COVID-19, including, among others: Rev. Dr. John Dorhauer, NCC Chair & President and General Minister, United Church of Christ Bishop Michael B. Curry, Presiding Bishop, The Episcopal Church Archbishop Vicken Aykazian, Armenian Orthodox Church Bishop Elizabeth Eaton, Presiding Bishop of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America Rev. Eddy Aleman, General Secretary, Reformed Church in America Rev. Dr. Teresa Hord Owens, President and General Minister, Christian Church (Disciples of Christ) Rev. Dr. W. Franklyn Richardson, Chair, Conference of National Black Churches Bishop Teresa Jefferson-Snorton, NCC Vice-Chair and Presiding Prelate, Fifth District, Christian Methodist Episcopal Church Bishop Minerva Carcaño, California-Nevada Conference, United Methodist Church Father Nicholas Kazarian, Greek Orthodox Church Bishop W. Darin Moore, NCC Immediate Past Chair & Bishop, Mid-Atlantic District, African Methodist Episcopal Zion Church (AMEZ) The service will include prayers, scripture readings in multiple languages, a moment of silence, inspirational music and a sermonic reflection. To include the name of a loved one who lost their life to this horrific disease, please click here. The novel coronavirus/COVID-19 has resulted in the loss of tens of thousands of lives. Shelter-in-place orders and restrictions on gathering have made it difficult for us to weep and mourn together. Yet, our nation is in mourning. We are mourning. Now is the time for us to collectively mourn and grieve together, even as we acknowledge that the death toll continues to rise. In this moment, as we consider the words of Ecclesiastes (3:1, 4), “For everything there is a season, and a time for every matter under heaven…a time to weep, and a time to laugh, a time to mourn, and a time to dance…” we set aside this time during the Memorial Day weekend to gather virtually and to weep and mourn together. We hope you will be a part of this special Ecumenical Memorial Service and please invite your family members and friends to join us as well. You may register here. We look forward to our time of remembering, mourning, and celebrating the lives of loved ones. Register for this memorial service via Eventbrite

NCC NOW is a periodic, timely email with brief updates and news from the National Council of Churches. Serving as a leading voice of witness to the living Christ in the public square since 1950,  the National Council of Churches of Christ in the USA (NCC) brings together 38 member communions  and more than 40 million Christians in a common expression of God's love and promise of unity.  http://nationalcouncilofchurches.us

Daily Prayers and Scriptures: Palm Sunday

During this time in which the whole world is dealing with the COVID-19 pandemic, we are posting Daily Bible Readings from the International Bible Lessons for Christian Teaching, Spring 2020, plus a meditation to help guide your prayers, for your inspiration and encouragement.  Do you know someone that would benefit from these emails?  Please forward this link to friends, family, and your church. Isaiah 42:1-9, NRSV 1 Here is my servant, whom I uphold, my chosen, in whom my soul delights; I have put my spirit upon him; he will bring forth justice to the nations. 2 He will not cry or lift up his voice, or make it heard in the street; 3 a bruised reed he will not break, and a dimly burning wick he will not quench; he will faithfully bring forth justice. 4 He will not grow faint or be crushed until he has established justice in the earth; and the coastlands wait for his teaching. 5 Thus says God, the Lord, who created the heavens and stretched them out, who spread out the earth and what comes from it, who gives breath to the people upon it and spirit to those who walk in it: 6 I am the Lord, I have called you in righteousness, I have taken you by the hand and kept you; I have given you as a covenant to the people, a light to the nations, 7 to open the eyes that are blind, to bring out the prisoners from the dungeon, from the prison those who sit in darkness. 8 I am the Lord, that is my name; my glory I give to no other, nor my praise to idols. 9 See, the former things have come to pass, and new things I now declare; before they spring forth, I tell you of them. Singing in a Strange Land By Bishop Teresa Jefferson-Snorton, Presiding Bishop, Fifth Episcopal District, The Christian Methodist Episcopal Church Focus Verses: Psalm 137:1-4 (NSRV) 1 By the rivers of Babylon— there we sat down and there we wept when we remembered Zion. 2 On the willows[a] there we hung up our harps. 3 For there our captors asked us for songs, and our tormentors asked for mirth, saying, “Sing us one of the songs of Zion!” 4 How could we sing the Lord’s song in a foreign land? Meditation The strange land of social distancing, isolation, shelter-in-place, and quarantine has leapt upon us with short notice. While many of us understood the threat of the coronavirus, few of us envisioned how radically we would have to change our day-to-day habits in response to it. We have never been here before. This new and strange land demands much from us from a simple refraining from hugging and greeting with affection, to being locked out from visiting sick and shut-in loved ones, to being unable to go to our normal jobs and work. How can we sing in such a strange land? This was the dilemma of the Israelites who found themselves in exile in Babylon, far from their homes in Jerusalem. They lamented and their laments grew more intense when their captors asked them to sing, to go about life as if nothing were happening. Their faith, and displays of it through song, were regarded an entertainment and a mere tool of the establishment to reinforce its authority over them. As we dwell in this strange land, where COVID-19 has become our captor, let us lament this destruction and devastation of human life and lives. But, let us also be aware that there will be those who ask us to pretend nothing is happening and attempt to use our faith to their benefits. However, let us not forget that there is still power in the Lord’s song. After raising the question, how can we sing, the Psalmist invokes memories of God’s everlasting presence. Let us sing, not for show nor for the delight of others, but because we know the power of the songs of Zion. These songs remind us of the promise that God would never leave us nor forsake us. These songs remind us that nothing can separate us from the love of God. These songs remind us that the whole world is still in God’s hands. Prayer God of all time and space, bless us this day to not forget your songs. Enable us to sing from the depths of our hearts, no matter where we are, because we know you are with us, even in this strange land. Amen. You can follow our daily readings, prayers, and meditations on our website at http://nationalcouncilofchurches.us/topics/daily/.  Be safe, healthy, and blessed during this time.

Serving as a leading voice of witness to the living Christ in the public square since 1950,  the National Council of Churches of Christ in the USA (NCC) brings together 38 member communions  and more than 40 million Christians in a common expression of God's love and promise of unity.  http://nationalcouncilofchurches.us