Oct 3 2020 - Sacred Ground

I have had the great honor of participating with a group of deacons in this Diocese in a 10 part series on racism. It's ,hard, learning about all of the parts of our collective and individual stories that we'd never heard about - implicit bias, internment, manifest destiny. Today, I will offer the closing prayer for our 2 hour time together. Below is a litany, or call and response prayer I modified from FranPratt.com, a great resources of prayers for various occasions.




Loving and Merciful God, we acknowledge the hold racism and prejudice have on our national psyche.

Set us free from this bondage.

We acknowledge that violence has been matched with violence, and many are in pain and distress.
Bring healing to us all.

We pray now for the Church in the World, part of the body of Christ on earth, that it may be a voice of peace,

A light of love,

Working for reconciliation and unity,
Working for justice.

For all the ways we are complicit in perpetuating racism

Forgive us, Oh God.

For all the ways we have hidden the light of Christ

Forgive us, Oh God.

For all the times we have kept silent

Forgive us, Oh God.

For all the times we have capitulated to fear of ridicule and retaliation

Forgive us, Oh God. 

For all the ways we’ve given over to apathy

Forgive us, Oh God

For all the ways our own prosperity has blinded us to the needs of others.
Forgive us, Oh God.

We are gradually waking up

To the knowledge of our deep and hidden sins;\

Most particularly, to the sin of racism
Which has affected our culture, psyche, and practice.

We thought we could say, “Oh, those racist generations have passed on. The civil rights movement already happened.”

We thought we had leveled the playing field.

We thought we could ignore Whiteness.

We thought we didn’t have to see color.

But we know that we have more work to do,

To cleanse, heal and establish justice. 

We quit before the work was finished.
We were wrong.

Help us to see what we couldn’t see before.

Help us to examine everything:

To leave no stone unturned in our mission

To rout out injustice;

This work is messy. We feel overwhelmed and ashamed.

Help us not to minimize or shirk,

Nor capitulate to our fragile egos,
Nor be blinded by our privilege.

Give us strength, oh God, to continue the work.

Strength to be struck down but not destroyed, 

To be persecuted but not forsaken,
To be mystified but not despairing

Give us robust hearts,
Willing to take an unflinching look at the racism within us.



May Christ, who re-imagined death, give us inspiration for how to move forward.
Love triumphs over hate.

May Christ, who said upon rising from the grave, “Peace be with you,” bring us
into his kingdom.
Peace triumphs over violence.

May Christ, who did not retaliate but offered forgiveness, share with us his
vision.
Mercy triumphs over judgement.

We stand in solidarity with our brothers and sisters; all races, all skin colors,
all ethnicities.
Hallelujah.

We stand against racism and injustice.
Hallelujah.

And above all, we stand for love.
Hallelujah.

Amen



Modified from Litanies
from Fran Pratt http://www.franpratt.com/