Praying for Ukraine

This Sunday (March 6) we will of course include in our prayers the people of Ukraine (and all people living, or trying to live, in war-torn places across the globe). As part of those prayers, we will sing the hymn “This is My Song” by Lloyd Stone, set to the tune of Finlandia (by Jean Sibelius). The author wrote the lyrics in 1934, between the two world wars, expressing a hope for lasting peace among all nations, races, and cultures, including “My country’s skies are bluer than the ocean, and sunlight beams on cloverleaf and pine; but other lands have sunlight, too, and clover, and skies are everywhere as blue as mine. O hear my song, O God of all the nations, a song of peace for their land and for mine.”

We honor our humanity by seeing the humanity of others. We are connected in deep and in ordinary ways. How can we wage war, any of us, when we are, whether we see it or not, one in our human experience?

Peace and blessings in this difficult time,

Pastor Leslie