Washington National Cathedral offers prayer generator

January 23, 2017
Margaret Wessel Walker

The Washington National Cathedral has created a prayer generator. The program asks for your name and religion (the options are Christian, Muslim, Jewish, or Other), and asks you to pick which issues are most important to you from a few short lists. You can also enter your email address “if you’d like to receive a beautiful, printable copy of your prayer by email,” along with other “inspirational materials.” Then the program generates a personal prayer. The primary difference between prayers for members of different religion seems to be whether or not there is a reference to Jesus Christ; most of the sections of the prayers seem to be from the Book of Common Prayer, regardless of which religion was selected on the generator. The website is attractive and easy to use, but its purpose seems somewhat oblique.

0 0 vote

Article Rating

Café Comments?

Our comment policy requires that you use your real first and last names and provide an email address (your email will not be published). Comments that use non-PG rated language, include personal attacks, that are not provable as fact or that we deem in any way to be counter to our mission of fostering respectful dialogue will not be posted.

15 Comments

Newest

Oldest Most Voted

Inline Feedbacks

View all comments

Paul Powers

January 27, 2017 9:09 am

You can generate a prayer without giving an email address.

Marshall Scott

January 26, 2017 2:35 pm

You know, I am in Kansas City, home of the Unity School of Christianity (best known for “Words from Unity”). Long a part of their mission, they have a program called “Silent Unity.” They are prepared to receive and respond to prayer requests 24-hours a day, and have a team of volunteers for the purpose. They have done this for years, starting with requests by post, and for years focusing on phone conversations, until email became the norm. The requests came from persons of all traditions, just needing to be heard and supported in prayer. By the same token, their volunteers did as well, coming from many local communities including Episcopal parishes. They are strictly enjoined from requesting or accepting contributions, and from advocating for Unity or individual congregations. I have heard many stories from the volunteers of their service, and a good number from folks who, feeling distressed, called for support.

If this is what the Cathedral Chapter wants to do, more power to ’em. If, as in some concerns expressed, it’s marketing (however it may be otherwise described), I agree, we shouldn’t be doing it.

Phillip Cato

January 26, 2017 11:14 am

Evidence of an off-kilter theological and moral compass. Too clever and self-serving by half.

jim knutson

January 26, 2017 10:57 am

It is very nice that the episcopal church has allowed gay marriage

Br. Jeffrey Shy, CoS

January 26, 2017 9:51 am

Or, it could be a clever way to get you on an email list?

wpDiscuz

Support the Café

Past Posts

The Episcopal Café seeks to be an independent voice, reporting and reflecting on the Episcopal Church and the Anglican tradition. The Café is not a platform of advocacy, but it does aim to tell the story of the church from the perspective of Progressive Christianity. Our collective sympathy, as the Café, lies with the project of widening the circle of inclusion within the church and empowering all the baptized for the role to which they have been called as followers of Christ.

The opinions expressed at the Café are those of individual contributors, and, unless otherwise noted, should not be interpreted as official statements of a parish, diocese or other organization. The art and articles that appear here remain the property of their creators.