23 September 2023

Daily prayers in Ordinary Time
with USPG: (118) 23 September 2023

‘We have devalued the fine ecological mat that you wove with so much love’ (‘Litany of Repentance,’ Season of Creation) … street art in Mikrasiaton Square, Rethymnon (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Patrick Comerford

We are in Ordinary Time in the Church Calendar, and tomorrow is the Sixteenth Sunday after Trinity (Trinity XVI, 24 September 2023). We are also in the Season of Creation.

I am in London later this morning for the annual reunion and celebration day of the Anglican mission agency USPG (United Society Partners in the Gospel) in Holy Trinity Church, Sloane Street.

But, before the day gets busy, I am taking some time this morning for prayer and reflection.

This week, I have been reflecting each morning in these ways:

1, Reflecting on a theme in this Season of Creation, the annual Christian celebration to pray and respond together to the cry of Creation;

2, the Gospel reading of the day in the Church of England lectionary;

3, a prayer from the USPG prayer diary.

The theme of the Season of Creation this year is ‘Let Justice and Peace Flow’

‘Litany of Repentance’:

The Season of Creation is the annual Christian celebration to pray and respond together to the cry of Creation: the ecumenical family around the world unites to listen and care for our common home, the Oikos of God.

The Season of Creation began on 1 September, the World Day of Prayer for the Care of Creation, and it ends on 4 October, the Feast of Saint Francis of Assisi, the patron saint of ecology beloved by many Christian denominations.

Each year, the Season of Creation Ecumenical Steering Committee proposes a theme for the Season of Creation. This year, the theme is ‘Let Justice and Peace Flow,’ and the symbol is ‘A Mighty River’.

The ecumenical resources produced for the Season of Creation this year include a ‘Litany of Repentance’ written by the Revd James Shri Bhagwan, General Secretary of the Pacific Conference of Churches:

God of light, life and love,
God of land, and sea, and sky,
Who called creation into existence and wove it into a rich
tapestry, a fine mat, a web of life

Your Spirit hovered over the face of the primordial waters,
And was breathed into humankind after you made us
equally in your image.
Your Word was made flesh and embodied your divine
love as it took root and bore fruit in us, restoring our
relationship with you.

Yet we have not honoured this relationship with you and
the rest of your Creation.
We have disrespected the web of life
We have devalued the fine ecological mat that you wove
with so much love
We have uprooted Your tree of life and sold it as logs.
We have forgotten that we sweat and cry saltwater and
have polluted your oceans and rivers … oceans that cry for
Justice and rivers that call to righteousness.

Instead of everything that has breath praising you, all
creation groans in pain as trees and phytoplankton choke
on carbon belched from our desire for more, and our care
for less.
All around we see the consequences of our ecological sin
as we extract and exploit, as we defile and pillage our sister
and brother creation:
Heatwaves and wildfires
Bitter winters
Droughts and floods
Rising sea levels and rising ocean temperatures
More extreme cyclones, typhoons and hurricanes

Yet we are blind
Creation roars in pain
Yet we are deaf
You call us in Christ, to speak truth to power and peace to
this planet, our common home
Yet we are silent.

God of hope and healing
May your Rivers of Righteousness
Wash away our apathy, our greed and selfishness and
reveal the deep relationships You created for us with all
creation.
Nourish us with the water of life that restores, turning
deserts of despair into oases of hope.

May the waves of Your embrace
Transform us back into guardians of Your creation.
May the currents of Your justice
Carry us to Your lagoon of peace
Where all creation may enjoy
Life in abundance.

We pray in the name of the one who came so that the whole
cosmos may have everlasting life,
Jesus the Christ,
Amen.

Find out more about the Season of Creation HERE.

‘Nourish us with the water of life that restores’ (Season of Creation, ‘Litany of Repentance’) … the River Great Ouse at Calverton, Buckinghamshire (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Luke 8: 4-15 (NRSVA):

4 When a great crowd gathered and people from town after town came to him, he said in a parable: 5 ‘A sower went out to sow his seed; and as he sowed, some fell on the path and was trampled on, and the birds of the air ate it up. 6 Some fell on the rock; and as it grew up, it withered for lack of moisture. 7 Some fell among thorns, and the thorns grew with it and choked it. 8 Some fell into good soil, and when it grew, it produced a hundredfold.’ As he said this, he called out, ‘Let anyone with ears to hear listen!’

9 Then his disciples asked him what this parable meant. 10 He said, ‘To you it has been given to know the secrets of the kingdom of God; but to others I speak in parables, so that

“looking they may not perceive,
and listening they may not understand.”

11 ‘Now the parable is this: The seed is the word of God. 12 The ones on the path are those who have heard; then the devil comes and takes away the word from their hearts, so that they may not believe and be saved. 13 The ones on the rock are those who, when they hear the word, receive it with joy. But these have no root; they believe only for a while and in a time of testing fall away. 14 As for what fell among the thorns, these are the ones who hear; but as they go on their way, they are choked by the cares and riches and pleasures of life, and their fruit does not mature. 15 But as for that in the good soil, these are the ones who, when they hear the word, hold it fast in an honest and good heart, and bear fruit with patient endurance.’

