Juneteenth Celebration and Prayers

Dear friends,

This past Thursday was Juneteenth. It was on June 19th, 1865 that the Union soldiers, led by Major General Gordon Granger, landed at Galveston, Texas with news that the war had ended and that the enslaved were now free. Note that this was two and a half years after President Abraham Lincoln’s Emancipation Proclamation -which had become official January 1, 1863.

 

The official end of slavery in the United States came with the ratification of the 13th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution on Dec. 6, 1865.

Juneteenth, also known as Juneteenth Independence Day or Freedom Day, became a national holiday on June 17, 2021. While Texas and more than two dozen other states already observed Juneteenth as a state holiday, interest in a federal holiday was renewed in the summer of 2020, during months of racial reckoning that followed the murders of George Floyd and Breonna Taylor. 

I offer the following litany of prayers for your personal use this week, provided by the Episcopal News Service, as the Church joined together to celebrate this sacred day, when freedom rang out for the formerly enslaved in our country. I encourage you to join me in making time alone or with your family to pray together. May we always be mindful and grateful for our Baptismal promises to “honor Christ in all persons and to respect the dignity of every human being.” This is our call and our promise as baptized Christians. Note that the prayers are familiar and yet new with fresh language to enliven our hearts and our minds as we ponder God’s love for all people, and our call to serve each other with love and understanding always. 

Juneteenth Litany for All

O God, make speed to save us.

O Lord, make haste to help us.

Glory to God, Creator, Christ, and Holy Spirit

As it was in the beginning, is now, and ever shall be. Amen.

Affirmation of faith

I believe in God, Creator Uncreated;

Visible and present in all living things,

Our very life-breath.

I believe in God, Incarnate of Mary;

Who in the fullness of his humanity

was perfect and divine.

He lived his life loving God,

Healing the sick,

Listening to the troubled;

Feeding those hungry for justice

And pouring our living water

To those thirsty for righteousness.

I believe that the forces that worship power,

Who control through fear and rule in greed

Responded to this Incarnation of love

With violence and brutality

That was futile

In the face of the desire of God

For our redemption.

I believe in God, the Fiery Wind

that renews the face of the earth.

Who keeps our souls in life

And whose voice calls us

On the path that we should go.

I believe that these Three

Creator Uncreated, Incarnate in Humanity, Renewing Fire

Are the Holy One

In whose image we are made

And whose image we find

In community unbound by time, distance, or difference;

Before whom death is powerless,

The broken world mended,

And in whom we live in love

For eternity. Amen.

The Lord’s Prayer

Beloved One:

May your holy reign of justice and peace

Come on earth and in heaven.

Give us today neither poverty nor riches,

But only our daily bread;

So that we may never turn from you,

Either in bitterness from want,

Or in arrogance from plenty.

Beloved One, you are always forgiving us;

Give us grace to turn to each other with the same forgiveness.

Beloved One, we walk a wilderness road

That is often dark and beset by evil;

Be our steadfast companion, our light, and our sure rescue;

For you are Love: Uncreated, Incarnate and Everlasting.

Amen.

Suffrages

God of wisdom, you have blessed us with memory

May we learn from our past to heal in the present

God of truth, the Way of Jesus was a Way of honesty

Give us a Spirit of courage to faithfully examine ourselves and to

boldly declare the truths of our common life

God of healing, your Incarnation walked among the troubled

Walk among us now, be tender toward our many wounds, and make us whole

God of love, you see in us your image

Give us grace to have such love toward ourselves, and to turn in the same love toward others. Amen.

God of justice, send out your light and your truth that they may lead us;

give us hearts to pursue what is right, faith to abide in your Spirit, and

strength to love, not in word or speech, but in truth and in action, that our

fallen world may be uplifted, and all of your children live in peace. Amen.

Let us go in peace, blessing God.

Let us go in peace, to be a blessing in the world. Amen. 

Your sister in Christ, 

Nancy+