[Congressional Record Volume 140, Number 14 (Friday, February 11, 1994)]
[Senate]
[Page S]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Printing Office [www.gpo.gov]

                                 prayer

  The Chaplain, the Reverend Richard C. Halverson, D.D., offered the 
following prayer:
  Let us pray:
  That which we have seen and heard declare we unto you, that ye also 
may have fellowship with us: and truly our fellowship is with the 
Father, and with his Son Jesus Christ.--I John 1:3.
  Eternal God our Father, help us comprehend the meaning of 
``fellowship'' which is the central reality of Biblical truth--another 
way of saying, ``Love God and love your neighbor.'' We have lost our 
connectedness. As relationships in the family and the community have 
disappeared, we find ourselves alienated from each other. At the heart 
of homelessness, gangs, and violence is alienation. And the root 
problem in history is self-alienation from God.
  Gracious Father, we remember with profound gratitude the faith in 
which our national life was grounded and the strength of the words, ``E 
Pluribus Unum.'' People from many nations composed America. We were one 
people. Now we are like a tossed salad, no longer like a melting pot, 
fragmented in home, community, and race. Desperately we need the 
reconciliation that comes from God that brings us together in 
fellowship with one another and with the Father and His Son.
  Mighty God, help us find our way back to the unity which bonded us 
together and made us great as a nation.
  We pray in Jesus' name who is the Great Reconciler. Amen.

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