Litany of Gratitude, Lamentation and Hope
Leader: For the gift of life, love and the opportunity to enjoy everyday wonders of creation.
All: We are grateful
Leader: For the effervescent gladness that permeates the air, for the song of the birds and the trees and the refreshing dew of the morning
All: We are grateful
Leader: For all the Lanterns of peace, healing and reconciliation that you have placed in our
communities, our nation and our world.
All: We are grateful
Leader: We decry the loss of life of our African American brothers and sisters due to senseless and racist violence, including the murder of the Charleston 9, and the
“desecration of the soul of our country.”
All: We cry out in pain and ask you, Divine Spirit, for your embracing justice.
Leader: We ask forgiveness for our culpable blindness to the overt and covert injustices perpetuated on African Americans, Native Americans and other minority groups.
All: We cry out in pain and ask you, Divine Spirit, for your embracing justice.
Leader: We are saddened by the Syrian refugee crisis and the walls and barriers that are put up to victims of war and economic and social dislocation and grieve the tepid response of Western nations.
All: We cry out in pain and ask you, Divine Spirit, for your embracing justice.
Leader: More than 10,000 people are homeless in King County on any given night and millions of
children in our country live in poverty, and yet as a people and society we so easily turn away from responding to this tragedy.
All: We cry out in pain and ask you, Divine Spirit, for your embracing justice.
Leader: We speak a language of tolerance, yet sometimes fail to provide solidarity in the face of religious persecution and discrimination.
All: We cry out in pain and ask you, Divine Spirit, for your embracing justice.
Leader: We know that in our midst the environment is being devastated and communities working for change and climate justice are ignored.
All: We cry out in pain and ask you, Divine Spirit, for your embracing justice.
Leader: We affirm life with dignity for all people and pledge to act as healers and people of compassion.
All: We will act justly, love mercy and walk humbly with our God.
Leader: We commit to building the Beloved Community where our hunger and thirst for righteousness is met with the justice that rolls like an ever-flowing stream.
All: We will act justly, love mercy and walk humbly with our God.
Leader: We will see the divine in our brothers and sisters who are homeless, ill, refugee, incarcerated, left out and lonely and work to dismantle the cradle to prison pipeline.
All: We will act justly, love mercy and walk humbly with our God.
Leader: We will work for the renewal of planet Earth and for right relationship with Creation that we experience as sacred.
All: We will act justly, love mercy and walk humbly with our God.
Leader: We will honor our diverse religious and spiritual expressions and give thanks for all the wonderful pathways of Wisdom.
All: We will act justly, love mercy and walk humbly with our God.
All Together: We believe in a liberating Source of Life who draws us to healing and reconciliation and leads us to overcome every oppression. Thank you, Divine Spirit, for inspiring us, transforming us and infusing us with hope. Help us to join together for justice.
Written by Michael Ramos, Church Council of Greater Seattle, and Julie Burrell, First African Methodist Episcopal Church, Seattle, for the 29th Annual Inter-Spiritual Celebration of Gratitude at Thanksgiving.