Wayne Conservative Party Benediction

W.H. Chellis

The benediction was a closing prayer:

Our God, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, we praise your Triune name. Lord God we are the inheritors of the great tradition of Western Christendom. A tradition that is defined by the victory of the risen Christ over the nations of the West. Lord give us wisdom. Give us the wisdom to defend what deserves defending, to reform what deserves reforming, and to celebrate was deserves celebrating. Let us not be ashamed of our inheritance.

Lord God we thank you for all of those among us this evening that have been called to the office of civil magistrate. We thank you that these men and women are your servants for good. That they do not exercises the sword in vain but are defenders of justice, punishers of evil, and preservers of order. Prudence is the greatest virtue of rulers, pour out this gift abundantly upon them.

Sovereign God, this evening we lament the loss of friends. We remember the passing of conservatism’s amiable warrior, William F. Buckley, Jr. We pray for his family. We pray for the institutions born of his labors (including the NY Conservative Party). We pray that his voice would continue to speak powerfully to us, knowing with T.S. Eliot, “that the communication of the dead is tongued with fire beyond the language of the living.” We ask Lord, that you would comfort us and that you would raise up men to lead us… men who tread in the paths of giants like Buckley, Kirk, Weaver, and Chambers.

Lord we remember Jim Gay, the faithful patron and leader of the Conservative Party. Lord comfort his family and friends. Restore our crestfallen spirits as we look forward to joining our fallen comrades in that better country.

Almighty Father, bless our labors and remind us that politics is not the realm of the eternal but the realm of our shared loves in earthly things. Let us, therefore, in true Buckley-ite fashion, remember not to take our selves our our work to seriously. May we love well, may we fight hard, and may we faithfully pass our precious inheritance to the rising generation.