The Nebraska Liturgy Packet -...

Episcopal Diocese of Nebraska Sesquicentennial CelebrationSunday, January 7, 2018

Table of contents1. Letter from The Right Reverend J. Scott Barker, Bishop of Nebraska2. Order of Service – Holy Eucharist3. Order of Service – Holy Baptism4. Order of Service – Morning Prayer5. Liturgical materials6. Commissioned hymn: “Sing God’s praise, Episcopalians!”7. Copyright permission for reprinting Hymn 782 from Wonder, Love,

and Praise8. Instructions for downloading reproducible anthem and recording9. Sourced material for the Prayers of the People

October 2017

Dear Brothers and Sisters in Christ -

Happy Sesquicentennial! What a joy to be able to celebrate the milestone of 150 years of worship, nurture and mission in the name of Jesus as the Diocese of Nebraska.

As a kick-off to our Sesquicentennial year, we’re inviting every church in DioNeb to set aside January 7, 2018 as a day of Sunday worship focused on our shared Nebraska experience. In this packet, you will find materials designed for use in church that day, that we hope will work in every parish setting across the state. There is a Collect for our Sesquicentennial, a special Nebraska Prayers of the People, a Blessing and Dismissal, and musical ideas and offerings to enrich your celebrations. There are even Orders of Service for Holy Baptism, Holy Eucharist or Morning Prayer which you’re welcomed to reproduce as is, or to modify for use in your congregation. It is my hope – and the shared vision of our Sesquicentennial planning team – that on that very first Sunday of our Sesquicentennial year, every Nebraska Episcopalian will be able to raise their voice in beautiful common prayer to the glory of God in Christ, and in thanksgiving for this special place that we call home. I am approving all these materials for use across the diocese during our anniversary year, and I hope you'll take full advantage by using them often in 2018. As an additional piece of our shared worship on that Sunday, the sermon shared by our Presiding Bishop Michael Curry will be broadcast live from Trinity Cathedral. With some careful coordination and planning, I expect it will be possible for us all to hear Bishop Curry preach “live” on that day! Technical details about this broadcast will be forthcoming.

I wish to thank the committee of folks who prayed about and composed these materials for our shared use. They included: Dean Craig Loya, Father Ernesto Medina, Father Charles Peek, Canon Liz Easton, Canon Precentor Marty Wheeler Burnett, Father John Adams, Deacon Colleen Lewis and Brother James Dowd.

I have no doubt that this glorious celebration across the entire expanse of our diocese will be a holy starting point for our year of Sesquicentennial pilgrimage!

In Love and Faith -

The Right Reverend J. Scott Barker, Bishop

109 North 18th St. Omaha NE 68102

January 7, 2018The First Sunday after the Epiphany: The Baptism of Our Lord Jesus ChristEpiscopal Diocese of Nebraska Sesquicentennial Celebration (1868-2018)Holy Eucharist, Rite II

THE WORD OF GODPreludeEntrance Hymn 48 O day of radiant gladness Es flog ein kleins WaldvögeleinAlternative selection: Hymn 398 I sing the almighty power of God Forest GreenOpening Acclamation BCP 355Glory to God BCP 356 or any setting from The Hymnal 1982 or its supplementsCollect of the Day BCP 214Collect for the Diocesan SesquicentennialFirst Reading Genesis 1:1-5Psalm 29 BCP 620Second Reading Acts 19:1-7Sequence Hymn 121 Christ, when for us you were baptized CaithnessHoly Gospel Mark 1:4-11SermonRenewal of Baptismal Vows BCP 292The Prayers of the People (composed for the Diocesan Sesquicentennial)The Peace

THE HOLY COMMUNIONOffertory

Anthem Christ, When For Us You Were Baptized William Bradley RobertsHymn Sing God’s praise, Episcopalians! Stuttgart

Text by Nebraska hymn poet, Rae E. WhitneyCommissioned for the sesquicentennial of the Episcopal Diocese of Nebraska

Eucharistic Prayer B BCP 367Sursum cordaPreface of BaptismHoly, holy, holy any setting from The Hymnal 1982 or its supplementsMemorial Acclamation BCP 368Great Amen BCP 369Lord’s Prayer BCP 364Fraction anthem BCP 364 or any setting from The Hymnal 1982 or its supplementsMusic during Communion (chosen from the following)These hymns are also recommended as substitutes should any of the others be unfamiliar to your parish.

