by Ken Sehested
Worthy, worthy the One who conceived the earth and gave birth to bears and basil and beatitudes alike.
We extol you, Heaven’s Delight and Earth’s Repose!
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Satisfy the earth
A litany for worship on Earth Day
by Ken Sehested
In the beginning the Verdant One saw everything that was made, and behold, it was lavish and delightful. (Genesis 1:31)
The earth is satisfied with the fruit of God’s greening hand. (Psalm 104:13)
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Signs of the Times • 9 April 2016 • No. 67
Abbreviated issue
This edition of “Signs of the Times” is abbreviated to clear space for hiking in Utah, with some of our kiddos, pictured at right, 
in Dead Horse Point Park: Rich, Jonathan, Jessica, Sydney and (behind) Nancy and Ken.
¶ Processional. Grammy winner Rhiannon Giddens and friends sing at a College Park Baptist Church, Greensboro, NC, rally against HB2, a draconian piece of North Carolina legislation aimed primarily at gay and transgendered persons but also threatens, in the guise of “religious liberty,” discrimination against others (including, of all things, the rights of NC cities to establish minimum wage laws). (3:17. Thanks Jane)
Read more ›A Cuban pastor responds to President Obama’s visit
Shortly after President Barack Obama’s historic visit to Cuba, Rev. Eduardo Gonzalez, pastor of Iglesia Enmanuel in Ciego de Avila, Cuba, wrote a letter to his congregation’s “partner,” Northminster Church in Monroe, Louisiana, and copied others here in the US who have visited. Here is the text, along with a brief response of my own.
“Dear brothers and sisters
“For many years our brothers and sisters from Northminster Church have been asked by their fellow citizens what kind of mission work they come to Cuba to do. It has been hard for their inquirers to understand that they do not come to build schools, because we have schools and education, available for everyone, that they do not come to do medical work, because we have free medical service, that they do not come to evangelize, in the traditional sense of the word, because we have pastors and preachers that can do that.
Read more ›My Shepherd Will Supply My Need
New lyrics to an old hymn
by Ken Sehested
My Shepherd will supply my need; Beloved is God’s name
In pasture’s fresh now I shall feed, Beside the living stream
You bring my wandering spirit back, When I forsake the Way
You gather me, for mercy’s sake, In paths of truth and grace
When shadows cast the shade of death Your presence is my stay
One word of Your supporting breath Drives all my fears away
Your hand, in sight of all my foes, Does still my table spread
My cup with blessings overflows, Your oil anoints my head
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Signs of the Times • 1 April 2016 • No. 66
Abbreviated issue
This edition of “Signs of the Times,” (and next week’s) is abbreviated to clear space for hiking in Arches National Park in Utah. (You’ll be jealous when you view these National Geographic’s photos of the park.)
Weeping may linger
A litany for worship inspired by Psalm 30
by Ken Sehested
Discard your reluctance, you saints and you sinners:
Shout vowels of praise, sing consonants of delight.
On you, Dear Beloved, have I cast my care and
entrusted my fare. Let none rejoice over my sorrow;
let none reprise my grief.
Easter’s affection
May Easter’s affection
spawn many children
who know
despite the trouble
the toil
the rubble strewn soil
the way of the cross leads home.
©Ken Sehested @ prayerandpolitiks.org
Read more ›Both enchantment and chore
A poem about vocation
by Ken Sehested
Our vocation entails both enchantment and chore;
beatific vision and mundane devotion;
reverent rapture and disciplined restraint;
the dissolution of the ego’s ravenous edge and
discovery of the true self’s Center,
which combined provide
the joyful and fearless freedom necessary
to live in Creation’s broken and bruised places
to declare that another world
is not only possible
but is promised.
©Ken Sehested @ prayerandpolitiks.org
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Signs of the Times • 21 March 2016 • No. 65
Special "Good Friday" edition
¶ Recommended music for Good Friday. Henryk Górecki’s Third Symphony, Opus 36 (“Symphony of Sorrowful Songs”), second movement (“Lento e Largo,” 9:10).
“No, Mother, do not weep, / Most chaste Queen of Heaven / Support me always.”
This is the opening line to the Polish prayer to the Virgin Mary. The prayer was inscribed on wall 3 of cell no. 3 in the basement of the "Palace," the Nazi German Gestapo's headquarters in Zadopane, Poland. Beneath is the signature of Helena Wanda Blazusiakówna, and the words "18 years old, imprisoned since 26 September 1944."
You can listen to the entire symphony here. (56:13)
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