Prayers Written by the COS Antiracism Team for the Outdoor Prayer Walk – Summer 2021
1 Lord, make us an instrument of your peace. People are crying and are dying. Violence is raging all around us. Another Black and Brown body laid to rest because of violence and injustice. Lord we know that you see all and know all. Please oh God send your angels of mercy over this City to stop the madness. We humbly ask for your forgiveness. Create in us a clean heart and renew a right spirit within us. We ask this in Jesus name, who laid His life down for such as this. Amen
2 God of All Nations, Lands and Peoples, as we walk around our church and in our neighborhoods, remind us that you are walking beside us, to guide us, pick us up when we fall, and cheer us when we are discouraged. We grieve the way we have disregarded the peoples who walked these lands many years ago, especially the people of the Three Fires – the Ottawa (Odawa), Chippewa (Ojibwa) and Potawatomi Indians. Bless the people from all Nations who live among us. Amen.
3 Loving creator, thank you for creating each human being in your image. Thank you for humans of every hue! Help me see your face and your grace in each person I encounter today. Help me understand how deeply connected we are. Move me to desire friendships with peers whose ethnicity, culture, skin color, country of origin, or heart language is different than my own. Expand my worldview as I listen to new perspectives. Teach me to delight in all the ways we are alike and different. Give me eyes to see what I don’t see now. And courage to follow where you lead. Amen.
4 You, O Lord, are our refuge and our strength, our ever-present help in the time of trouble. We lament the fact that so many people are homeless or halfway home, without shelter in their times of storm. May we make good trouble as we work for justice, peace and love. Give us courage to awaken to greater truth, greater humility and greater care for one another. Listen to our heart’s longings for the healing of our suffering world. Amen.
5 Great Healer Jesus, we lament the death and suffering brought on by the Covid-19 pandemic. We especially lament its disproportionate impact on our sisters and brothers of color. Restore us and make us whole Jesus. Amen.
6 Lord of Mercy and Justice, we lament over the sins of our nation like the decisions made 400 years ago in determining who was entitled to land and who was not and to decisions made in the last 50 years of who gets arrested and killed and who does not: Sins of white supremacy and racial injustice. Lord, forgive our nation and her leaders and her citizens of unjust decisions, thoughts and inaction. Help us to actively sow seeds of love, unity and peace on earth as it is in heaven. Lord, hear our prayer! Amen.
7 God of Compassion, we know that you weep at the injustice done by those with power and privilege, done at times in your name. All-knowing God, you know the hearts of all, those of us who stand by, silently giving assent to injustice. Forgive us, change us, move us to speak and act with righteousness, with courage because of Christ. “O God Most High, when I begin to fear you, in you will I trust.” Psalm 56:3. Amen.
8 Lord of Mercy, we walk this path around Church of the Servant, wondering about the original inhabitants of this land. What were their joys when they lived on this lush, wooded ground? How deep was their sense of belonging to their community? Who were our ancestors who told them this was not their land and moved them away from this home? Lord, even today we live with guilt about our oppressive action toward these Native Peoples. Please forgive us. Lord, bless them and make them prosper. Help us to act justly, with kindness and mercy in their historical plight. Amen