1) QUESTIONING OF PRAYER AT CIVIL SERVICES - part of an article
Those who participate in civil services like the Yankee Stadium prayer service seem to believe that they have an opportunity in such a public forum to testify to the truth. In a brief editorial entitled, “Civil Interfaith Religious Events: Maximum Hazards, Minimal Opportunities,” David O. Berger points out the foolishness of such an idea… Such services do not allow Christians to proclaim the exclusive nature of Christianity and give the impression that all religions are worshiping the same God. Berger maintains, “The most common public perceptions at such events – despite the good intentions of the Christian or his well-meant words – are that: a) all participants have an equally valid ‘prayer path’ to God, b) tolerance of each other’s beliefs is more important than the truth.”

…What about the doctrine of the divine call? Does the government have the authority to “call” a pastor to serve as a chaplain or to provide a “religious” element to a civil ceremony?

…In America with its religious pluralism, demands for tolerance, and pervasive civil religion, Lutheran pastors are kidding themselves if they think participation in such events offers a positive and clear testimony of the truth.

SOURCE: Brenner, John M. Are the Lost Gospels Really Lost, pp. 301-303
Fall 2004. Wisconsin Lutheran Quarterly – News & Comments, Vol. 101, No. 4

2) UNIFYING POWER OF ECUMENICAL PRAYER? part of an article
Yet, as Moore notes, “while dogma, ritual, and religious history have divided individuals, prayer has always had the power to unify.” Nowhere was that more evident than at Washington’s National Cathedral, at Yankee Stadium, and in hundreds of houses of worship around the country where Christians, Jews, and Muslims gathered to pray in the aftermath of 9/11. “While tragedy, grief, and disbelief brought diverse people together during those difficult days,” writes Moore, “prayer, combined with patriotism, raised the country’s nobler sights and allowed Americans to acknowledge yet again their relationship to God and to one another.”

SOURCE: Sheler, Jeffery L. The power of prayer
December 14, 2004. U.S. News & World Report - Top Stories

COMMENT: This second view, of course, comes from a worldly point of view that doesn’t rest in truth or recognize that many take offense at the doctrines of Christ’s humiliation and being the only Savior.

Joint prayer among different religions just puts a bag over God's head
and treats him as if he never properly revealed himself to his creation. Our hearts may be united with all who suffer, but our faith is not connected to a denial of God's true identity. Praying together only assists the lie of God's enemy.

The first article speaks to the misconception that early Christians prayed with Jews who had rejected the Messiah.

1) PRAYER FELLOWSHIP BETWEEN JEWS & EARLY CHRISTIANS - partial article
In response to a request form the 1998 LCMS convention, the Commission on Theology and Church Relations with the Office of the President published “The Lutheran Understanding of Church Fellowship.”…

“For some time after Christ’s resurrection Christians continued to pray with the Jews in their synagogues and the temple (Acts 2:46, 3:1, 21:26ff) even though their leaders did not believe that Jesus was the Christ and had been raised from the dead (Matt. 28:11-15, Acts 4:1ff.). However, Holy Communion was not celebrated in the temple but only in the homes of Christians that served as their churches (Acts 4:26). Unbelieving Jews were excluded from the Sacrament… Agreement in the apostles’ doctrine was necessary for the breaking of bread (Acts 2:42). Church fellowship is altar and pulpit fellowship in the New Testament. [italics in original]”

…All that is necessary to refute the commission’s contention that prayer fellowship is not included in church fellowship is to read Acts 2:42, a part of the first passage which they cited: “They devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching and to the fellowship, to the breaking of bread and to prayer.” The breaking of bread, which the LCMS statement understands as the Lord’s Supper, is placed right next to prayer as an expression of fellowship.

…Praying in the temple does not necessarily mean that the Christians would join together with Caiphas and Annas and their supporters in prayer… The main reason that the apostles were continuously in the temple at the hours of prayer, when crowds flocked to the temple, is stated clearly in Acts 5:42: they were there to preach Christ… There is no evidence they went there to pray with Caiaphas.

There is another, perhaps more important factor involved in the relationship of the Christians to the temple and synagogue. These institutions had been the “orthodox churches” of that day. By rejecting Christ they had become heterodox. The Christians’ first duty was to attempt to correct this error and to restore their straying brothers to the truth. On his missionary journeys Paul regularly stopped first at the synagogue. But when the synagogue rejected his message, he either was expelled or left the synagogue (Acts 13:42, 18:4-6)… In leaving, Paul shook the dust off his feet as a protest against them (Acts 13:51) or even cursed them (Acts 18:6). Can this mean that he still prayed with them after they had rejected apostolic doctrine?

