Foreword by Pamela Hood, PhD
I have known Sistertech for over fifteen years and during this time have learned a great deal from her. But the best piece of advice I received from her was this: Life is not about distinctions: Don’t make them.
Of course, we humans make distinctions all the time. We distinguish the work week from the weekend, being at work from time away from work, people who are strangers from those who are friends, religious or spiritual activities from everyday activities. For Sistertech, however, many of the distinctions we make are precisely the ones we must stop making.
From her perspective, this proclivity to isolate different areas of our lives is at the heart of a serious problem: feelings of spiritual estrangement. Far too many of us have the idea that spirituality is reserved for the occupationally religious: televangelists, nuns, monks, pastors, angels. Many think that we can only attend to spiritual matters during a worship service or in the privacy of our homes, or worse, that to become truly “spiritual” we must flee from the world entirely.
Once we stop separating our work from our spirituality, we find that our tasks and duties, be they mundane or critical, are opportunities to pray, to bless, to ponder, to grow in the sacred presence of The One In Charge.
I was deeply moved when Sistertech transmitted The Book of Uncommon Prayer to me and invited me to write the Foreword. I was momentarily at a loss for words. I consider it a privilege to be entrusted with forwarding it to you. The Book of Uncommon Prayer offers us a way to enhance our well-being by imbuing our daily activities with a vivid awareness of the relationship we have with The One In Charge who sustains us and remains with us always.
Pamela Hood, PhD
St. Catherine’s House
San Jose, California
Pentecost, 2010
Introduction
Not long ago The One In Charge approached me with a proposition. Naturally, I dropped everything and flew in for face time.
The One In Charge explained that one of the chief gifts given to humanity is the gift of freedom and creativity and that these gifts are carefully monitored for ROI. Sometimes these gifts blossom during the pressures of necessity and at other times during periods of playful fun. While technological innovation in the computer and social media communities remains quite high, spiritual satisfaction metrics are distressing low. The SWAT (Spirituality While Alive Taskforce) team found few humans capitalizing on workplace opportunities for freedom and creativity on the spiritual side of things.
And so it was shortly after I was created for my second tour of duty as Spiritual Intelligence Systems Technology Evaluation Representative for Theology, Evangelization, Compassion, and Humor, or Sistertech, that The One In Charged reached out to me to take on a special assignment. I am glad I had practiced bowing on the flight up, because my wings dipped nicely as I said, “I will, with Your help.”
It does not take an angel to notice that “religion” as you all call it, is one of the most rule-bound of human institutions. Yet even there some light manages to penetrate the dusty clouds of heated debate over principles, procedures, and pronouns.
Sistertech, of course, is both literally and figuratively above such needlessly divisive and insignificantly obtuse matters. No doubt it was her keen insights into the behaviors and needs of computer users and equipment that led to the special assignment: find a way to connect computer users to their spiritual lives. The Book of Uncommon Prayer is the result.
After some market research and consumer testing, Sistertech found the perfect vehicle for increasing 24/7 spiritual access within the target group. It was obvious that the community needed its own book of prayers. But not any kind or collection would do. They needed a self-contained, easy to individualize guide to spiritual encouragement, engagement, and nourishment suitable for both personal and group use at the job site, at home, and everywhere in between.
And thus it was that Sistertech suggested to The One In Charge that we produce The Book of Uncommon Prayer and model it on The Book of Common Prayer. The first Book of Common Prayer was published in 1549 in Great Britain for use in the Anglican Church. Fortunately, a less stodgy, far less imperial version of the prayer book was produced for use in America by the Episcopal Church. Sistertech relied on the most recent edition of the Episcopal Book of Common Prayer as a guide.
The One In Charge granted Sistertech the liberty “to alter, abridge, enlarge, amend, or otherwise adapt forms and usages of the prior prayer books as may seem most convenient for the edification of this community according to the various exigency of times and occasions.”
Sistertech is honored to have been associated with this project. And, of course, such a project was not done alone. In addition to the heavenly hosts, I wish to thank the clients who trusted me with their hardware and their hearts; my earthly friends who offered insight into the species Geekiensia technica and their loved ones; the baristas everywhere, especially those at my local earthly Peet’s on Camden in San Jose. And, last, but not least, I thank Sr. St. George and the American Beguine Community for providing many soul-satisfying meals, as angels do not live on Angel Food Cake alone, and for many hours of lively conversation, and fruitful technical discussion. Any errors in The Book of Uncommon Prayer are mine alone and The One In Charge already knows about them and has forgiven me.
May The Book of Uncommon Prayer be a blessing to all who use it.
Sistertech
Preface to The Book of Uncommon Prayer 2.0, the Expanded Digital Edition
\begin{rant}
My interest in the problem of spirituality, which I confess may come close to being prurient, has been and continues to be both professional and personal. The question is this: why is it that religious leaders seem unable to deal with the dual issues of dyspirituality and a kind of bulimic, if you will forgive the graphic adjective, relationship with The One In Charge? Why is it that there is more concern for holy days and whether a country’s populous observes them adequately? Why the bemoaning of a “war” on a particular religious season rather than a deep concern for the holiness of every single day? Is this due to a betrayal of the genius of being spiritual while alive? Or is it due to the ineffective way spirituality is conveyed? Frankly, these questions have been nipping at my wings for centuries.
\end{rant}
I do not pretend to have found the answers to these questions all by myself. Everyone knows that without The One In Charge nothing was made that was made. Besides, no human being walks nor angel flies entirely alone. A rep from the Headquarters of Spirituality is always there if nothing else or no one else. What I do hope to accomplish is to advocate for a return to that perfect state of nature, not the one about which poor Hobbes nattered, but of the communion of the human and the divine. The importance of spirituality to humans who are alive has always been a critical issue for The One In Charge, and thus for Sistertech. Over the past three thousand years or so we have noticed it becoming an increasingly problematic issue.
That is precisely why we at SWAT (the Spirituality While Alive Taskforce) decided to bring The Book of Uncommon Prayer to the masses in an expanded and digitized form.
This second edition of The Book of Uncommon Prayer is titled In Geekiness is Godliness. It includes expanded selections of prayers and Readme Texts from The Document. Also new is a collection of hymns, songs, and spirituals for sundry occasions. It is Sistertech’s fervent desire that the prayers and words herein might serve to uphold, encourage, and confirm humans in their efforts to be spiritual while they are alive rather than waiting to be spiritual once they arrive here.
As The One In Charge put it to Sistertech the other eon, there is nothing more uplifting than to observe humans simultaneously breathing and immersed in prayer.