An Installation Prayer

Let us be attendant now upon hope, faith, and love.
Let us know ourselves to be in the presence of the Source and Ground of these things and everything, everything known and unknown, everything known and to-be-known, everything known and never-to-be-known.

Here, in the conjunction of past and future,
In the meeting place of knowledge and mystery,
Here, where the mundane acknowledges the sacred and finitude acknowledges transcendence,
Let us enter more fully into a Questing Spirit and pray:

Let us, gathered as a congregation today for both a solemn and a joyful purpose, pray...for this church and this minister...for the steadfast love of each for the other...a love strong enough for honest confrontation, deep enough for the shared expression of hurt, wide enough for mutual acts of mercy, plentiful enough to be a support in the work and years ahead.

We pray that they be servants, of each other and the common good they call each other to discern. May that include a godly justice and a goodly peace, both within and beyond the immediate boundaries of this church. May they be dancers, lovers, fishers, artists, reformers and seers, nurses and nurturers, healers and helpmates — both with and for each other, with and for the world around them.

May the words of our mouths and the meditation of our hearts, may every prayer and meditation, spoken and silent, howsoever directed, during this Service of Installation and during all the days of this ministry, be in keeping with the most generous ideals and the most inclusive aspirations of this church and our association of churches.

And now abide hope, faith, and love.
May they abide within you and between you.
May they be a blessing always amongst you.
Thus we pray, for this day and all days. Amen.