Hymn 490 I want to walk as a child of the light HoustonHymn 679 Surely it is God who saves me Thomas MertonHymn 321 My God, thy table now is spread RockinghamHymn 341 For the bread which you have broken Omni die

Postcommunion Prayer BCP 365Diocesan Sesquicentennial Blessing and Dismissal Hymn 782 Gracious Spirit, give your servants Abbot’s Leigh

(Found in Wonder, Love, and Praise)Postlude

January 7, 2018The First Sunday after the Epiphany: The Baptism of Our Lord Jesus ChristEpiscopal Diocese of Nebraska Sesquicentennial Celebration (1868-2018)Holy Baptism

THE WORD OF GODPreludeEntrance Hymn 48 O day of radiant gladness Es flog ein kleins WaldvögeleinAlternative selection: Hymn 398 I sing the almighty power of God Forest GreenOpening Acclamation BCP 299Collect of the Day BCP 214Collect for the Diocesan SesquicentennialFirst Reading Genesis 1:1-5Psalm 29 BCP 620Second Reading Acts 19:1-7Sequence Hymn 121 Christ, when for us you were baptized CaithnessHoly Gospel Mark 1:4-11SermonPresentation and Examination of the Candidates BCP 301The Baptismal Covenant BCP 304Prayers for the Candidates BCP 305Thanksgiving over the Water BCP 306The Baptism BCP 307The Peace BCP 308The Prayers of the People (composed for the Diocesan Sesquicentennial)

THE HOLY COMMUNIONOffertory



Eucharistic Prayer B BCP 367Sursum cordaPreface of BaptismHoly, holy, holy any setting from The Hymnal 1982 or its supplementsMemorial Acclamation BCP 368Great Amen BCP 369Lord’s Prayer BCP 364Fraction anthem BCP 364 or any setting from The Hymnal 1982 or its supplementsMusic during Communion (chosen from the following)These hymns are also recommended as substitutes should any of the others be unfamiliar to your parish.

Hymn 490 I want to walk as a child of the light HoustonHymn 679 Surely it is God who saves me Thomas MertonHymn 321 My God, thy table now is spread RockinghamHymn 341 For the bread which you have broken Omni die

continued next page

Postcommunion Prayer BCP 365Diocesan Sesquicentennial Blessing and Dismissal Hymn 782 Gracious Spirit, give your servants Abbot’s Leigh


January 7, 2018The First Sunday after the Epiphany: The Baptism of Our Lord Jesus ChristEpiscopal Diocese of Nebraska Sesquicentennial Celebration (1868-2018)Morning Prayer II

PreludeEntrance Hymn 48 O day of radiant gladness Es flog ein kleins WaldvögeleinAlternative selection: Hymn 398 I sing the almighty power of God Forest GreenThe Invitatory and Psalter BCP 80Venite BCP 82Psalm 29 BCP 620First Reading Genesis 1:1-5Canticle 9 The First Song of Isaiah BCP 86 or Hymn 679 (metrical paraphrase)Second Reading Acts 19:1-7Canticle 20 Glory to God BCP 94 or any setting from The Hymnal 1982 or its supplementsHoly Gospel Mark 1:4-11SermonThe Apostles’ Creed BCP 96The Prayers

The Lord’s Prayer BCP 97Prayers for the Diocesan SesquicentennialSuffrages A BCP 97Collect of the Day BCP 214Collect for the Diocesan SesquicentennialPrayer for Mission BCP 100



General Thanksgiving BCP 101Prayer of St. Chrysostom BCP 102Concluding Versicle and Response BCP 102The Grace BCP 102Hymn 782 Gracious Spirit, give your servants Abbot’s Leigh


