Photos by David P. Skidmore – Canon for Communications Discese of Chicago (Episcopal)
© David J. Skidmore – Click on name to request permission to use photos
No doubt the light has shined on our proceedings
But light alone falls short of what we’re needing.
Give us fire.
Sufficient, not illumination lacking,
Flow thoughts, juxtapositions, logic’s trackings.
But we need fire.
Fire, not just inspiring fresh ideas;
Fire, not merely bright’ning this arena
Where words are strung together with precision—
Syntax and tense and text display cohesion—
O, Give us fire!
Ignite a flame that kindles in our minds
And burns the rotting wood; mount in its path
A holocaust to cool sophistication.
Fire will warm, but not to warmth confine,
Fire that destroys, consumes and yields to wrath
The smallest tinder-twig of resignation.
O God, Your fire!
With friction of the Word and Wind entreat
And sear with fiery tongue and glowering heat
To melt our will, all hard and ice-encrusted;
To forge an alloy with no threat of rusting
Burnished in the white-heat, flames out-thrusting:
Living fire.
No sacrifice, however erudite,
Will ever be consumed by only light.
Give us fire.
Jaime Potter-Miller. ©1988. Songs of Quiet Trust 1994-1995, United Theological Seminary. Dayton, Ohio.
Sister Dr. Lorelei Fuchs preached on the theme text for this years workshop and for the 2008 Week of Prayer for Christian Unity, Thessalonians 5:12a, 13b-18.
Chicago 2008
Executive Committee:
Rev. M. Grayson Van Camp
Chair
Presbyterian Church (USA)
Sr. Mary Ellen Coombe, nds
Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Chicago
Rev. Catiana McKay
United Methodist Church
Elder Gordon Zerkel
Treasurer
Presbyterian Church (USA)
Ms. Paloma Cabetas
Staff
Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Chicago
Rt. Rev. Bishop Demetrios
Greek Orthodox Metropolis of Chicago
Rev. Fr. Sharbel Bcheiry
Syriac Orthodox Church
Rev. Nan Conser
United Church of Christ
Rev. Ray Drada
Polish National Catholic Church
Elder Michael Eaddy
People’s Church of God in Christ
Rev. Dr. Larry Greenfield
American Baptist Churches of Metro Chicago
Rev. Cynthia Hallas
Episcopal Diocese of Chicago
Major Stephen Harper
Salvation Army, Chicago Metropolitan Division
Rev. Dr. Edgar Hiestand, Jr.
United Methodist Church, Northern Illinois Conference
Rev. George “Tripp” Hudgins
American Baptist Churches, USA
Very Rev. Fr. Aren Jebejian
Armenian Orthodox Church
Very Rev. Fr. Joseph Kobylarz
Polish National Catholic Church
Rev. Fr. Taras Maximtsiv
Ukrainian Orhodox Church
Sr. Joan McGuire, OP
Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Chicago
Rev. W.J. G McLin
Christian Methodist Episcopal Church
Rev. Craig Mueller
Evangelical Lutheran Church in America
Rev. Fr. Luke Nelson
Archangel Michael Orthodox Church
Mr. Harold A Peponis
Greek Orthodox Metropolis of Chicago
Mr. Jason Renken
Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Chicago
Rev. Paul Rutgers
Presbyterian Church USA
Mr. Nazar Sloboda
Ukrainian Catholic Church
Very Rev. Darko Spasojevic
Serbian Orthodox Church in the USA and Canada
Rev. Eduardo Spragg
Christian Methodist Episcopal Church
Ms. Lydia Talbot
Greater Chicago Broadcast Ministries
Rev. Dr. Larry Ulrich
Church of the Brethren