Praying our way to San Jose
Update from the road

We're in San Jose

Chandra Kearns with Jacqueline beside the RV we would come to know and love on the ride from Denver to San Jose. Photo by Tammy Wiens-Sorge

June 21 — Stephany and I arrived safely in San Jose yesterday afternoon. We arrived with Chandra Kearns and her colleagues in the "Health on the Move" RV. What a way to see the country ... a little bumpy, but an adventure worth repeating. It's been fantastic to hear from so many people at GA about the variety of ways their prayers have been with us during our pilgrimage of prayer. It is so awesome to feel the heartbeat of the church through the overwhelming response to this invitation to prayer. If you have a story to share about your prayers for the General Assembly this week and next, please write and tell us about it. We are posting some of these stories and sermons on our web site and would love to hear from you. I also wanted to let you know that Christian Boyd, who shared the St. Louis portion of Praying Our Way to San Jose has posted a transcript of his sermon on his blog. It's a really cool page! 

Looking back at Denver

As in St. Louis and Lee’s Summit, it was again the case that meeting our host pastors was like being reunited with family. I’d not met Cynthia or Jacqueline or Amy or Samuel before but we had been in email contact over the past couple of months as we made plans for the service. This clergy team brought together the most diverse leadership of any of the services we experienced along our prayer pilgrimage. This resulted in a wonderful diversity in the congregation as well. Those gathered represented the wide spectrum of Presbyterianism across America: culturally, theologically, racially and even “chronologically”… I’m guessing that’s the politically correct way of saying “diversity of ages.”  We were urban and rural, young and old, Korean and Zimbabwean, South American and Cuban, African-American and Euro-American. We worshiped together and could literally claim that we’d come from east and west and north and south to feast at Christ’s Table. It was utterly astounding.

The Rev. Amy Mendez from the Denver Presbytery led the Call to Worship. The service opened with some hymn singing in English and Spanish. The Hispanic instruments added a spirit of festivity to the worship. Then in good Presbyterian fashion we moved to a time of confession. The Rev. Jacqueline Vanderpol of Central Presbyterian Church led us in prayer. There was a graceful transition from the jubilant and boisterous gathering music to the solemn “Kyrie” of confession. “Lord have mercy, Christ have mercy” was sung in a fashion reminiscent of Taize chant. There were spacious amounts of silence in which to pour out our confession to the Lord and to receive forgiveness and assurance of pardon.

And then the plan was for our outgoing moderator, Joan Gray, to preach but God had a different idea. Joan Gray called us about 90 minutes before the service was to begin to let us know she would not make it. Joan took a fall down some steps which resulted in a facial bone fracture. Sadly she was en route to the hospital with cuts and bruises instead of making her way to the house of prayer.

Well, neither Stephany nor I felt we could step up to take the place of Joan Gray. Neither of us happened to have a sermon ready but as women in good holiness-revival tradition we were ready and willing to share a testimony! It’s funny how in times of uncertainty we return to what we learned in childhood. I wasn’t about to try and preach a sermon because my definition of “sermon” grew out of the Reformed tradition in which study and preparation and a manuscript were essential tools. But it seemed the most natural thing in the world to stand up and witness to the work of the Holy Spirit we’d experienced since we began praying our way to San Jose.

Following our “testimonies” the Rev. Cynthia Burse led us in the “Prayers of the People” in which anyone who desired prayer could come forward. Stephany and I waited at the front of the church as we might do for a Presbyterian Service for Healing and Wholeness. We laid hands on those who came forward and interceded on their behalf for the burdens that were too heavy for any one of them to carry alone. The People’s Presbyterian Church choir sang during this blessed time of prayer.

Then we celebrated communion … and I do mean “celebrated”. It was one of the most joyful of joyful feasts I have ever encountered. Gathered at the Lord’s Table we tasted a bit of the banquet that waits for us in Christ’s new heaven and new earth. Now, if this had been a typical Sunday morning in most Presbyterian churches then you might expect that we were nearing the end of the service. But that was not the case for the community gathered in Denver for the purpose of praying us toward GA. We said the “Prayer after Communion” but church was not over.

Tammy pauses for a snapshot with the Rev. Samuel Parks before we begin the service in Denver. Photo by Stephany Jackson

The Rev. Samuel Parks led us in a congregational prayer known in Korean churches as a form of “Lament.”  Samuel released us from “silence” and admonished every one of us to SHOUT OUT to the Lord; interceding for our world, for our country, and for our denomination. All of the worship and prayer of the first hour was the warm up for this blessed time of prayer. And no one prayed in the silence of his heart as is so often the custom in the Reformed tradition. We were all praying out LOUD — giving voice to our prayers like it was as natural to us as reciting our social security number. Samuel directed us in praying for Myanmar, for Beijing, for Iowa, and Oklahoma, for Obama and McCain, for Joan Gray and Linda Valentine, for those who are homeless and for those who run Fortune 500 companies. We prayed in the language in which we were most fluent. We prayed in the language of the psalms, with lines of Scripture, with hymn refrains, with spontaneous intercessions, with the deep longings of our hearts, with simple joys, with the whole gamut of emotion and experience. No sermon on prayer could have taught as much about prayer as we were learning from simply doing prayer. Unbelievable?  I might have thought so if I hadn’t experienced it first hand!!! Un-Presbyterian? Well, apparently not!!!  Thanks be to God.

— Tammy Wiens-Sorge