09/09/2026
From Fr. John - As some of you have heard, I again offered the opening prayer for what would be a contentious City Council meeting last night. Since I offer those prayers on behalf of all of us at The Church of the Epiphany, I share them here as well:
Mayor, City Council, thank you again for the opportunity to be here with you tonight. I am coming here directly from Berrien Springs where our South Haven cross country teams competed in the Shamrock Invitational. A special shout out to students Ella Cook, Madisyn Lapinski, Nolan Wiens, and Lily Wakefield who all medaled in their respective events.
Council, on behalf of our church, I thank you for your service to this community.
Let us pray.
Almighty God, we thank you tonight for the chance to gather together, to consider what might be best for our community, for the city of South Haven. We also thank you for these civil servants, willing to serve, elected in free and fair elections, and representing the collective voice of a wide range of people, people with different opinions, backgrounds, and situations. We thank you for the fall, for the harvest, for the work of all those we celebrated on Labor Day; may we always pursue a fair day’s wage for a fair day’s work for all. We thank you for our schools, for the students, teachers, and administrators; be with them in this season of exciting and daunting transitions, remind them all that they are loved.
Lord, I ask tonight specifically that you continue to give these our leaders the wisdom they need to consider all sides of the issues brought before them, and then to choose what they believe is in the best interest of all of us.
Lord, help us all hold one another in a spirit of kindness, of patience, of considering the whole of the person before us as one worthy of love. Help us to truly consider each other’s opinions and stories and find what we have in common with each other as we all strive for a better world for our families, friends, and loved ones.
Lord, remind us and empower us to extend grace to all. We are all in need of grace; help us extend it to everyone around us, as we would have them extend grace and consideration to us. And help us allow those who are different from us to teach us, to enable us to see new ways of being and thinking and dreaming for our future together.
Almighty God, I thank you for this city, for these people, for the beautiful summer that is ending and the fall that we know is just getting started. We thank you for the wonderful privilege we have to live here on the shores of Lake Michigan, the ancestral home of the Potawatomi people who called this area “Ni-Ko-Kong,” or, “the land of beautiful sunsets.” Help us to enjoy those sunsets with each other this month, and help us build a place where all peoples and creatures can lovingly share this beautiful land.
Help us come together to do the good work that is needed to make this a city that is better for all people. Help us to love each other well as we conduct business tonight.
It is in your holy name that we pray all these things.
Amen.
