Spirit of Life that flows through our hearts like a never ending stream,
On this blessed day we are filled with gratitude to find ourselves together once again in this sacred time and place, unified in our diversity by the hope and compassion in our hearts, as well as the sadness and disappointments.
We would pray at this time for our beloved city. The media has largely left, the eye of the world could turn away, but we know, we know the brokenness of our city, even if we struggle to know what our part in that is, what there is for us to do. Let us remain with the struggle in our hearts so that we can be open to all our people, the people of this city, who are our brothers and sisters. We pray for peace and a justice that is bigger than one person, one city, one court case, a justice and peace that enfolds all of us in its embrace.
We ask for forgiveness for the ways that we have created this brokenness, perhaps even benefited from the injustice, and we ask for a guiding vision for all our people. We ask for clarity in discerning how we as a community move forward, how we reach out to our city, seeking possibility in every corner, especially those corners we would be prone to judge, for in the places that we neglect and judge, there is our salvation.
May we hearken unto the waters of justice and the peace of a never ending stream, may we be part of the promise and part of the healing. We are called to this not only by the imperatives of our beloved religious tradition, but also by the calling and the urgency in our deepest conscience.
In the spirit of justice and peace and transformation, and the love that unites us, this we pray. Amen and blessed be.