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St. Luke’s Episcopal Church Holds Inaugural Blessing Of The Bikes

St. Luke’s Episcopal Church provided cyclists with more than a helmet for protection on Saturday morning.

In a special service inside the church’s sanctuary, many bike riders brought their two-wheeled transportation to be blessed on Saturday.

During the first inaugural event, the Rev. Luke Fodor offered prayers of protection for the cyclists and their bikes, explaining that even riding a bike can bring closeness with God.

He offered a prayer to open the ceremony.

“Lord, source of all energy and light, the ancients saw your providence though great wheels of fire rolling across the sky. In those circles of light, our ancestors learned to trust in your reliable and sustaining providence,” Fodor said. “You gave us the ingenuity for science, and for generations, we have adapted the wheel to sustain us and our creativity, especially for means of transportation. You gave us legs and intended us to be travelers and to seek out a world beyond ourselves.”

He said the service mimics other services that have been preformed before major bike rides, such as the Blessing of the Bikes service before the Five Boro Bike Tour in New York City.

Fodor said next year, the service in Jamestown will kick-off a bike to work week.

“You’re here at the beginning, ” he said with a grin.

After a reading of Ezekiel 1:19, a litany of thanksgiving and safety was given.

“Present in a community filled with stress and excessively long work weeks, where monitors and screens seem to suck our souls, we give thanks for your gift of recreation and the freedom found in the wind blowing in our faces,” the Rev. Fodor said. “Present in a community filled with anger and strife, we pray for the victims or road-rage, and reckless driving. We ask for strength to forgive mean people and the patience to love them.”

Afterward, he took a bowl of Holy Water and blessed both the bicycles on hand and their riders who brought them.

After the blessing, the Rev. Fodor offered an adapted version of a popular Irish blessing.

“May the wind be ever at your back, may the road not rise up to meet you,” he said with a grin. “May all your journeying be joyous and until we meet again, may God hold you and your bikes in the palm of his hand.”

For more information on upcoming events at St. Luke’s Episcopal Church, find them on Facebook or visit stlukesjamestown.org.

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