Liturgical Materials for the Diocesan Sesquicentennial

CollectLoving God of our Heartland, who has sent your Holy Spirit over our rivers and prairies to bless our land with great abundance and who has for 150 years blessed the Diocese of Nebraska with love, light, and life: Grant that all the baptized in our Diocese keep the covenant we have made, by recommitting our lives to the apostle’s teaching, by the breaking of the bread and the prayers; by persevering in resisting evil; by proclaiming the Good News; and by striving for justice and peace among all people. This we ask through Jesus Christ, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, One God, now and for ever.Amen.

Prayers of the People (Long Form for January 7 use. Shorter form can be found later in this document).Praying now to our gracious God, in the name of Jesus, through the Power of the Holy Spirit, in the Fellowship of the Body of Christ, and in celebration of 150 years of God’s Providence in this place, let us pray to God, saying, Great are the blessings from your presence among us here.

In thanksgiving, O God, for your presence in this place

--in the spirit breathing over the waters in creation that gave us the plenty into which we might “bedissolved into something complete and great,”

--in the Great Spirit among its native peoples,

--and in the Holy Spirit in your Church,

we lift up to you all believers everywhere, our companions on the pathways of pilgrimage, in the assurance that “where there is great love, there are always miracles,” and we thank you for allowing our history here to be part of your greater work in the world.

V: Loving God, we lift our hearts to you in prayer for your Universal Church, its members, and its mission—

R: Great are the blessings from your presence among us here.

Creator God, you have given us “the material out of which countries are made;” grant to all of us who share in the responsibility to affect for good the affairs of peoples and nations that “true peace which is within the soul” which alone produces “peace between nations,” and so, through the spread of peace, freedom, and justice, let there be “happiness and the power to make happy” among all the inhabitants of the earth.

V: Loving God, we lift our hearts to you in prayer for the Nations and all in authority—


Spirit of Compassion, you have taught us that “the real is yonder” and only “the darkened dream of it is here;” we whose ancestors braved a challenging frontier have inherited a feeling for the challenges that face us now—some too well fed, and some hungry, some too well housed, others homeless, a few smothered by attention, many forgotten, and all threatened by a new climate of hatred and greed, ignorance and carelessness; grant that we learn how to assist the challenged, be grateful to share our plenty, and be ever ready, as men and women of quietness of heart, “to sit among the people” in council, “with ears keen as the deer’s” to listen.

V: Loving God, we lift our hearts to you in prayer for the welfare of the world—


Divine providence, you guided our forebears to this place, and still guide us on pathways to your presence; we have sometimes cared for and preserved and sometimes abused and exploited both the place itself—its soil and water, air and habitat—and the people of this place—native and immigrant, transient and resident; let us learn from our big skies and clouds, our thunder and lightning, that “there are some things you learn best in calm, and some in storm” and let us in all events learn from those pioneers who can teach us to be caretakers of creation and find ways, “laughing or weeping,” to reach those whose hearts are hardened until, together, we “experience forgiveness of sins and rise to a state of grace.”

V: Loving God, we lift our hearts to you in prayer for the Wellbeing of your creation—


Divine Love, our Sustainer through depression and war, drought and flood, you guided our minds and hearts to all the cooperative ventures that transformed life on the Great Plains of Nebraska with electrification and reclamation, invention and innovation; you allowed us to create places of care and concern, schools and hospitals, shelters and pantries, and inspired many of these to take on independent lives and thrive on their own; let us remember today Brownell-Talbot School and Camp Canterbury, the Kearney Military Academy and the House of Transfiguration, the Bishop Kemper School and Bishop Clarkson Hospital, St. Monica’s Home and Magdalene House, innumerable conferences, retreats, Cursillos, libraries, archives and all the Twelve-Step meetings that grace our spaces.

