Nourishing our spirits for the long haul

Book of Prayers related to new Social Creed

How do we pray in the face of heart-rending injustice and tragedy? Where do we get our soul strength renewed?

That God is our answer is no surprise, but there are many surprises in this new prayerbook: an Orthodox theologian composes a prayer for the bees, the former head of Witness for Peace provides a great prayer for persons in recovery, a retired CIA agent prays for integrity for spies, a tax lawyer prays for tax fairness, a well-known biblical scholar and a potter describe how to pray — especially for rain, an unknown immigrant from Mexico provides a lament for immigrants suffocated in a locked truck on the Texas border. The book features almost 100 prayers in total.

There are prayers by well-known leaders of conscience: Sister Helen Prejean for those on death row, Marian Wright Edelman for children, Tony Campolo for national repentance, Walter Brueggemann for justice for the poor,  Letty Russell before her death.

There are a range of well-known theologians and ethicists:  John Cobb, Stanley Hauerwas, Gary Dorrien, Katie Cannon, John Haight, Robert Bellah, Rita Nakashima-Brock, Don Shriver, Doug Ottati, Max Stackhouse.

There are devotional writers, including well-known Catholics and Quakers: Richard Rohr, Edward Hays, Donna Schaper, Robert Ellsberg, Cathy Whitmire, Ted Loder, Barrie Shepherd, Chris Glaser, Glenn Hinson, Marjorie Thompson, Ann Weems, and novelist Walter Wangerin.

There are pastors and leaders of the church: John Buchanan of Fourth Church Chicago, Michael Kinnamon of the National Council of Churches, Gordon Cosby of Church of the Savior, Washington, D.C., Bishop Thomas Gumbleton of Detroit and Pax Christi, Bishop Vashti Murphy McKenzie of the African Methodist Episcopal Church, Wesley Granberg-Michaelson of the Reformed Church in America, Will Willimon, former Duke Chaplain and now Methodist Bishop in Alabama.

Published in May 2008, Prayers for the New Social Awakening: Inspired by the New Social Creed is designed to give encouragement to Christians who hear the prophetic call. Modeled on the 1909 prayerbook by Walter Rauschenbusch, For God and the People: Prayers for the Social Awakening, this prayerbook underlines the truth that justice issues are spiritual issues. The prayers illuminate the struggles of life and work of their authors, and show what "seeds of contemplation" have sustained them. The book was co-edited by Christian Iosso and Elizabeth Hinson-Hasty and grew out of the work of the Presbyterian study team that prepared much of the new Social Creed.

The prayerbook is hardcover, 200 pages, and is available from Westminster/John Knox Press, (800) 523-1631, for $19.95.