Juneteenth Prayer

God of all nations,

On this celebratory Juneteenth, we pause in solidarity to honor the jubilant day in 1865 when — at long last — the ring of freedom resounded for enslaved persons in the United States. We hold in tension the grief that such evil could have been bestowed on anyone and own the mistakes that caused so deep a suffering that its impacts would reverberate for generations.

We look to Your mercy to guide and impel us to see how our own actions and inactions might contribute to a cycle of fractured relationships with all humankind, Your children and our siblings.

Help us to reimagine communion with one another as you've designed us to be mutually, in the same Spirit, proclaiming your message of reconciliation to a world in need.

We remember our past to change our future, and we commit to elevate the human flourishing of Your children.

AMEN

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