Grateful for a fellowship so grounded in Christ, history, and justice.
Thanks be to God.
“It is for freedom that Christ has set us free.
Stand firm, therefore, and do not submit again to a yoke of slavery.”
–Galatians 5:1
Dear friends in Christ, we gather today as an act of remembrance,
repentance, and reparation as we celebrate Juneteenth Freedom Day. We
hope to honor the past, serve the present and inspire the future. We
remember the millions of African Americans who were stolen from their
homelands, enslaved in bitter bondage, and who yearned always to breathe
free. We repent of the ways in which we and those who have gone before
us have been complicit in continuing systems of suppression, subjugation,
and supremacy. We seek to repair the legacy of brokenness, brutality, and
betrayal that perpetuates injustice and oppression in our own day. We
gather today with the echoes of the past in our ears and hope for the
future on our lips.
Therefore, in the silence let us call to mind the need of remembrance,
repentance and reparation to which we have been called in Christ Jesus
our Savior.
Silence is kept.
Let us pray.
Emancipating God, you delivered your people from captivity, and brought
them to the land of promise; deliver us from the bondage of injustice,
from the yoke of oppression and the burden of division and set us free.
As you have shown us compassion, help us to be compassionate. As you
have liberated us, help us stand up against injustice everywhere. As you
have delivered us, help us fight for freedom for all still enslaved.
Remember us, hear us, and be with us always; through Jesus Christ our Savior.
Chelle A Wilson 