V: Loving God, we lift our hearts to you in prayer for your Calling us to ministries that support the needs of us all—


Heavenly Grace, we thank you for the lives of those who have been among your blessings to your Church, pausing now to name, aloud or in silence, the notable leaders who have advanced your kingdom in our place and times—

. . . for those who founded congregations and ministries . . .

. . . for our Bishops and benefactors . . .

. . . for our musicians, singers, and choirs . . .

. . . for our creative souls and contemplative spiritual directors . . .

. . . for our evangelists and educators . . .

. . . for our camp directors and the leaders of our renewal movements . . .

. . . for our Wardens and Vestries, Councils and lay leaders . . .

. . . for our priests and deacons, our monks and missionaries, the nuns and “set-asides,” and thedeaconesses of old . . .

V: Loving God, we lift our hearts to you in prayer for these saints of the plains—


God of all compassion, Mercy in our need, you know our spirits to be “pinned to walls too frail formajesty;” you find us, each day, “waking with our borrowed time and wild flower” and you know our sorrow as familiar things and people we love pass from us; instill in us a goodly faith in the Resurrection; let us mourn but not as those without hope; and teach us to fix the sights of our worship, stewardship, service, and community on what, in your great love, abides to eternity. Especially today we recall, aloud or in silence, the roster of those beloved who have gone before us and now live in the nearer presence of God _.

V: Loving God, we lift our hearts to you in prayer for your Church Triumphant and our loved ones among the goodly fellowship of the Saints—


Great Sustainer of our Universe, we live here today on “the exposed layers of rock with their reliableorder . . . the oldest on the bottom and the most recent on the top . . . seashells stuck between . . .marking the passage of time;” by tonight we may well see our own lesser lights: “pinpoints of farmyard lights . . . headlights of farm machinery . . . lonely street lamps;” from break to end of day, remind us that, despite our changing times and conditions, our forebears in the faith are the bedrock of your Church in this place, and, in the midst of whatever troubles us today, give us faith in the little lights that will guide us to experiences of the holy in our own times and for generations yet unborn.

V: Loving God, we lift our hearts to you in prayer for solid foundations for our future and peace in our place in your divine plan—


Let us pray, aloud or in silence, for any needs in the lives of our families, friends, and neighbors

V: Loving God, we lift our hearts to you in prayer for your troubled children—


“Like the grasses showing tender faces to each other,” let us so live, “for this was the wish of the Grandfathers [and Grandmothers] of the World.” Move us, O God, to acts of care and kindness to our land and waterways, our air and atmosphere, our place and planet, as well as to one another.

V: Loving God, we lift our hearts to you in prayer for the acts of kindness to which our faith prompts us—


God of our Fathers and Mothers, we gather today to sing you a plain song, to offer you a simple prayer, that through your Word spoken, your Sacraments celebrated, and your Fellowship embraced, we might often enjoy that “brief feeling of uplift and hopefulness” which gives us strength and courage to continue the good work begun and sustained in this place, thankful for all who came before us, serving as though all depended on us and praying as though all depended on you, in whose Great Name we gather and remember, sing and pray, offer and receive Grace upon Grace. Amen.

Asterisks by quotes indicate the words of Willa Cather, Black Elk and John Neihardt, Ted Kooser and Mari Sandoz, Kent Haruf and Charles Fort—voices of our place and the times we commemorate. The actual quotes and their sources can be seen at the end of the Nebraska Liturgy Packet.

BlessingMay the God of creation inspire you; May the God of redemption compel you; May the God of sustenance uplift you; And may the blessing of God almighty: Father, Son, and Holy SpiritBe with you today and remain with you forever. Amen.

DismissalOver rolling sandhills and rushing rivers; through bustling cities and busy towns; among bountiful fields and vast rangelands; go forth with joy into the world to love and serve the Lord.Thanks be to God.

The Prayers of the People (Short form for continued use)

[Lectors leading the Prayers of the People during our Sesquicentennial year are encouraged to make a judicious selection of the petitions that follow, varying them from Sunday to Sunday as appropriate.]

