Thy Kingdom Come - A Letter from Bishop Miller
Dear Friends in Christ,
Prayer is the heartbeat of Christian Life, the means by which we acknowledge and renew our relationship with God. It is a core element of our Anglican identity. We are people of the Book of Common Prayer.
Of course, prayer is more than our common liturgy. As our Catechism teaches us prayer is “responding to God, by thought and by deeds, with or without words” (BCP p. 856). While it is an imperfect analogy, one way I like to think of the prayer book is as comparable to the books students of musical instruments are given when they first begin to play. The point is to move beyond mastering the lessons to learning to compose and improvise. Through our participation in corporate prayer we learn the different attitudes of prayer: Oblation (the offering of whole selves to God) Adoration (entering into the presence of God), Thanksgiving, Confession, Intercession (pray for others) and petition (prayer for our own aid and intention.) One way to remember these aspects of prayer is through the mnemonic device “Only as the Christian I pray.” This device also helps us recall that Christian prayer is response to God the Father, through Jesus Christ, in the power of the spirit.
I remind you of this as prelude to asking you to join with Anglicans around the world in an intentional time of prayer between Ascension Day and the Day of Pentecost. The Episcopal Church has joined the worldwide Anglican Communion in Thy Kingdom Come, a campaign initiated by Archbishop of Canterbury Justin Welby calling for prayer by individuals, congregations and families.
Thy Kingdom Come is a global prayer movement that invites Christians around the world to pray between Ascension Day, May 25 and Pentecost, June 4 for more people to come to know Jesus. #ThyKingdomCome. More information can be found here: http://www.episcopalchurch.org/thy-kingdom-come. Sara Bitner, the diocesan communications officer, will be posting daily prayer topics on the diocesan Facebook page; it is my hope that many will use these topics as part of our diocesan participation in Thy Kingdom Come. #ThyKingdomCome #Pledge2Pray
I hope many of you will choose to participate in this prayer effort. We all know that prayer makes a difference in our lives and those of others.
Yours in Christ,
The Rt. Rev. Steven A. Miller, Bishop of Milwaukee