‘May your Rivers of Righteousness wash away our apathy, our greed and selfishness (Season of Creation ‘Litany of Repentance’ … by the waterside in Cosgrove, Northamptonshire (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Today’s Prayer:

The theme this week in ‘Pray With the World Church,’ the Prayer Diary of the Anglican mission agency USPG (United Society Partners in the Gospel), has been ‘Let Justice and Peace Flow.’ This theme was introduced on Sunday.

The USPG Prayer Diary today (23 September 2023) invites us to pray in these words:

We thank you Lord for the infinite love and mercy you show all your people, for the blessings you bestow on your children.

The Collect:

God, who in generous mercy sent the Holy Spirit
upon your Church in the burning fire of your love:
grant that your people may be fervent
in the fellowship of the gospel
that, always abiding in you,
they may be found steadfast in faith and active in service;
through Jesus Christ your Son our Lord, who is alive and reigns with you,
in the unity of the Holy Spirit,
one God, now and for ever.

The Post Communion Prayer:

Keep, O Lord, your Church, with your perpetual mercy;
and, because without you our human frailty cannot but fall,
keep us ever by your help from all things hurtful,
and lead us to all things profitable to our salvation;
through Jesus Christ our Lord.

Yesterday’s Reflection

Continued Tomorrow

Scripture quotations are from the New Revised Standard Version Bible: Anglicised Edition copyright © 1989, 1995, National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide. http://nrsvbibles.org



Releasing the vows of the past
and praying for a year of
happiness and redemption

Reading from the scrolls in the synagogue … ‘Jews Praying in the Synagogue on Yom Kippur,’ Maurycy Gottlieb (1856-1879), Vienna, 1878, Tel Aviv Museum of Art

Patrick Comerford

The Jewish High Holy Days began with Rosh haShanah last week on Friday evening (15 September 2023), marking the beginning of the Jewish New Year, welcoming in the year 5784. Yom Kippur 2023 begins at sunset on Sunday evening (24 September 2023), when the evening service begins with Kol Nidre, and ends at nightfall the following evening tomorrow (25 September).

This Shabbat between Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur is called Shabbat Shuvah, ‘Shabbat of Return.’ It is also referred to as Shabbat Teshuvah because it falls during the Ten Days of Repentance, and is also known as the Sabbath of Sabbaths and the White Sabbath.

The name derives from the Haftarah for this Shabbat, which opens with the words ‘Return O Israel unto the Lord your God …’ (Hosea 14: 2). This Shabbat in the Ten Days of Repentance is regarded as an auspicious time to rectify the failings and missed opportunities of the past and positively influence the coming year.

The master Kabbalist Rabbi Isaac Luria (‘Ari’) taught that the seven days between Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur – which always include one Sunday, one Monday, etc – correspond to the seven days of the week. The Sunday between Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur includes within itself all Sundays of the year; the Monday embodies all Mondays, and so on. Shabbat Shuvah is thus the archetypal Shabbat – the juncture in time at which we are empowered to influence every Shabbat of our year.

The High Holy Days, also known as the ‘Days of Awe,’ began on Rosh haShanah (רֹאשׁ הַשָּׁנָה‎) literally meaning the ‘head of the year.’ This is a time of repentance when Jewish people reflect on actions over the previous year. Traditional celebrations will see families and friends spend time together, pray, listen to the sound of the Shofar (the ram’s horn) and eat special food.

Yom Kippur falls on the Hebrew calendar date of 10 Tishrei. The tenth day, Yom Kippur – the Day of Atonement – begins on Sunday evening at sunset and ends at nightfall on Monday.

The central themes of this holy day are atonement and repentance, and it is observed with a 25-hour period of fasting and intensive prayer, and many Jews spend most of the day at synagogue services.

According to Jewish tradition, God writes each person’s fate for the coming year into the Book of Life on Rosh Hashanah or New Year and waits until Yom Kippur to seal the verdict. During the intervening Days of Awe, Jews seek to amend their behaviour and seek forgiveness for wrongs done against God and against other people.

The evening and day of Yom Kippur are set aside for public and private prayer and confessions of guilt.

The evening of Yom Kippur is known as Kol Nidre night because of the Kol Nidre prayer which is charged with so many emotions and so many memories for Jews everywhere. The words are in Aramaic, not Hebrew, and it is sung to a haunting, traditional melody that has inspired many composers and singers.

There is a tradition that during the Spanish Inquisition, when the conversos or Jews who were forced to convert to Christianity under the threat of death, they remained faithful to Judaism at heart, and tried to observe Jewish practices in their homes.

These conversos would gather in the evening shortly before Yom Kippur began in their secret synagogues. Before beginning the Yom Kippur services, they would tearfully and emotionally pray to God, asking for forgiveness for all the public statements they made in the previous year which were contrary to Jewish doctrine.

