“Public comment” at the October 13 Albemarle County School Board meeting was full of impassioned observations and collective angst. But, amidst all this, there was a refreshing pause in the acrimony.
Among a litany of speakers on such topics as “family leave” and “the propriety of pro-transgender t-shirts in the classroom,” an unassuming man stood up to publicly pray over the meeting and the Schools’ community.
Most School Board and audience members alike seemed oblivious to God’s power being called down upon them.
A few in the crowd smiled knowingly, while dour-faced others— after catching-on—hid their faces in fearful shame or resisted the Word by flourishing “Protect Trans Kids” placards.
The resistors expressed visible relief when the prayer was completed, and the meeting went on as though nothing extraordinary had transpired.
But it had.
Read the Quiet Man’s prayer of repentance for Albemarle County Public Schools:
I just come before the Lord of heaven and earth today as your humble servant.
We petition you today that your will be done on earth and in Albemarle County, just as it is in heaven.
I come before you and your courts of heaven, asking for your justice, not man’s justice, be served in Albemarle County in the public schools.
I hereby take my mantle of spiritual authority as a father of County students, an Albemarle County community member.
And I say, Father, God, I invite you back into our schools. And I pray that all students, all races, rich or poor, would come to understand their true identity in you.
We repent on behalf of a fatherless nation, and I stand as a repentant father, and as we see the fatherlessness has caused such confusion in our youth.
We pray for the protection of our county, teachers, our School Board, our parents, students, bus drivers, people that work in the cafeteria. Everybody.
Let our schools be a place of learning and enlightenment. And that our students will no longer be used as pawns in political battles.
It is now time for us adults and leaders to lead and guide our youth into all truth in the fight for the eternal souls of our children.
Let’s work together. Let us stop the bickering and the “us against them” mentality, and fault-finding.
Our students deserved to be listened to and not coerced into an agenda.
Let all of us work together. Thank you.
