A Meeting About the Poor Prompts Prayers for the Rich

There's no small irony in the coincidence that at the same time a couple of weeks ago when leaders of the Anglican Communion gathered in Boksburg, South Africa, for a conference on the problems of world poverty and development, Forbes magazine published its annual list of the world's richest people.

The Forbes list counts people who hold assets of $1 billion or more each; there are 946 of them with an aggregate total of $3.5 trillion. The magazine cites them by name, country of residence, the amounts of their wealth and its main source (business, inheritance, investments). In contrast, the people who are the subjects of the church leaders' meeting in South Africa are too numerous to identify individually. They have almost no countable financial assets.

At the same time, another irony struck me the other Sunday as I was sitting in church. We pray fervently at every church service for these latter multitudes: "the poor, the destitute, the hungry, prisoners and captives"; and quite rightly so. We also pray for "those in authority", but that phrase is intended to mean civil authority, not those in commercial or financial authority, who in fact are conspicuous by their absence from these petitions.

But it's just those business and financial leaders who through their management skill or investment acumen can generate the wherewithal to address the problems of the poor, give gainful employment to the rest of us and provide funding for governments and churches. The temporal leaders of the world have tremendous responsibilities of stewardship. A lot of the welfare of society rests on them. Just the same, despite their own fortunes and their worldly power, they are only human and they need prayer too. Or perhaps, because of their fortunes and their power, do they need prayer!

Here are two prayers by a business leader, which might give you some insights so you can fashion your own intercessions on their behalf:
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Prayer for the Ambitious

Blessed are those who are hungry for success;
(Pardon the pragmatic beatitude)
But You've a track record of being a booster of folks hungry for success,
At lease those who define success as Salvation.

Bless us abundantly, too, who crave temporal success,
A flimsy foretaste, perhaps, of our ultimate triumph.

Bless, us, Good God, and our earthly ambitions,
Giving us the courage and wisdom we need
To be able to recognize the difference
Between ambition – and just plain greed.
Amen.
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Prayer before a Vacation

I'm supposed to rest and relax –
That's the point of a vacation, isn't it?
Well, since You are and always will be
My Refuge and My Strength,
Please see to it that,
During this two week refuge of mine,
In my basking and relaxing
I am also able to forget.
I want to forget the office pettinesses and grousing,
The posturing and the hassling
That make vacations so necessary, so welcome.

Let me forget temporarily – or even better, forever –
The language of today's commerce, so frightening,
So cataclysmic – "pinpoint strategy,"
"frontal assault," "blitz campaign";
So that when I return to the office
It may be with a refreshed spirit,
A stronger purpose, a softer vocabulary –
And – of course, a terrific tan. Amen.

These are from a little book, Pinstripe Prayers, by John Chervokas*. Originally published by Seabury in 1984, the book is no longer in print, but can easily be located at used book dealers through an Internet search. It is full of these slightly irreverent but most discerning observations on running a business. One is a "Prayer before Firing Someone", another "A Prayer While Working Late". Chervokas prays about a difficult boss, the office cleaning lady and the man who shines his shoes. Every-business-day needs these, but crucial, as the work these managers do and the decisions they make filter down through the company structure to those who actually produce and deliver products.

Similarly must we pray for those with so much money they can move mountains, in the hope that they will make decisions enabling the greater welfare of the millions who try to move molehills in the far reaches of Africa, Asia, Latin America and all those small cities in south Texas, New Mexico, Louisiana, North Carolina, Alabama and elsewhere in this country, in which more than 20% of the people exist below the poverty line.

*Mr. Chervokas is presently the supervisor of the Town of Ossining, New York, but he had a long career in advertising. He is the originator of the world's most famous grocer, Mr. Whipple, and "Please don't squeeze the Charmin!"