Praying now to our gracious God, in the name of Jesus, through the Power of the Holy Spirit, in the Fellowship of the Body of Christ, and in celebration of 150 years of God’s Providence in this place, let us pray to God, saying, Great are the blessings from your presence among us here.

In thanksgiving, O God, for your presence in this place

--in the spirit breathing over the waters in creation that gave us God’s abounding blessings

--in the Great Spirit among the first inhabitants,

--and in the Holy Spirit in your Church,

we lift up to you all those who walk the pathways of pilgrimage, our companions in the assurance that “where there is great love, there are always miracles.”

V: Loving God, we lift our hearts to you in prayer for your Universal Church, its members, and its mission—


Creator God, grant to all of us a good will for all peoples everywhere, praying for that “true peace which is within the soul” which alone produces “peace between nations,” and let there be “happiness and the power to make happy” among all the inhabitants of the earth.

V: Loving God, we lift our hearts to you in prayer for the Nations and all in authority—


Spirit of Compassion, you have taught us that “the real is yonder” and only “the darkened dream of it is here;” grant that, following the best examples of our brave ancestors, we might learn how to assist the challenged, be grateful for chances to share our plenty, and be ever ready, “with ears keen as the deer’s” to hear the hopes and prayers of others.

V: Loving God, we lift our hearts to you in prayer for the welfare of the world—


Divine providence, you guided our forebears to this place, and still guide us on pathways to your presence; we have sometimes cared for and sometimes abused both the place and its people; let us learn to be caretakers of creation and find ways, “laughing or weeping,” to reach those whose hearts are hardened until, together, we “experience forgiveness of sins and rise to a state of grace.”

V: Loving God, we lift our hearts to you in prayer for the Wellbeing of your creation—


Divine Love, through depression and war, drought and flood, you guided our forebear’s minds and hearts to transform life on the Great Plains of Nebraska with schools and hospitals, shelters and pantries, let us ever be open to hear to what service you are calling us today.

V: Loving God, we lift our hearts to you in prayer for your Calling us to ministries that support the needs of us all—


Heavenly Grace, we thank you for the lives of those who have been among your blessings to your Church, pausing now to name, aloud or in silence, the notable figures on whose shoulders we continue to stand – [recall in prayer the clergy and laity to whom you feel you and your congregation are indebted]

V: Loving God, we lift our hearts to you in prayer for the saints of the plains—


God of all compassion, Mercy in our need, you know our spirits to be “pinned to walls too frail for majesty,” and you know our sorrow as familiar things and people we love pass from us; instill in us a goodly faith in the Resurrection; let us mourn but not as those without hope; and teach us to fix our sights on what, in your great love, abides to eternity. Especially today we recall, aloud or in silence, the roster of those beloved who have gone before us and now live in the nearer presence of God ______.

V: Loving God, we lift our hearts to you in prayer for your Church Triumphant and our loved ones among the goodly fellowship of the Saints—


Great Sustainer of our Universe, we live here today on “exposed layers of rock with their reliable order . . . marking the passage of time;” from break to end of each of our days, remind us how our

forebears left in this place the bedrock of your Church, the home of your promise that, in the midst of whatever changing times and conditions trouble us, Christ will guide us to experience the holy in our own times and sustain the faith for generations yet unborn.

V: Loving God, we lift our hearts to you in prayer for solid foundations for our future and peace in our place in your divine plan—


Let us pray, aloud or in silence, for any needs in the lives of our families, friends, and neighbors ______.

V: Loving God, we lift our hearts to you in prayer for your troubled children—


“Like the grasses showing tender faces to each other,” let us so live, “for this was the wish of the Grandfathers [and Grandmothers] of the World.” Move us, O God, to acts of care and kindness to our land and waterways, our air and atmosphere, our place and planet, as well as to one another.

V: Loving God, we lift our hearts to you in prayer for the acts of kindness to which our faith prompts us—


God of our Fathers and Mothers, we gather today to offer you a simple prayer, that through your Word, Sacraments, and Fellowship, we might often enjoy that “brief feeling of uplift and hopefulness” that moves us to continue the good work sustained in this place, thankful for all who came before us, serving as though all depended on us and praying as though all depended on you, in whose Great Name we receive Grace upon Grace.

