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Prayer of the Guest Chaplain of the U.S. House of Representatives: Rabbi Edward Benjamin Morris Browne on 13 December 1917

Guest Chaplain: Rabbi Edward B. M. Browne, Mount Morris Park Synagogue “Ateress-Zvee,” New York City, New York
Date of Prayer: 13 December 1917
Sponsor: n/a
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Contribute a translationSource (English)
Father, who art in Heaven,
hallowed is Thy name.
Thy kingdom came with the dawn of creation,
and being established upon principles eternal and universal,
its laws enforce themselves alike in all climes and in all ages.
Therefore Thy will must be done
amongst the celestials in Heaven
even as it is done
amongst Thy mortal children on earth.
Thou hast endowed nature
with productive energies, subservient to man’s will,
whereby Thou givest us this day our daily bread.
By imparting to us Thy divine spirit,
Thou hast enabled us
to enact just laws
which guard human society,
so that human passions may lead us
not into temptation
but divine grace deliver us from all evil.
For the purpose of enacting
just laws for our great Nation,
there are here assembled its representative sons,
and I pray that as Thou wast present
with Moses on the peak of Moab,
so here in this modern Sinai
Thou canst send Thy shekhinah[1] Original has ‘shekinah' 
upon every one of the Representatives present,
so that while they represent the will of the people
they will represent the will of Thee,
who art our Father and our Lord.
And we pray, oh God, our special blessing
upon the President of the United States,
our olive-branch President,
who is waging an olive-branch war
in order to bring about an olive-branch, genuine peace
amongst all the nations of the earth.
Open Thy religious magnanimity
to forgive those who trespass against us
even as Thou forgivest our trespasses
against Thee.
And thus give us the power and the will
to bring mankind to Thy feet
as children of God
and to democratize every human being
in justice
and in equality.
We thank Thee, oh Lord,
that You have selected our Nation
as the chosen people of these days
to bring about the peace
which the bewildered world now wants.
But let us not be vainglorious
at the high position assigned us,
bearing in mind that whatsoever we are
in greatness,
in influence,
in power,
we are so only through Thee.
For Thine is the kingdom,
and the power, and the glory,
forever and ever.
Amen.

This prayer of the guest chaplain was offered in the first year of the 65th US Congress, after the United States had officially entered World War Ⅰ. The prayer, modeled after the Lord’s Prayer, is at once ecumenical, civic, and perhaps also sensational — as a Jewish prayer of a rabbi before a largely white Christian audience in the US House of Representatives. The source images of the prayer were copied by Howard Mortman and shared via his @CongressRabbi Twitter account. All credit to Howard Mortman for his research in digging up this prayer. Unfortunately, neither the source images nor his tweets provide an exact citation reference to the volume, issue, and page number of the Congressional Record in which the prayer was published. If you know, leave a comment, or contact us.

Source(s)

Prayer of the Guest Chaplain (Edward B.M. Browne, 13 December 1917)

 

Notes

Notes
1Original has ‘shekinah'

 

 

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