If grace is to be real, then it must have real effects. And these effects must be palpable, visible. When the divine enters the world, it produces changes everyone can see, not invisible craters, but … — Theodore W. Jennings
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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“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
Read more ›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)”
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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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¶ 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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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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Read more ›Ken Sehested
Unlike traditional cultures (mostly of the past), Western modernity has few common “rites of passage,” typically during the transition of adolescence from childhood to adulthood. Getting a driver’s license is our substitute, along with school graduations. What follows are two pieces of adaptable commentary.
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Read more ›Ken Sehested
Prelude. “Adonai (Psalm 113:3).” —Hebrew and Arab voices, must by Nathaniel Bassey: “From the rising of the sun to the place where it sets, the name of the Lord is to be praised"
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