Bishop Leonard Fairley, resident bishop of the South Carolina Conference of The United Methodist Church, issued this Episcopal Call to Prayer as the 2024 election season comes to a close:
Sisters and brothers in Christ,
Prayer is one of the most powerful things Christian people do. Therefore, I am calling the churches and people of the South Carolina Conference of The United Methodist Church to an intentional time of prayer as we near the conclusion of this election season.
It is important that we guard our hearts and souls in this season, when it has been so easy to forget who we are and whose we are. Please know that I lift my voice with yours in the following prayer.
Lord, as Election Day approaches, may the Gospel of Jesus Christ compel us to respond as faithful disciples in our communities and across the nation by covenanting together to keep the peace as this tense and often volatile and vitriolic election cycle comes to a close.
Grant us eyes free from blindness, so that we might see each other as sisters and brothers, equal with a sense of dignity and worth. We pray for discernment so that we might choose leaders who will follow in the steps of Jesus and be guided by the power of the Holy Spirit.
Lord, in your mercy, help us to do our part in exhibiting what a peaceful transfer of power looks like.
If your own words will not come as this week progresses, try praying the Prayer of St. Francis:
“Lord, make me an instrument of thy peace;
where there is hatred, let me sow love;
where there is injury, pardon;
where there is doubt, faith;
where there is despair, hope;
where there is darkness, light;
and where there is sadness, joy.
O Divine Master,
grant that I may not so much seek
to be consoled as to console;
to be understood, as to understand;
to be loved, as to love;
for it is in giving that we receive,
it is in pardoning that we are pardoned,
and it is in dying that we are born to eternal life.”
In Christ,
Bishop Leonard Fairley
