Friday, January 1, 2021

The Possibility of a Truly Ecumenical Prayer Manual

While I have no shortage of projects and potential projects, let me record an idea I had this morning.  I have been using Phyllis Tickle's The Divine Hours for the morning watch sessions that I broadcast on my church's Facebook page.  

Tickle uses The New Jerusalem Bible translation and the prayers from the Book of Common Prayer. I find that these texts have some limitations.  There's never a day where I don't have to do some de-gendering of God imagery.  Every so often, I look up a text afterward to see how other translations handle tricky God/Savior imagery.  I don't take out the warrior imagery, although it sometimes makes me uneasy. 

I am guessing that most people who watch my broadcast are Christian--in fact, from what I can tell, most of them are members of my church.  I don't think we have much ecumenical outreach, but I have wondered if I shouldn't be thinking about the possibility. 

This morning I wondered if it would be possible to write a truly ecumenical prayer manual, one that could be used by Jews, Muslims, Hindus, and Buddhists.  I don't mean having a Muslim section, and then a Jewish section, and so on--no, everyone would use the same readings and prayers each day.

And then I wondered if such a prayer manual could be used by atheists and agnostics.  I figure that it might be a tough sell for atheists, since I envision a prayer manual having prayers and sacred texts that talk about a creator.  I'm guessing that atheists wouldn't want to engage in practicing relationship with a creator in whom they don't believe.

Like I said, I don't need any additional projects and certainly not one that would be so huge.  But I wanted to note the idea regardless.

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