AMEN.

Sing God’s praise, EpiscopaliansRae E. Whitney

2017

Stuttgartmelody from Psalmodia Sacra, oder Andächtige und Schöne

Gesange, 1715 adapt. and harm. William Henry Havergal, 1793-1870, alt.

Text commissioned for the sesquicentennial of the Diocese of Nebraska, 1868- 2018Available for unrestricted use throughout the Diocese of Nebraska without further permission.

For all other uses, contact selahpub.com

Copyright permission for reprinting Hymn 782 from Wonder, Love, and Praise

We have purchased a copyright license allowing any parish in the Diocese of Nebraska to reprint this hymn in their worship bulletins on Sunday, January 7. You must include the following information directly under the reprinted hymn:

Words: Carl P. Daw, Jr.Music: Cyril V. TaylorWords ©1997 Hope Publishing CompanyMusic ©1942 Ren. 1970 Hope Publishing Company, Carol Stream, IL 60188. All rights reserved. Used by permission.Reprinted under license #78645

Please follow these instructions to keep us in compliance with the law and the terms of our license.

Copies of Wonder, Love, and Praise are available for purchase at www.churchpublishing.org

http://www.churchpublishing.org/

Instructions for downloading the reproducible anthem and recording

Sing Across Nebraska!We invite all parishes with choirs to join in singing a common anthem for our sesquicentennial celebration. We have selected a newly composed anthem for the occasion, “Christ, When For Us You Were Baptized” by William Bradley Roberts. This anthem is scored for SATB choir with an optional treble choir (great for our youngest singers!), but it is flexible enough to be sung in unison by a small ensemble or even as a solo. If you don’t have a choir every Sunday, consider forming a small group to join in the joyful singing on this historic day.

The anthem is published by St. James Music Press, a website with a vast library of downloadable church music. Starting Nov. 1, register for a free trial membership at www.sjmp.com. Click on “Free Preview.” Search for our anthem by title, download a free copy, and make as many copies as you need at no charge. You can also download a free digital recording to share with your singers.

After your one month trial membership expires, you will have the option to subscribe to St. James Music Press for an annual fee of $139. This gives you unlimited access to everything on the website and permission to make as many copies as needed. However, there is no obligation to subscribe, and our sesquicentennial anthem is available to you at absolutely no cost.

If you need assistance, click on the “Contact” tab to send a message to St. James Music Press or contact Marty Wheeler Burnett, Canon Precentor at Trinity Episcopal Cathedral, at [email protected] or 402-342-7010 ext. 117.

mailto:[email protected]

http://www.sjmp.com/

Sourced Material for the Prayers of the People (For credited reference only. Not intended to be part of the Liturgy)

From Willa Cather, internationally regarded as one of the world’s finest writers, who grew up in Red Cloud where she belonged to Grace Church

That is happiness; to be dissolved into something complete and great. When it comes to one, it comes as naturally as sleep.” ― My Ántonia

“Where there is great love, there are always miracles.” – Death Comes for the Archbishop

“There was nothing but land; not a country at all, but the material out of which countries are made.” ― My Á ntonia

“There are some things you learn best in calm, and some in storm.” ― The Song of the Lark

From Heȟáka Sápa a famous wičháša wakȟáŋ and heyoka of the Oglala Lakota who lived in primarily in the portion of the Nebraska Territory now known as South Dakota. He was a second cousin of the war chief Crazy Horse and is better known to some of us as Black Elk, his words coming to us from John G. Neihardt’s Black Elk Speaks, the 2017 selection for One Book, One Nebraska.

There can never be peace between nations until there is first known that true peace which is within the souls of men.

“Every little thing is sent for something, and in that thing there should be happiness and the power to make happy. Like the grasses showing tender faces to each other, thus we should do, for this was the wish of the Grandfathers of the World.”

