[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 146 (2000), Part 1]
[House]
[Page 641]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]

                                 PRAYER

  The Chaplain, Rev. James David Ford, D.D., offered the following 
prayer:
  We are grateful, O God, for those people who devote their energies to 
the public good and who use the natural gifts that come from Your hand 
in ways that promote justice and freedom in our land.
  On this special day we mourn the death of our former Speaker, Carl 
Albert, and offer our condolences to those that were near and dear to 
him. We recall his devotion to this institution, the House of 
Representatives, and his commitment to the ideals of this assembly and 
his sense of fairness and respect to those who served with him. We laud 
the strength of his intellect and the power of the words that he used 
to present his values and beliefs. As a leader who was elected by his 
peers to the highest position of responsibility, we remember with 
gratitude the strength of his character and the wisdom of his ways.
  May Your blessing, O God, that is new every morning and with us until 
the end of the day, be with those who mourn his death, even as we 
celebrate the witness of his life. Amen.

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