“The greatest thing…to do for another is to pray for them.”
Attributed to Corrie ten Boom, WW2 Concentration Camp Survivor
Workshop goals
- Mobilize MCC and LGBT friendly churches and individuals to revitalize their prayer lives by cultivating friendship with the Sacred.
- Encourage people from diverse backgrounds to heal and combat homophobia by studying the prayer life of Jesus – his prayer practices and habits. We have much to learn from Christ in the school of prayer. He never taught his disciples how to preach, only to pray. Mother Teresa: “My secret is simple. I pray.”
- Invite attendees to join the “365 Prayer Club” at www.mccchurch.org/globalprayerclub. Participants and churches can sign up any time of the year and commit to pray 30 seconds to 2 minutes a day.
Beatitudes for Praying Queers
- Blessed are you who pray, for you shall live queer, near and dear to the heart of God.
- Blessed are those devoted to prayer, for you are an unstoppable healing force in the world.
- Blessed are the queer intercessors, for you shall be greatly rewarded in heaven. You will often hear God’s Whisper and experience the Divine heartbeat for Planet Earth.
- Blessed are the pray-ers, for prayer saves lives, provides comfort and courage to the discouraged, and brings hope to the despairing, demoralized, disillusioned and defeated.
- Blessed are your prayers. So highly prized by God, they are saved for eternity, a fragrant foretaste of heaven while here on earth.
- Blessed are Queers praying in Jesus Name, for a very special friendship with God is yours to enjoy from now through eternity.
Assumptions about Queers @ Prayer
- When we dare and care to pray, lives are transformed and the pray-ers are enriched and empowered. God is passionately in love with us and delighted to extend the gift of holy friendship through prayer.
- Intentional prayer is universally honored as a powerful form of activism and holy boldness. Praying helps us live “queer, near and dear to the heart of God.”
- When queer people pray, the world changes. “History belongs to the intercessors.” When we care enough to pray, we become “universe disturbers” (Madeline L’Engle), with the power to turn the world upside down similar to the early church described in the book of Acts.
- When individuals and churches pray for queers in other countries, awareness is raised of the immense needs for greater local, national and international outreach and the daunting obstacles facing queer brothers and sisters globally. Prayer often leads to action, mobilizing compassionate, justice-oriented, prayerful activists. Some of those activists will suffer and die for their convictions. Prayer equips them to live, suffer and die with spiritual power.
- By mobilizing a prayer revolution, closeted and non-closeted people unite in common mission, healing homophobia one prayer at a time. As long as we have breath in our bodies we can pray.
- Church history reveals praying people are often energized by the Spirit to attempt great things for God. Praying churches revitalize and new churches are often planted. New ministries birth and people are empowered, equipped, encouraged, enlivened and enlightened.
- A very special friendship with God is ours as a gracious gift offered by Jesus Christ.
Some assumptions about prayer
(Used with permission from Shalem Institute for Spiritual Formation, www.shalem.org)
- Prayer is a gift, which I can prepare myself to receive and participate in.
- God does desire to gift us in prayer.
- Scripture is a privileged place for meeting God.
- Scripture is God’s word in human terms.
- God’s self-revelation occurs in many guises.
- All of life contains the possibility for meeting God.
Practical applications
- Pray with an open newspaper, the electronic news media, and prayer requests sent your way. Prayers are always needed for the imprisoned, the poor and the hungry, oppressed and persecuted, sick, suffering, fearful and isolated. Pray for countries lacking LGBT affirming churches, mosques, synagogues, and temples. Prepare to pray for years and be confident your persistent prayers make a difference.
- Pray with global awareness. Pray with a map and for nations by name, and cities in every nation. Use the map as a visual reminder to pray for MCC regions, and entire countries without MCC presence. Develop your own international prayer guides for personal and community use (an example for thirty countries in MCC Region 1 is available at An International Prayer Guide for Queer People (www.soulfoodministry.org/docs/English/Int_Prayer_Guide.htm). If we are unwilling to pray for our own, it is unreasonable to expect the non-Queer communities to pray for LGBT people. Nobody can pray for our own as well as we can.
- Pray, even if for 30 seconds to 2 minutes a day. Develop special places for prayer and expect to find God waiting for you. Experiment with various prayer practices; find like-minded people for accountability and encouragement. Ask each other, “how is your prayer life?”
- Love to pray. Your life will be transformed.
About the author: Rev. Dr. Sandra Bochonok earned her Doctor of Ministry degree at Wesley Seminary in Washington, DC and Masters of Divinity degree at Trinity Evangelical Divinity School in Deerfield, Illinois. She studied at the famous ecumenical Shalem Institute for Spiritual Formation in Bethesda, Maryland. Her ministry training includes four units of Clinical Pastoral Education. She facilitates retreats and labyrinth events, provides ecumenical and interfaith pulpit supply and writes spirituality materials for international Internet readers. You may email your comments to her at revsandyb@aol.com.