SOURCE: Brug, John F. The Synodical Conference and Prayer Fellowship, pp. 28,29
Winter 2005. WLQ, Vol. 102, No. 1

2) SAME ALTAR - quote
We may not pray together with heathen, thinking that, while they pray to their idol, we may pray to the true God. At whose altar we worship, his religion we confess. Nor may we join in prayer fellowship with those who “cause divisions and offenses contrary to the doctrine which ye have learned. Rom. 16:17.

SOURCE: Koehler, Edward. A Summary of Christian Doctrine, p. 170
cited by: Brug, John F. The Synodical Conference and Prayer Fellowship, pg. 47
Winter, 2005. Wisconsin Lutheran Quarterly, Vol. 102, No. 1

COMMENT: This was the textbook used jointly by WELS [Wisconsin Evangelical Lutheran Synod] and LCMS [Lutheran Church - Missouri Synod] when they were in fellowship. It's not the WELS that changed their way of looking at prayer fellowship.

long comments this time - but I felt explanation and commentary was necessary, especially since a lot of people err in this area.

1) JOINT PRAYER IS INTIMATE - quote
Whoever grants joint prayer to Ohio (an errant Lutheran synod) has given them the most intimate and deepest gift a Christian can give and cannot deny them any other form of brotherly relationship.

SOURCE: Bente, Gerhard. Why Can’t We Establish and Maintain
Common Prayer Services With Iowa and Ohio?
1904. Lehre und Wehre (LCMS publication) 51, p. 110
cited by: Brug, John F. The Synodical Conference and Prayer Fellowship, pg. 44
Winter, 2005. Wisconsin Lutheran Quarterly, Vol. 102, No. 1

COMMENT: What this quote is saying, is that prayer is not a secondary and unimportant activity of the Christian individual or Christian community. It is the outpouring of our heart to God. If we share a prayer bond with someone, then we should share every Christian act with them. We can't pretend that we have a prayer bond but not communion bond.

Having said that, the quote is pressing for exclusion of prayer fellowship until the fullness of fellowship can be recognized based on the truth of God's Word as the standard. So let's study God's Word together and see where we each stand - do we accept what is said or do we reject it or compromise it. Then we know whether or not we have fellowship.

2) NATIONAL DAY OF PRAYER CONUNDRUM - news article
Today marks the annual National Day of Prayer. As this area has grown to include synagogues and mosques and more people who don’t follow organized religion, public prayer has become complicated.

Which means when Christians pray in public, they have a decision to make: Do they close their prayer in Jesus’ name, as they do when they pray at home and in church?

…“When I’m in a mixed group and someone offers up a prayer for the group ‘in the name of Jesus Christ,’ it automatically excludes me,” says Rabbi Max Roth of Shearith Israel Synagogue. “I have a problem with that in the public realm and the public sphere. In church I respect that, but in prayer for all peoples that becomes a divisive type of prayer.”

Father Tom Weise understands Roth’s point of view. His grandfather was Jewish. “I’m very sensitive to that,” says Weise, of Mother Mary Mission and St. Patrick’s Church in Phenix City.

At the same time, he doesn’t want to deny his belief in the divinity of Jesus Christ.

“I don’t fault anyone who praises in the name of their God, whether it is Yahveh, Jehovah, Allah, or Jesus,” he says. “I have just made it a point in ecumenical programs to say, ‘Our Lord and God,’ and leave it up to the hearers to fill in the blanks.”

Roberson says he’s seen people hurt and offended when prayers are offered in Jesus’ name. “America is a nation of many religious faiths, so if we are to have dialogue and be able to do mission together and also community relationships and understandings, we can’t allow that to be a barrier,” he says. “We know who we are and they know who they are, so it’s not about evangelizing or proselytizing but respectfulness for all persons.”

Roth says Americans in public gatherings are bound together by the U.S. Constitution, not religion. “That has become the sacred text for all Americans,” he says. “That unifies us.”

SOURCE: Power of a name
May 5, 2005. Columbus Ledger-Enquirer

COMMENT: The Constitution beats out Jesus… That’s pretty sad. If we don't have fellowship based on the true Savior, then we simply do not have spiritual fellowship and shouldn't pretend that we do. Otherwise we are putting our human relationships ahead of our relationship with God. He has already filled in the blank as far as our prayer is concerned - we are to pray in the name of Jesus.

Paul wrote: "Do not be yoked together with unbelievers. For what do righteousness and wickedness have in common? Or what fellowship can light have with darkness? What harmony is there between Christ and Belial? What does a believer have in common with an unbeliever?... Come out from them and be separate, says the Lord." (2 Cor 6:14,15).