This is supposedly also the reason why Kol Nidre is prefaced with the statement: ‘… by the authority of the heavenly tribunal and by the authority of the earthly tribunal, we hereby grant permission to pray with those who have transgressed.’

However, the Kol Nidre prayer predates the Inquisition by at least 500 years. It is said with great devotion as the opening prayer of the holiest day of the year and not because of its content.

Kol Nidre is an Aramaic declaration recited in the synagogue before the beginning of the evening service on every Yom Kippur. Although, strictly speaking, Kol Nidre is not a prayer, it has many emotional undertones and creates a dramatic introduction to Yom Kippur. The term Kol Nidre refers not only to the actual declaration but is also used as the name for the entire Yom Kippur service in the evening.

The name ‘Kol Nidre’ comes from the opening words, meaning ‘all vows.’ It is a pledge that annuls any personal or religious oaths or prohibitions made to God by the person for the next year, so as to avoid the sin of breaking vows made to God that cannot be or are not upheld.

Kol Nidre was introduced into the synagogue liturgy despite the opposition of some rabbis, although it was expunged from the prayer book by many communities in western Europe in the 19th century.



In synagogues on the evening of Kol Nidre, the Ark is opened and two people take out two or three Torah scrolls. They then take their places, one on each side of the cantor, and the three, forming a symbolic beth din or rabbinical court, recite:

By the authority of the Court on High
and by authority of the court down here,
by the permission of One Who Is Everywhere
and by the permission of this congregation,
we hold it lawful to pray with sinners.


The last word, usually translated as sinners or transgressors, is used in the Talmud (Niddah 13b; Shabbat 40a) for apostates or renegades and in the Talmud of Jerusalem (Ketubot 7, 31c) for someone whose offences are of such magnitude that he is no longer recognised by the Jewish community.

The cantor then chants the passage beginning with the words Kol Nidre with its touching melodic phrases, and, in varying intensities, repeats twice, giving a total of three declarations, these words:

All vows we are likely to make,
all oaths and pledges we are likely to take
between this Yom Kippur and the next Yom Kippur,
we publicly renounce.
Let them all be relinquished and abandoned,
null and void,
neither firm nor established.
Let our vows, pledges and oaths
be considered neither vows nor pledges nor oaths.


The leader and the congregation then say together three times:

May all the people of Israel be forgiven,
including all the strangers who live in their midst,
for all the people are in fault.
(Numbers 15: 26)

The leader then says:

O pardon the iniquities of this people,
according to thy abundant mercy,
just as thou forgave this people
ever since they left Egypt.


The leader and the congregation say together three times:

The Lord said,
‘I pardon them according to your words.’
(Numbers 14: 20)

The Torah scrolls are then placed back in the Ark, and the customary evening service begins.

Kol Nidre is not a prayer; indeed, it makes no requests and it is not addressed to God. Instead, it is a declaration before the Yom Kippur prayers begin. It follows the juridical practice of requiring three men as a tribunal, the procedure beginning before sundown, and of the proclamation being announced three times.

It is believed that Kol Nidre was added to the liturgy of Yom Kippur 10 days after Rosh haShana, the Jewish New Year, because that service is much more solemn, because the Day of Atonement is attuned to the theme of repentance and remorse, and because Yom Kippur services are better attended. Kol Nidre also includes an emotional expression of penitence that sets the theme for the Day of Atonement.

Rabbi Meir ben Samuel made an important change to the wording of Kol Nidre in the early 12th century, changing the original phrase ‘from the last Day of Atonement until this one’ to ‘from this Day of Atonement until the next.’

The older text is usually called the Sephardic version, but the two versions are sometimes found side by side. Because it is traditional to recite Kol Nidre three times, some Sephardic communities and a small number of Ashkenazic communities recite both versions.

Kol Nidre is performed before Yom Kippur begins, and should be recited before sunset, since dispensation from a vow may not be granted on the Sabbath or on a feast-day, unless the vow refers to one of these days. However, Sephardic communities wait until nightfall, when Yom Kippur officially begins, before reciting Kol Nidre.

There is a tradition that makes Kol Nidre more than a technical procedure of annulling vows. Instead, by releasing these vows, God is being asked to reciprocate in kind. In the event that he has pledged not to bring the redemption just yet, in the event that he made an oath to bring harsh judgments on his people in the following year, God is asked to release these vows and instead grant a year of happiness and redemption.

Avinu Malkeinu is the traditional prayer considered by many as the pinnacle of the Yom Kippur service. The ark is still open and will soon close. As the service is reaching its end, there is a feeling that the gates of heaven are closing. The emotions that have been built up throughout the day are expressed as the entire congregation sings this traditional tune together.

It is an important reminder of how to cherish the past, and allow it to help shape and focus the days ahead. The old and the new are side by side, blessed by renewed energy year after year.

לְשָׁנָה טוֹבָה תִכָּתֵבוּ וְתֵּחָתֵמוּ‎

May your name be sealed for good in the Book of Life