http://www.latimes.com/nation/la-na-white-virginia-rally-20170811-story.html
As Charlottesville, VA becomes the focal point of white supremacy and those who stand against it, this litany was prepared by myself and Pastor Elizabeth Rawlings for use in worship.
Litany against white supremacy
Gracious and loving God,
In the beginning, you created humanity and declared us very good
We were made in Africa, came out of Egypt.
Our beginnings, all of our beginnings, are rooted in dark skin.
We are all siblings. We are all related.
We are all your children.
We are all siblings, we are all related, we are all your children.
Violence entered creation through Cain and Abel.
Born of jealousy, rooted in fear of scarcity,
Brother turned against brother
The soil soaked with blood, Cain asked, “Am I my brother’s keeper?
We are all siblings, we are all related, we are our brothers keeper.
When your people cried out in slavery,
You heard them. You did not ignore their suffering.
You raised up leaders who would speak truth to power
And lead your people into freedom.
Let us hear your voice; grant us the courage to answer your call.
Guide us towards justice and freedom for all people.
We are all siblings, we are all related, we all deserve to be free.
Through the prophets you told us the worship you want is for us
to loose the bonds of injustice,
to undo the thongs of the yoke,
to let the oppressed go free,
and to break every yoke;
Yet we continue to serve our own interest,
To oppress our workers, to crush our siblings by the neck because we are afraid.
Because they don’t look like us, act like us, talk like us.
Yet, they are us. And we are them.
We are all siblings, we are all related, we are not free unless all are free
In great love you sent to us Jesus, your Son,
Born in poverty, living under the rule of a foreign empire,
Brown-skinned, dark-haired, middle-Eastern.
They called him Yeshua, your Son,
Who welcomed the unwelcome, accepted the unacceptable—
The foreigners, the radicals, the illiterate, the poor,
The agents of empire and the ones who sought to overthrow it,
The men and women who were deemed unclean because of their maladies.
We are all siblings, we are all related, we are all disciples.
The faith of Christ spread from region to region, culture to culture.
You delight in the many voices, many languages, raised to you.
You teach us that in Christ, “There is no Jew or Greek, there is no slave or free, there is no male and female.”
In Christ, we are all one.
Not in spite of our differences, but in them.
Black, brown, and white; female, non-binary, and male; citizen and immigrant,
In Christ we are all one.
We are all siblings, we are all related, we are all one in Christ.
Each week, we confess our sin to you and to one another.
We know that we are in bondage to sin and cannot free ourselves.
We are captive to the sin of white supremacy,
Which values some lives more than others,
Which believes some skin tones are more perfect than others,
Which commits violence against those who are different.
We confess our complicity in this sin.
We humbly repent.
We ask for the strength to face our sin, to dismantle it, and to be made anew
We trust in your compassion and rely on your mercy
Praying that you will give us your wisdom and guide us in your way of peace,
That you will renew us as you renew all of creation
In accordance with your will.
We ask this, we pray this, as your children, all siblings, all related, all beloved children of God.
Amen.
Reblogged this on Distracted Pastor Ramblings and commented:
A beautiful creation for a day of challenges. I lift prayers for folks down south today.
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The title wrecks the substance of this litany!
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Beautiful and healing litany. Thank you for this.
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Thank you for this.
I am assuming that because you shared, it is okay to use in my congregation… but asking permission anyway.
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Reblogged this on A Dirty Mind and commented:
In case any other Christian clergy out there need something to address the violence of the past 24 hours. Thank you, Pastor Jennifer!
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Wonderful liturgy! Thank you for sharing
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Thank you for reminding us who we are and whose we are.
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Amen!
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Thank you. SO much.
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I had to share!
Helen, Thanks, I had to share it.
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Reblogged this on The truth. The whole truth. Nothing but the truth..
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I used this in my worship service this morning. I wasn’t sure the best way to credit it to those who wrote it, but your words were shared by those at our church in NE Wisconsin.
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Thank you – this does what liturgy ought to do: address our specific brokennesses and seek to heal them.
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Thank you for this. We used it as our Prayers of the People this morning at Trinity Episcopal Church in Iowa City, IA
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Sometimes we just have to be reminded…sometimes we forget….and when we are reminded we embrace hope beyond the darkness but we must never be ashamed to stand up and say ‘I remember’
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Thank you for writing this. I was searching for something to use in worship this morning and this litany was perfect for my setting. Thank you for the words that you have put down here.
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This is a balm to my soul. Thank you so much.
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