What we have in common - a concern for our fellow man - we can carry out together, in harmony - but we shouldn't put a mask on the difference in our faith. Prayer should be left out of the equation, until we agree on who God is and what he has done for us and what he expects of us. If we can't do that, then we won't offer up 'politically correct' prayers. We give a stronger witness to God by upholding his teachings than compromising our faith and giving everyone the impression that the Jewish or Muslim faith pleases our mutual Creator. Let's not practice the art of deception that helps no one, but maintains a mere tenable peace in this lifetime.

1) ECUMENICAL LORD'S PRAYER - partial article
The Rev. Cindy Cox Garrard has given plenty of thought to the dilemma of how to offer a public prayer.

“People have a variety of opinions about how to pray in public,” says the minister of program at St. Luke United Methodist Church in Columbus.

“Some people think it important to pray in a way to proclaim their personal faith and that’s fine,” she says. “Others feel it is most important not to offend. That seems to me to lack integrity. A third way is that you are praying in behalf of the people in the audience.”

She explains what she means. “I just came out of children’s church and the prayer was a sentence -- one sentence -- and I don’t use big words,” she says. “I would never pray in a way that would alienate a child. If I were praying with adults, I wouldn’t pray a one-sentence prayer with little tiny words because it would demean their faith.”

So what does she do?

She uses the words of Christ from the book of Matthew.

“When I’m praying in a group that either I don’t know the faith traditions of those present or I’m sure there are many faith traditions, I use as my model Jesus’ prayer, which we know as the Lord’s Prayer.

“He lifts up the name of God, he prays for daily needs, he prays for forgiveness and he prays that he will be able to forgive. And that’s it.”

SOURCE: Power of a name
May 5, 2005. Columbus Ledger-Enquirer

COMMENT: How can you pray for God’s will to be done, when the many different traditions have a different concept what God's will is? How can they be 'united' in prayer? We would all do well to learn what the petitions mean - biblically. How many people pray the Lord's Prayer without understanding what they are actually praying for? If we are praying for God's will to be done, we best understand how he expects us to carry out his will in our own lives.

2) HAZARDOUS JOINT PRAYER - quote
The most common public perceptions at such events—despite the good intentions of the Christian or his well-meant words—are that: a) all participants have an equally valid ‘prayer path’ to God. b) tolerance of each other’s beliefs is more important than the truth.

…’Visibility in the marketplace of religions’ is not a Biblical concept. The hazards are simply far too many and too great… The Scriptures, Old and New Testaments alike, are unambiguous regarding interfaith relationships that involve worship or prayer. Sophisticated judgment is rarely required. The Bottom Line for the Christian: KIS (Keep It Scriptural).

SOURCE: Berger, David O. Civil Interfaith Religious Events:
Maximal Hazards, Minimal Opportunities, p.118-121
July 2004. Concordia Journal
cited by: Brug, John F. The Synodical Conference and Prayer Fellowship, pg. 53
Winter, 2005. Wisconsin Lutheran Quarterly, Vol. 102, No. 1

COMMENT: Was Elijah praying with the prophets of Baal? Would he ever have been able to pray with them in good conscience? God is not just an umbrella name for all gods and all beliefs about God. God is everything HE reveals about HIMSELF in HIS word. We must remain faithful to him.

NEW SUBTOPIC

1) AVOID OFFENSE
Our church was invited to the Ecumenical Thanksgiving Meal here in Crandon. When I objected to worshiping together, I was assured that the only ‘worship’ would be an opening prayer, and that the prayer would be general in nature so as not to offend anyone’s faith.

That impressed on me all the more reason to stay apart, because I wouldn’t want to dummy-down my prayers in order not to offend anyone. I rejoice in the truths that I know and accept as God’s divine revelation.

2) EARLY CHURCH PRAYER RULES
Let not one of the faithful pray with a catechumen, no, not in the house: for it is not reasonable that he who is admitted should be polluted with one not admitted. Let not one of the godly pray with a heretic, no, not in the house. For “what fellowship has light with darkness?”

SOURCE: Constitutions of the Holy Apostles
cited by: Brug, John F. The Synodical Conference and Prayer Fellowship, pg. 31
Winter, 2005. Wisconsin Lutheran Quarterly, Vol. 102, No. 1

COMMENT: I couldn't say that I would agree with the rule to not pray with a catechumen. Their lack of knowledge and immaturity in faith shouldn't give cause to exclude them from prayer fellowship. Exclusion takes place when a person is adamant in their false teachings.