[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 147 (2001), Part 9]
[House]
[Page 12086]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]

                                 PRAYER

  Bishop Michael Tyrone Cushman, General Overseer, National Association 
of the Church of God, West Middlesex, Pennsylvania, offered the 
following prayer:
  Dear Kind and Gracious Heavenly Father, it is with praise and 
adoration we bow before You on this wonderful day. It is with awe and 
honor we worship Your holy presence and invite You to dwell in the 
midst of these men and women who were made by Your hands and fashioned 
for this very moment.
  We acknowledge that all wisdom comes from You. We confess this 
morning that You are our eternal Father and You are the very essence of 
love itself, and that we are created in Your loving just and merciful 
image, and that Your ultimate will is that we love each other 
unconditionally as we are loved by You.
  Please, Kind Sir, bless us this day with the spirit of 
reconciliation. Endow us with a fresh anointing of grace and tolerance. 
Empower us to deliberate through the dilemmas and conflicts of purpose 
and opinion. Equip us to accept what we cannot change. Embolden us to 
change the unacceptable and enlighten us with uncanny wisdom to strike 
the compromises that glorify You and dignify every human being.
  Now, My Father, bless this House, O Lord we pray. Keep it safe by 
night and day. In the strong name of Jesus we trust and pray. Amen.

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