GC2019 Prayer Flags
Prayer flags displayed at the special 2019 General Conference expressed the pain many United Methodists feel over the denomination's anti-LGBTQ stances, the source of efforts toward breaking up the UMC. (Photo courtesy Resist Harm).
Finish up your chocolate and put away the “Alleluias” because the season of Lent is upon us with Ash Wednesday Feb. 26. During these 40 days of reflection and repentance before Easter, Resist Harm’s theme for March is “lament.”
According to its Facebook post: “Lament is a passionate expression of grief that may be expressed in art, music, poetry, or prose. The grief named in lament often is born of regret or mourning; most of us involved in the UMC have much to regret and mourn. Years of struggle, disappointment, suffering and pain weigh heavy on us. Our proclamation of God’s limitless love is compromised by our exclusions and judgments against ourselves and against members of our own body. Many of us have not had the opportunity or taken the time to process our own pain, our own lament. This itself creates more harm and pain.
“During the month of March, during this month of lament, we encourage our faith communities and all of us to lament. By raising our voices and naming our pain, we not only have an opening to process this grief as we mourn, but as we open our hearts together to God, we create more space for God to do a new thing.”
Resist Harm notes that lament can be expressed in many ways, and it offers several resources and ideas for the March observance. Among these are:
- holding a service of lament, which many churches are doing on Ash Wednesday.
- building a “wailing wall” where people can write prayers of lament;
- praying the Psalms, the ancient hymnbook of the Judeo-Christian tradition using resources from the Upper Room;
- writing blessings in psalm, Celtic or other forms; and
- making prayer beads, prayer shawls or other craft expressions.
Details for these ideas can be found on the Resist Harm website.
Resist Harm also is collecting prayer flags to encircle the conference center during General Conference 2020 in Minneapolis, Minn., May 5 -15. Details for this observance are also on the Resist Harm website.
If none of these practices meet your spiritual needs for lament, create your own and send your idea to Resist Harm.
Media Mentions as of Feb. 24, 2020
Methodist split: Conservative event organizers respond to critics – al.com
What I Appreciate about Methodism – Patheos (blog)
Methodist Church Liberia Joins Rest of Africa in One Voice against Homosexuality ahead of ... _ Front Page Africa
United Methodists may split over gay marriage – Thousand Oaks Acorn
United Methodist Church expected to split over proposal – The Reflector Online
Methodist Church remains deeply divided over LGBTQ rights, bishop says Agoura Hills Acorn
Campus figures address the relationship between the United Methodist Church and SMU The Daily Campus
Cynthia B. Astle serves as Editor of United Methodist Insight, which she founded in 2011.