Graduating Class of 2013 - Rehearsal at Unity Village Activities Center - June 6, 2013

Invocation given by Rev. Dr. Thomas Shepherd at 2013 Graducation/Ordination

Let us Pray.  Almighty God, One Presence/One Power, as we gather at this sacred moment in time, we invoke your Holy and Ancient Names, brought through history by our ancestors of so many faiths.

We give measureless thanks to the Spirit-within and beyond All Things, to the God of Abraham, Moses and Jesus; to the unspeakably holy, All-Merciful God of the Prophet Muhammad; to the Universal God of the Baha’i Faith; and the many iterations of the divine celebrated throughout Asia and ancient America; and in the tribal societies of Africa, circumpolar regions, island cultures and villages everywhere.

We are a species that prays. Tonight we lift up to the Universe a great gift—a handful of men and women who have chosen to go forth from the holy place and speak the word of the Lord as they have heard it.

We bless them as they take upon themselves this sacred obligation, to be ministers of Practical Christianity, wholly dedicated to pray for, teach and serve whomever Spirit sends unto them.

Thank you, Father-Mother God, Eternal Spirit, God-within us and God beyond the farthest star. Wherever they go, they bless others as ministers in your Holy Name.  Amen.

Rev. Thomas W. Shepherd, D.MIn.

7 PM  - June 6, 2013 

Unity Village, MO