If we were to confess prejudice in the church...

I was asked to write a corporate prayer - a "litany" - for a chapel service at Fuller Seminary - the day after the mid-term elections of 2018. The heart and thought behind this corporate prayer is to offer words that a community can use as a form of corporate confession - specifically confessing prejudice, and how it affects us all - both as victims and contributors. If you choose to read through it, I encourage you to consider praying it - and if you do pray through it, I pray God brings healing, restoration, and more open eyes & hearts within your context.

Feel free to use this call & response prayer in your community - the idea is that someone leads, and the community responds by saying out loud what is in bold. My only request is that you cite me as the author and include a link to this website. If you are posting on social media, please do not share without linking to the original post here. Thank you.


A Communal Prayer of Confession
November, 2018

Oh God, bring us awareness of what is too often unseen, unheard, and unfelt.
Break down the walls of our hearts, of our eyes, of our minds.
Prejudice is running rampant - its hands are wounding, its mouth is poisoning, its presence is dismembering Your body.
Lord, give us eyes to see, ears to hear.

We confess our yielding to prejudice - our hands, our words, and our attention are stained with the residue of prejudice.
Jesus, set us free from this bondage.
Lord, we acknowledge our tendency to choose comfort over sacrifice,
to choose ourselves and our own, over the other and the stranger,
to limit Your love to those who agree with us, look like us, and live like us.
Spirit, teach us how to love as Christ loves His church.

We pray now for the Church across the globe and across town, for the body of Christ that is fragile & fragmented due to the whispers of prejudice, that it - that we - may awaken to the deception,
For the war continues to rage on,
But our fight is not against flesh and blood.
Spirit, expose and silence the voices of prejudice.

Lord, we stand as wounded people, realizing we too have wounded people.
Spirit, search our hearts.
We stand as women - who've been unseen and silenced by men.
We stand as men - who've been condemned and judged for the sins of our brothers.
Lord, here we stand.
We stand as foreigners - who've known hostility & criticism over hospitality & kindness.
Lord, here we stand.
We stand as the rejected and ignored - who never found the affection and attention of our sisters and brothers.
Lord, here we stand.
We stand as the misunderstood, who were never given enough time to tell our story.
Lord, here we stand.

For all the ways our hands inflict pain & offer neglect
For the words we use to bring division & harm
Forgive us, Oh God.
For choosing to sacrifice each other, using each other for individual gain
For refusing to acknowledge the hurting & the weeping for lack of empathy
Forgive us, Oh God. 
For choosing to stay angry in order to justify our thoughts and actions
For withholding kindness from each other when we see each other's differences
Forgive us, Oh God.
For when we see each other's need and do nothing
For using You, God, and those in Your church, to serve our own agendas & interests
Forgive us, Oh God.

Great Redeemer, come redeem your church!
Hallelujah!
Great Restorer, mend the divides in Your body!
Hallelujah!
Spirit, fall afresh and bring life to dry bones!
Hallelujah!
Almighty God, expose and disinfect the rot of prejudice!
Hallelujah!

May we in Christ, find hope to move forward.
Come Lord Jesus.
May we in Christ, be a body that moves towards healing and restoration.
Come Lord Jesus.

Lord Jesus, in Your name, in Your power, search us, expose what is hurting so that we might be made whole in You.
Amen