Commentary

Debate over origins: Columbus Day vs Indigenous Peoples’ Day

From the vault, 2025, revised and expanded

Ken Sehested

Processional. “If you heart is hurting for your loved ones who have gone to the other side camp, be encouraged that you will see them again! Dedicated to all the missing and murdered Indigenous women around the world and anyone who has lost a loved one!” —song by Theresa Bear Fox's Sky World sung by Teio Swathe 

Ken Sehested

Prelude. “May the power of your love, Lord Christ, / fiery and sweet as honey, / so absorb our hearts / as to withdraw them from all that is under heaven. / Grant that we may be ready to die for love of your love, / as you died for love of our love. Amen.” —“The Absorbeat (Prayer of St. Francis), a medieval prayer much loved by St. Francis, put to music by Heather Hall, TSSF,” performed by Phoenix Consort

Invocation. “Praised be you, my Lord, with all your creatures, especially Sir Brother Sun,
who is the day and through whom you give us light. And he is beautiful and radiant with great splendour; and bears a likeness of you, Most High One.” —from St. Francis’ “Canticle of the Sun”

On living hopefully in a despairing, destitute world

Ken Sehested

Prelude. "Lead me, O Lord, O great redeemer through the troubles of this world. Lord, I thank you for watching over me thus far. You are forever by my side." —English translation of lyrics in “Ndikhokhele Bawo,” University of Pretoria Youth Choir 

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Ken Sehested

“I arise in the morning, torn between a desire to save the world
and a desire to savor the world. That makes it hard to plan the day!”
—E.B. White

Prelude. “Give me a word, give me a sign / Show me where to look / And tell me what will I find / What will I find / Lay me on the ground / Fly me in the sky / Show me where to look / And tell me what will I find / What will I find / Yeah, oh / Heaven let your light shine down, ohh . . . .” —“Shine,” Dolly Parton

Ken Sehested

Prelude. “Transfiguration.” —Vasari Singers, music by Jeremy Filsell and David Briggs 

Call to worship. There is almost always a discordant cacophony—confusion, disorientation, turbulence—in the transition from unreflective innocence to the revivifying and reorienting presence of the Spirit’s inaugurating disclosure of Heaven’s intent for Earth’s reclamation.

by Ken Sehested

Prelude. “Hold on, just a little while longer. Everything will be alright.” —The Kuumba Singers & Bobby McFerrin, “Hold On (Just a Little While Longer)”

What are we to make of our nation’s semiquicentennial?

Ken Sehested, Circle of Mercy Congregation, 5 July 2026
Text: Zechariah 9:9-12
(“Return to your stronghold, you prisoners of hope”)

Prelude. “One bright sunny morning in the shadow of the steeple / By the Relief Office I saw my people — / As they stood hungry, I stood there wondering if / This land was made for you and me.” —“lost” verse to Woody Guthrie’s “This Land Is Your Land”

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Ken Sehested

¶ Read Cameron Vickrey’s brief summary of the Supreme Court’s brutal rulings affecting immigrants’ “protected status” and asylum seekers fate.

¶ You probably didn’t know: Undocumented immigrants paid more income taxes than Amazon, GM, IBM and Netflix combined. —SNOPES fact checker

Ken Sehested

Processional. “I'm going to watch you shine / Going to watch you grow / Going to paint a sign / So you'll always know / As long as one and one is two / There could never be a father / Who loved his daughter more than I love you. —“Father and Daughter,” Paul Simon 

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Seven recommended habits for white folk like me
designed to breach the wall of racism

 Ken Sehested

Prelude. “Come on and raise your voice above the raging seas / We can't hold our breath forever / When our brothers cannot breathe / Come on and raise your voice above the raging seas / We can't hold our breath forever / When our sisters cannot breathe.” —“All Good People,” Delta Rae 

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