Freedom's Prayer

Most of my writing this summer has been in and out of an attention on the First Amendment and those stories that inform us regarding the special place "the church" occupies in our civil life.  As I said earlier our responsibility to speak as a church in that broader civil discourse is based on an authority derived by our constituent citizens/members, thanks to the First Amendment.

A disestablished church is only that.  It still gathers, instructs, invokes, comforts, counsels, feeds, trains and worships.  In our case, most of what was the Church OF England in the colonies remained and became the Protestant Episcopal Church in the United States of America.  Disestablished but reorganized and distinguished from its past of a Crown's endorsement and Parliament's direction.
Perhaps no denomination demonstrates more clearly the difference our First Amendment intends.

From the preface of the first BCP 1789:

But when in the course of Divine Providence, these American States became independent with respect to civil government, their ecclesiastical independence was necessarily included; and the different religious denominations of Christians in these States were left at full and equal liberty to model and organize their respective Churches, and forms of worship, and discipline, in such manner as they might judge most convenient for their future prosperity; consistently with the constitution and laws of their country. 

The attention of this Church was in the first place drawn to those alterations in the Liturgy which became necessary in the prayers for our Civil Rulers, in consequence of the Revolution. And the principal care herein was to make them conformable to what ought to be the proper end of all such prayers, namely, that “Rulers may have grace, wisdom, and understanding to execute justice, and to maintain truth;” and that the people “may lead quiet and peaceable lives, in all godliness and honesty.”

 It's a wonderful history and beginning and it echoes the hopes held before independence was won.  The end -- read intent -- of all prayer from the Church for its nation should be for those in authority, now held through election to "have grace, wisdom, and understanding to execute justice, and to maintain truth."

Given the contentions that drove colonists to rebel we should be mindful that the intent that the people “may lead quiet and peaceable lives, in all godliness and honesty” goes much deeper than those same aspirations might today.

But how deep those aspirations go is entirely up to us and it will not do for us to settle into our privileged comforts as long as there is poverty and suffering around us.  It is this very disestablishment that expects us all to speak toward our "governors" so their understanding can "execute justice and maintain truth."

Yes we do our part from our own godliness and honesty.  Think Panda Packs.  But our prayers are meant to be heard especially those for our "Civil Rulers."  Our prayers and our voices are meant to be heard especially when we see injustice twisting our commonwealth into classes of rich and poor or dishonesty sinking our government into parties of power and suppression.

Our current BCP provides an alternative to the proper Collect for Independence Day.  Maybe we can help it be heard:

Lord God Almighty, you have made all the peoples of the earth for your glory, to serve you in freedom and in peace: Give to the people of our country a zeal for justice and the strength of forbearance, that we may use our liberty in accordance with your gracious will; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen. (BCP, p. 258)