Ending the Living Prayer Periodicals

“Unfurl the sails, and let God steer us where he will.”
–St. Bede the Venerable

Greetings,

My brothers and sisters, I write with significant news: the Daily Prayer Project’s Living Prayer Periodicals will be coming to an end. The Pentecost edition will carry on through the end of the summer, and then this iteration of the Daily Prayer Project will cease. I realize this is surprising and saddening news.

In a way I had not foreseen, the Wind of my life shifted and steered in a direction away from my current vocational assignment as a pastor at Grace Mosaic in Northeast Washington, DC, toward a different chapter of my service in the kingdom. I will be leaving my role by August 31, 2025. There is no scandal or schism; it has simply been the surprising propulsion of the Spirit and the need to abandon my life to God in faith.

Grace Mosaic has graciously supported the Daily Prayer Project for all its years of existence and has kindly empowered me to do this work as part of my vocational duties. For this I owe a profound debt of gratitude. The fruit of the Daily Prayer Project has really been the fruit of that amazing congregation. Thank you, my beloved church family!

There is also good news to report. As I write, the Project team is hard at work creating a permanent book form of the Living Prayer Periodical experience that can live on after the periodicals end. We hope the forthcoming book will exist both as a compilation of the best of what we have done and as an enduring method for daily prayer moving forward for you and your communities. This forthcoming prayerbook will cover the entirety of the Christian year, featuring daily prayer liturgies, a stable three-year lectionary of scripture readings, and curated art, music, and writings. Our goal is to complete this work within the coming year so that you and your communities can continue to pray using the DPP method. We will share more details about the book soon!

Before I say anything else, the most important thing to utter is thank you. Thank you for supporting this Project for the last five years! It has been endlessly creative, expansive, and enriching for our team to “animate the life of prayer through the manifold beauty of the church.” That work has been possible only because you have prayed with us and provided financial support. With one another, we have been privileged to gain a small glimpse into that manifold beauty of God’s kingdom, a beauty that will be fully comprehended only in the state of consummated glory in the life of the world to come. We have received the abundant gifts of prayers, practices, artwork, and songs from our global family of faith. What a joy it has been to get a foretaste of that great feast now.

I also want to acknowledge those team members who have made the Daily Prayer Project into what it has become:

• First of all, I must acknowledge our beloved former Co-Director, Ashley Williams, who was the first to partner with me on the Project, conceived the innovative design that became the hallmark of the DPP, and developed the entire subscription and printing model. I owe her an unpayable debt for the incalculable number of hours she put in!

• Next, I give thanks to Russ Whitfield, founding pastor of Grace Mosaic, who was the one who pushed me to dream bigger with the Project, gave me the encouragement I needed to push ahead, and served as the theological editor for the DPP.

• Third to the team was our fantastic Curator and Editor, Victoria Emily Jones of artandtheology.org. She quickly became the creative driving force of the DPP, selecting the most fantastic and diverse artworks around which we built each edition. In addition, her outstanding editing made our work rise to a higher level than we thought possible.

• Then, of course, there was my dear friend, Lauren Little of Atlas Minor Design, who took the raw pigments of each of our contributions and painted them as a most beautiful canvas with each edition she designed. Everyone who I've ever watched pick up the DPP has always said, "Wow, this is beautiful!" That, of course, is due to Lauren!

• Lastly, I want to thank Jahanna Schwab, who joined the team after Ashley left, to maintain the operations of the DPP and help us close the Project out well.

Thank you to this amazing team!

My friends, may you sail on into the heart of God, toward the horizon of eternal life. On behalf of the whole Daily Prayer Project team, I thank you for the opportunity to journey with you during the last years.

“The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, the love of God, and the communion of the Holy Spirit be with all of you” (2 Cor. 13:13).

Joel Littlepage
Founder and Director
The Daily Prayer Project