“I knew that the real was yonder and that the darkened dream of it was here.”

“You have noticed that the truth comes into this world with two faces. One is sad with suffering, and the other laughs; but it is the same face, laughing or weeping. When people are already in despair, maybe the laughing face is better for them; and when they feel too good and are too sure of being safe, maybe the weeping face is better for them to see.”

From Charles Fort, former Reynolds Chair of Poetry at the University of Nebraska at Kearney who has appeared in several volumes of the Best Poetry of the year.

You held crossbow and Apollo’s arrow,brother Kenny, elder brother, king-archer,your wild boar tail and black bear heart,tanned and skinned, teeth straightened,pinned to walls too frail for majesty. From “Brother Kenny (Brother Bird)” in We Did Not Fear the Father: New and Collected Poems.

There was glee and reprisal in the little woodFor those waking to the earth’s corridorWith their borrowed time and wild flowerAs their teeth rattled in a glass jar. From “There Was Glee and Reprisal in the Little Wood” in We Did Not Fear the Father: New and Collected Poems.

https://www.goodreads.com/work/quotes/1385675



From Ted Kooser

“I like the exposed layers of rock with their reliable order, thousands of years stacked on shelves like old courthouse ledgers, the oldest on the bottom and the most recent on the top, seashells stuck between the pages like bookmarks marking passages in time, an occasional fish pressed flat and black like the tongue of a shoe.” From “Summer” in Local Wonders: Seasons in the Bohemian Alps.

“Because we’ve had a forecast of rain, the farmers were in the fields until late last night, combines roaring, their headlights illuminating rolling clouds of pale yellow dust. Above them was a sliver of moon, vague behind thin clouds briskly blowing east.

I have always been enchanted by lights like those – pinpoints of farmyard lights against the ten o’clock darkness of rural America, headlights of farm machinery crawling over the fields, lonely street lamps in villages illuminating empty intersections.” From Autumn in Local Wonders: Seasons in the Bohemian Alps

Ted Kooser served for the Library of Congress as the Poet Laureate of the United States and created the column run in countless newspapers, This American Life in Poetry. He and his wife Kathleen Rutledge, formerly editor of the Lincoln Journal Star, belong to St. Andrew’s, Seward.

From Mari Sandoz - Mari Sandoz authored several fine novels, among them Cheyenne Autumn, and her grave is marked in the Sandhills south of Gordon. Many of her relatives belonged to Episcopal congregations around the Diocese.

“In the lodge they all looked towards Red Cloud and Man Afraid, the two going down to talk to the peace men. One of these, their Brave Man, had said “No” to this thing long ago on the Running Water, the night that Bear chief died.

There must be another one among them wishing for power.

So the Oglalas sent some quiet men, with ears keen as the deer’s to sit among the people at the council.” From “The HUNDRED in the Hands” in Crazy Horse.

From Kent Haruf - The late Kent Haruf was raised near Holyoke in the eastern flats of Colorado, a place he calls Holt County in his fiction, and taught for some years at Nebraska Wesleyan University in Lincoln.

“Guthrie could hear the two boys talking in the kitchen, their voices clear, high-pitched, animated again. He stopped for a minute to listen. Something to do with school. Some boy saying this and this too and another one, the other boy, saying it wasn’t any of that either because he knew better, on the gravel playground out back of school. He went outside across the porch and across the drive toward the pickup. A faded red Dodge with a deep dent in the left rear fender. The weather was clear, the day was bright and still early and the air felt fresh and sharp, and Guthrie had a brief feeling of uplift and hopefulness. He took a cigarette from his pocket and lit it and stood for a moment looking at the silver poplar tree. Then he got into the pickup and cranked it and drove out of the drive onto Railroad Street and headed up the five or six blocks toward Main. Behind him the pickup lifted a powdery plume from the road and the suspended dust shone like bright flecks of god in the sun.” From “Guthrie” in Plainsong.

The Nebraska Liturgy Packet -...

Documents

Transcript of The Nebraska Liturgy Packet -...