Prayer for Senator Manchin During All Saints Day, November 1, 2021

Climate action! On All Saints Day, Monday November 1, 2021, please join people around West Virginia and beyond in this prayer, below, for Senator Manchin.

West Virginia Interfaith Power and Light is the lead sponsor of this important action. To take part in this Day of Prayer, please:

• Set aside time to pray this prayer aloud or to yourself
• Feel free to say this prayer outside one of Senator Manchin’s offices in Charleston, Martinsburg, Fairmont or Washington, DC, if you live nearby. Go alone or with like-minded individuals
• Share this prayer with your family members and friends so they can join in
• If you use social media, have a blog or website, feel free to post the prayer and encourage others to participate
• If you are part of a faith-based network, please help spread the word. The actions or inactions of Senator Manchin and our leaders affect not only the people he represents, but all life across the globe
• Phone Senator Manchin’s office (202-224-3954 DC office) and tell them you are participating in a day of prayer for the Senator regarding his need to take positive action on climate change. Email the prayer to his office using this form on his website  https://www.manchin.senate.gov/
• Send the prayer to your congregation/denomination’s publication if they have one
• Share this prayer with your congregation/church

Join the event on Facebook here.

PRAYER FOR SENATOR MANCHIN DURING ALL SAINTS DAY

Loving God of creation, we need your help. We see with our own eyes that our common earthly home is in dire difficulty. Droughts, floods, fires, crop failures, the ongoing pandemic and threats of future ones, environmental refugees are evidence enough of our individual and collective failure. Our air and water and the sustainability of life itself is in peril.          

Each of us is charged to be stewards of your creation. The wonder and beauty of the earth and its interdependent systems are the responsibility of each of us to use wisely, care for, and protect.  We are failing our children and grandchildren and forgiveness is predicated on fulfilling our responsibilities for the care of creation. 

Senator Joe Manchin and others in powerful, elected positions have been given the public trust to act for the common good. He and they therefore have a unique and special burden for moral and political leadership on decisions that affect all of us. The United States must move decisively and with haste toward clean, renewable energy. This will protect people, as well as provide good paying jobs and meaningful work.  The transition to renewable energy can happen in an orderly and planned way in the time frame needed to ensure a livable environment for our children and grandchildren.

We cannot waste time or soften this call to stewardship.

In these painful and challenging times, we ask that you help us move Senator Manchin and other leaders to understand that the very existence and quality of life of future generations depends upon their conscientious decisions and actions now. 

During these Hallowed days of late Autumn, we recall and honor the saints and souls who have gone before us. Their acts of courage and clarity in the times they lived, shined a light for those seeking to live a life of commitment and values supporting our common good.  We look to their legacies to inspire us today. We recommit ourselves to a life of service, and we find resiliency in the community of all those who share this mission

God of our past, present, and future, here in West Virginia, we remember and give thanks for the national leaders we sent to the Senate—Senator Jennings Randolph, who blessed us with a legacy of peace, and Senators Robert Byrd and Jay Rockefeller whose legacy was to believe in and work for an inclusive democracy with equal voting rights for all. 

God of Hope and resiliency, we pray that the hearts and minds of our elected leaders will choose to use their powers and their responsibility for the health of our shared future. We especially implore you to help us open the heart and mind of our current Senator Joe Manchin who has unique power and influence at this time. The continuing pollution of air and water can be stopped. We have been given the spirit and gifts of innovation and problem solving. The only thing standing in the way of action for the stewardship of our Earth is political will and principled action. May Senator Manchin be filled with a desire to preserve and foster the health of West Virginia’s people, land, and water; and by extension the health and continuation of all life on our planetary home. May his legacy be one of heeding Jesus’ call in the sermon on the mount to choose God’s love of being in right relationship with life over the love of earthly powers that devour our state’s and planet’s resources and lead to death.   

Let us remember that the future is in our hands, as we recommit ourselves to see creation as God sees it, with wonder, gratitude, and an ever-present knowledge of its fragility. We ask that you instill in Senator Manchin and other leaders a sense of urgency to move quickly with meaningful action providing hope to our generations to come.

These things we pray to you, O God, our source, and strength.

Amen.

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West Virginia Interfaith Power and Light (WVIPL) is a group of West Virginians from various faith traditions who take seriously the threat of global warming to humans and the environment and who heed the urgent call to care for the planet and our communities by promoting energy conservation, energy efficiency, and renewable energy. Our members are clergy, faith leaders, and lay persons of all ages. Also, we are a state affiliate of the national Interfaith Power and Light network.         Contact: westvaipl@gmail.com 

Photo: “Candle” by Bernzilla is licensed under CC BY-NC-SA 2.0