Back at St. John’s Episcopal School in Rancho Santa Margarita, April 2021) National Association of Episcopal Schools.
God of mercy and truth, we pray today for young people, who are experiencing a reality that brings into horrifying three dimensions the kinds of events they knew only from textbooks, novels, and films – war in Europe, refugees by the millions, a tyrant who starts a war and then forbids his people even to utter the word. We offer thanks for all schools, and especially Episcopal schools, for giving students the means of understanding what is happening, placing it in historical context, and advocating for change today and, as they inherit the world and all its winds of war, making things better tomorrow. May young people learn from all the events of the last two years that freedom and justice are both precious and rare and that it is our responsibility to cherish and perfect them for the sake of all your people. Through Jesus Christ our Lord, Amen.
(Modified from an invocation I offered yesterday at a Harvard Westlake board meeting.)