Prayer is a silence.             
                  A moment of silence                     
                         before going out the door;             
                  An opening before a full day -
                                    a new day.             

Prayer is a demand,             
            A loud, muffled moment of desolation;             
            A bitter, lonely, anguished cry for help,                        
                      A refusal of help                        
                      A resentment for needing to ask,                        
                      A fear of just plain being in need.             

Prayer is a harvest dance,             
            A thankfulness of  food, shelter and children,                    
                           of light within and sun without                      
                           of beauty.             
            A humble gratefulness for friends and God.

But do I know what prayer is?
Can I ever know how to pray,                          
      to accept the changes which are the answers                           
      to my prayers? 

I pray so I can learn how to pray.   
       For I do not know how.   
       I simply know that I can live my life only through prayer.

I pray to remind myself that I am not God.   
       When God does not exist,   
       I invent some God to have someone to pray to,                
                bow down before --               
                so that I may know how safe it is for me to be so small.

To pray is to ask if I may touch your face.

WebWeaver for:

Unitarian Universalist Historical Society;
World's Parliament of Religions

MINISTRY:
VISIBLE AND INVISIBLE.

a gathering to commemorate a beech tree which
once sheltered William Ellery Channing,
and recently cut down.

Ministry takes place variously, sometimes seen; often unseen. It is not just pulpit presence. The tree commemorated here ministered to the founder of American Unitarianism and was long forgotten. We minister to one another, shelter one another, in many ways. Times spent over a cup of coffee sharing our experience, strength and hope leave no record but in memory. Late night phone calls and long drives to UU gatherings leave their invisible imprint on the heart. And how often do we take pictures of ourselves sitting at a Board meeting, or at a long range planning meeting, or a capital fund drive meeting with a potential consultant? But, we do take pictures of a tree commemoration.

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SERMONS

THE ZEN OF UNITARIAN UNIVERSALISM - - -A MOMENT OF INNOCENCE (Christmas Eve, 1996)
CRAWLING OUT OF THE STONE AGE: Elections '96. Individualism or Narcissism? April 1998.
I'm Right And You're ..... March 1998.

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a fund raising event.

FUND RAISING is an important area of church life in which a minister should maintain a low but supportive profile. A minister should no be directly involved in every member canvassing. The minister advocates for development of programs. Lay people have prime responsibility for finances. However, as minister I express my concerns about the budgeting process and policy for use of endowment. I urge a long range approach to viewing the financial commitments of a congregation. It is all too easy to try to dreamily muddle through. I advocate intentionally muddling through.

A minister can also be in a unique situation to aid the fund raising of the church: he can provide his services for marriage renewals at a service auction.

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Frank Carpenter
Last revised: August 25, 1998.