Inclusivity: Awakening to the Global Embrace of Beloved Community in Celebration and in Times of Grieving

A wonderful virtual event which Bishop Phyllis Spiegel opened and closed with a light liturgy occurred on Fri, Jan 27th, 2023. Rev Catherine Amy Kropp from the Diocese of Alaska serving at the Relief and Reconciliation Syrian refugee camp in Lebanon gathered in virtual liminal space with Bishop Spiegel and a group of 44 people spanning from Lebanon to Alaska in celebration of a global awakening of embracing beloved community with the inclusivity of the other. A few short weeks after this virtual awakening and celebration, a natural disaster struck so many innocent people with an earthquake in Turkey, not far away from Rev Catherine Amy, who is in the remote part of northern Lebanon, impacting where she was, as well. That heartspace created globally in celebration of beloved community only a few weeks before the earthquake became a heartspace to deeply hold those now grieving by this disaster, with loved ones dead or not found and homes and communities destroyed to rubble. Please hold Rev Catherine Amy in prayer as she continues her work there in a most profound and deep way as she reaches out to people all around her to heal, comfort, and restore functionality to their life. This is Rev Catherine Amy's prayer in response:

As the light dawns on this fragile Earth, our hearts open into a great and painful silence. We are taking in the magnitude of human and earthly destruction in the wake of the powerful earthquakes to the north in Syria and Turkey. The tremors that shook our homes, our communities, and our bodies continue to reverberate in our hearts with feeling, compassion and a palpable sense of fear. Across boundaries, across difference, across the devastation of this life, we reach out with a deep and universal longing.

Below us the earth is shifting.

Within us the world is changing.

Around us we are called into this moment.

Let us be still.

Let us be still with the knowledge that the deep layers of the Earth and the deep layers of our hearts may find a common resting place.

Within the rubble of our hearts and the devastation of our world, may we come to know safety as well as peace,

comfort as well as community,

refuge as well as strength.

For the children and all the people trapped in the rubble, may they be rescued.

For those in need of medical care, may they be brought to safety and cared for.

For the brave ones responding to the broken spaces and entering the debris, may they be protected.

For all who are afraid, may they be comforted.

For those who mourn, may they be lifted up.

As we bear witness to the world that is crushing our hearts, may we become more awake, more resilient, more kind, and more courageous.

May we be held within a mysterious trust that we are beloved, wonderfully made, and drawn into greater being.

[In the prayer attributed to St Francis, Lord, make us instruments of your peace. Where there is hatred, let us sow love; where there is injury, pardon; where there is discord, union; where there is doubt, faith; where there is despair, hope; where there is darkness, light; where there is sadness, joy. Grant that we may not so much seek to be consoled as to console; to be understood as to understand; to be loved as to love. For it is in giving that we receive; it is in pardoning that we are pardoned; and it is in dying that we are born to eternal life.

Amen.

The Rev. Catherine Amy Kropp

Priest, Episcopal Diocese of Alaska, U.S.A.

International Volunteer, Relief & Reconciliation Lebanon

Citation for prayer by St Francis: The Book of Common Prayer, p. 833