In the Land of the Willing: Litanies, Prayers, Poems, and Benedictions

Foreword by Walter Brueggemann
by Ken Sehested, author/editor, prayer&politiks

Author-signed copies: $20.00 suggested contribution
Wipf & Stock Pub. 2014; 172 pages.

To purchase, send a check with your note to Ken Sehested, 358 Brevard Rd, Asheville, NC 28806 or order online:
(Postpaid in the U.S. Unfortunately, postage for destinations outside the U.S. are exorbitant. Go to this website https://postcalc.usps.com/ to find the cost for delivery to your address.)

 

Endorsements

In crafting these thoughtful and elegant psalms, prayers and poems, Ken Sehested draws on two deep wells.  One is scripture, the blade and balm of which he restores through creative midrash, paraphrase and reimagination.  The other is his own long history of faithful engagement—as activist in the world, and pastor in the church—which has shaped these lines like wind and water.  We use Ken’s work regularly for household prayers, community liturgies and public protests, and commend it as reliable accompaniment to the rhythms of life and faith. —Ched Myers, author of Our God Is Undocumented: Biblical Faith and Immigration Justice

At Circle of Mercy, the ecumenical congregation that I co-founded a dozen years ago with Ken Sehested and his life partner, Nancy Hastings Sehested, we have the extraordinary gift every Sunday of beginning our worship with a Call to Worship created by Ken. I’m thrilled that he is making this blessing widely available through this volume of litanies, prayers, and hymns. Our aching world needs more of such stunning and eloquent expressions of confession, conviction, and celebration.  —Joyce Hollyday, Co-pastor, Circle of Mercy Congregation and author of Clothed With the Sun: Biblical Women, Social Justice and Us

“Since Moses was in Egypt land, God’s people have been struggling for justice while singing freedom songs. Theology can be clarifying. A good sermon has it’s place. But nothing is more essential for the life of faith in a community than liturgy that invites us to sing the freedom songs that are sung around the throne of God. Brother Ken Sehested is a song leader in that great cloud of witnesses. Receive his words as gift—and keep singing.” —Jonathan Wilson-Hartgrove, author of Strangers at My Door

In In the Land of the Willing Ken Sehested’s poetry, long recognized for its brilliant illumination of scripture with regionally evocative language, takes its place as a universal gift. Here is poetry and preaching and pastoring for our days, easily shared in personal prayer or congregational worship. —Maren C. Tirabassi, author of From the Psalms to the Cloud: Connecting to the Digital Era