Archbishop Chris Harper
Published on Anglican Journal August 30, 2024 and in the September 2024 print edition
FEATHER (Prayer): Creator of all, the seasons stand to glorify your name through every passing moment and all creation lifts up thanksgiving for your handiwork. We thank you for this new day and the opportunities that open before us like petals of the flower. In this Season of Creation, we, the children of your hand, acknowledge that we have been distracted by our own work and reflection. We acknowledge that we have failed or stained your beauty in the work and creatures of this world. Please help us by guiding us back to the right path of your ways and purpose. Walk with us that we may in humility treat each other better, that we may seek to see the blessings, and your truth, in the moments and beauty before us all. Put peace in our hearts and bless us that we may be a blessing to others that join us in our journey of life and faith. Amen.
SAGE (Offering): The passing seasons and moments remind us that time is precious (Ecclesiastes 3:1), and that the past cannot be changed; they also remind us, moving through the present, that the steps that we take should be guarded and guided. We, the people of the church, have all inherited a legacy of the past, the same that we as Canadians have inherited: a past that is consistently affecting our present and will touch our future. We either in futility and ignorance can try to ignore the past or we can start to effect change, that the generations to come may be able to look back and see that we humbled ourselves in the moment and sought to learn and improve.
Our shared journey through time and season have blessed us all with precious moments to do the best that we can with and before all. Humbly recognizing that none of us are perfect and that we all have transgressed, may we treat each moment—and the people around us—as precious. May we go forward with an open hand, heart and mind, remembering that we are ambassadors of Christ in all we say and do (2 Cor. 5: 18-20). May we as children of the Almighty One and children of God’s Creation be a blessing to our world and to others before us.
- Archbishop Chris Harper is national Indigenous archbishop of the Anglican Church of Canada.
Image: efoArt via Anglican Journal