In light of the recent national racial trauma and violence against our black brothers and sisters, we led a time of lament to enter into the sacred space of protesting before our Creator and in community together. We decry the dehumanizing and atrocious lynching of our beloved brother #GeorgeFloyd who bears the image of God. Jesus thirsted, and George asked for water. Jesus took care of his mother as he hung on the cross, and George called out to his mother. Both were given in return the vinegar of injustice and robbed of God-given breath.
When you get a chance, we invite you to enter into an hour-long sacred space of lament with us. We lament in three movements using the prayers of Japanese American Kenji Kuramitsu who wrote “The Booklet of Uncommon Prayers” for the Black Lives Matter Movement. We pray through prayers against violence at the hands of police, prayers to end white supremacy, and prayers of solidarity. These are uncommon prayers, and we wish they were unnecessary.
May our lamentation lead us to actions of liberation as we together dismantle systemic and institutional racism in our cities, churches and communities.