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Prayers for Today: Introduction by Herbert F. Vetter

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Edited by Herbert F. Vetter

Here are online prayers by authors speaking in contemporary language. These prayers have been adapted to present day conditions. For example, they are degenderized to avoid the stigma of traditional patriarchal prejudice. Furthermore, these prayers are not cast in Elizabethan language but are spoken in the shared language of today, using words with a contemporary ring of authenticity.

Advisors concerning Prayers of Power (a work still in process), have decisively contributed to the enhancement of this more limited preliminary effort. I have relied primarily on the wisdom and judgment of the late Dr. Arthur Foote, the Rev. Robert L. Cope, the Rev. Lansing Moran, Dr. John F. Hayward, the Rev. Kenneth Read-Brown, and the Rev. Bruce Southworth, as well as my wife, Dorothy, and our daughter, Kathleen.

Special appreciation is due to the Rev. Thomas Wintle, editor of The Unitarian Universalist Christian, who recommended my preparing a thirty-day cycle of prayers that might be helpful for daily use. For help with the online version I am indebted to Peter Buck, Charles Howe, and Matthew Reidsma.

The three liberal religious symbols in color accompanying the text are: “God is a Union of Opposites,” “A Pair of Hands,” and “Let the Earth Live.” 

Herbert F. Vetter 2004
Cambridge, Massachusetts

god_union

God is a Union of Opposites.