Members of the Elon community are invited to contact Chaplain Richard McBride about creating prayer flags for use at chapel this semester. Details...
In Tibetan Buddhism, prayer flags have two purposes, either to increase the spiritual energy of an interior space or to send a prayer of blessing wherever it needs to go, carried by the wind. During Thursday Chapel this fall, we will borrow this ancient practice. A new prayer flag will be created each week by a member of our community to accompany the prayer that is the focus of attention for that week. It will be displayed in Whitley Auditorium during Chapel, and then carried through the center of campus as an offering of that prayer on behalf of the community.
The prayer that is our focus for the first Chapel of the semester is the well-known Serenity Prayer: “God, grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change, the courage to change the things I can, and the wisdom to know the difference.” This first prayer flag, created by Carolyn Nelson, Director of Design in the Office of University Relations, will carry the single word ‘Wisdom.’
Members of the Elon community are invited to contact Chaplain Richard McBride about creating other flags representing other prayers. The Chapel theme for the fall semester, “Prayer by Whatever Language,” will explore the nearly universal human experience of prayer and meditation as it appears in great variety within the world’s major religions.