Folks, don’t let them fight this battle alone.  Please join them in daily prayer for +Lawrence as he resists the machinations of KJS and her hirelings.

I’ve posted this at Lent & Beyond, and I personally will be praying.  Thanks for letting us know, Kendall.

Thank you for posting this. My family will certainly be praying for +Lawrence and the Diocese of SC.

Excellent idea! I believe the Pee Dee Deanery may plan to do the same thing.  We ALL need to keep Bishop Lawrence in our prayers ALL the time.

Karen B. (#2),

Thanks for posting this call to prayer at Lent & Beyond.  I’m so very glad that you and Jill Woodliff have kept that prayer blog going long after the original Lent prayer calendar ended some years ago.

I love deanery leader Craig Borretf’s reminder that “Prayer isn’t preparation for the battle; it IS the battle.”  So true.  It always reminds me of the classic story in Exodus 17, where Aaron and Hur hold up Moses’ hands as he intercedes, while Joshua fights the Amalekites in the valley below.

These days, SC seems to me to be like Gondor, and I’d call +Mark Lawrence Faramir (Jesus Christ himself being the King who hasn’t returned yet).  This call to prayer is like lighting the war beacons, summoning Rohan and all allies of Gondor to come to its aid and defense.

David Handy+

Fr. Handy,
Funny how we Anglicans love drawing parallels between our current struggles and the Ring Trilogy.  sometimes I think we know our Tolkien as well as we know the Scriptures (if not, to my shame, better!).  Great stuff.

I thought they voted to abstain from the governing structures of TEC.  What’s going on?

I am keeping Bishop Lawrence in my prayers, as well as, the Diocese.

Prayers for Bishop Lawrence and all our dear friends in the wonderful Diocese of South Carolina.

Bishop Mark Lawrence and the people of the Diocese of South Carolina are in my prayers.

Prayers are coming your way from faithful people in New England. Your Bishop is a beacon of light to many not residing in your Diocese.

In praying for +Mark Lawrence & the diocese of South Carolina today, the Lord brought to mind Bp. Lawrence’s reflections from Sept 06 on the theme of joy in dark times.  I did some hunting online, and I found the original text, and have posted it at Lent & Beyond. 

http://anglicanprayer.wordpress.com/2010/03/12/bp-mark-lawrence-who-are-these-birds-that-can-sing-in-the-dark/

I really urge all praying for +Mark to reread these words of his from 3 1/2 years ago.  They are more relevant than ever, and I pray that he and all in the Dio. of SC will know the deep joy of the Lord and be able to sing, even in the midst of these struggles, that Christ might shine forth ever more brightly from their lives.

Here’s an excerpt from +Mark Lawrence’s 2006 remarks:

Sure there are many concerns in the larger church. Struggles aplenty. This is serious business. So serious we dare not do it without joy of the Gospel. There’s no reason to let our concerns, ours struggles, our worries—our battles steal our joy. My grandmother used to have songbirds in her kitchen. She kept them in a cage. And they would sing to her throughout the day. Sometimes they’d make too much noise during one or her soap operas and she’d put a veil over it and they’d grow quiet. “Grandma” I asked, “why do you put that towel over their cage?” She said, “Mark, birds can’t sing in a darkened cage.” Yet you will remember Paul and Silas. Arrested in Philippi. Beaten with rods and put into stocks in the Philippian jail. Still there in the darkened prison that night they sang songs of praise to God. The jailer and prisons must have thought to themselves, “Who are these birds that can sing in a darkened cage?” May they say of this Diocese of South Carolina, in these stressful, troubling and sometimes-dark days, “Who are these birds—that can sing in a darkened cage? Surely the joy of the Lord must be their strength!”

Amen & Amen!