Courageous Conversations: A Lenten Antiracism Journey
This Lent, partner with Join the Movement toward Racial Justice and commit to engaging in courageous conversations with yourself, with a few dear ones, or with your community. On each of the 40 days of Lent, we will offer a conversation/journaling prompt to help you explore more fully your connection to racial justice and practices of antiracism, along with a breath prayer and scripture reading.
‘You Can’t Let the Fear Stop You’: Solidarity Prayers for Good Friday
…resisting the escalation of militarization and the expansion of policing and surveillance as the primary state and community response to harm and violence, we pray for those who yearn for safety and accountability. As we try to journey in your ways of love and justice, reveal to us our investment and complicity with the culture of fear that protects the…
December 6 - Garlands Instead of Ashes
…who are alone, let this prayer come as comfort. To the ashamed, the traumatized, let this prayer sing with gladness. To the ones who feel disposable, let this prayer be a garland of honor and dignity. To the ones who are waiting, let this prayer become our abolition practice. Amen. Artwork: “Plunge” by Yohana Junker (discover more at: https://www.yohanajunker.com/)…
December 4 - Repent
…the drumbeat of justice. Hear us as we repent our complicity and our complacency with systems that harm, and strengthen our hands to lift the downtrodden, the lonely, the outcast, and the forgotten, so that your new realm of freedom may come. May it be so, in Jesus’ name. Amen. Artwork: “Repent” by Yohana Junker (discover more at: https://www.yohanajunker.com/)…
December 23 - Defund/Invest
…rent and leisure, enough helping hands? Does God want body cameras? Or does God want us to live in a world where we show up BEFORE violence ever happens? In the UCC, we commit to being in covenant with one another. Which means we commit to caring for one another and remaining in right relationship. Policing ruptures that covenant, both…
December 18 - Emergence
…way to freedom. So, Mary bore Jesus into a complicated context in which he shared his wholeness with others who longed for a world of justice and compassion. In our day, child-bearing is no less complicated, but we have abolitionist dreams to inspire us, too. If abolition is about nurturing freedom, then abolitionist parenthood must be about the freedom to…
December 20-We Move
…their homeland in search of safer life. Make their dreams of security for their families our dreams too. As we prepare the way for Love, move us to use our voice, hands, and resources to help bring relief, until all are raised from ash heap to honor. Amen. Artwork: “We Move” by Yohana Junker (discover more at: https://www.yohanajunker.com/) …
December 3
“Hope is a discipline.” – Mariame Kaba Abolition asks us to commit to birthing the communities we want to live in and want our children to be able to grow up in in the future. It asks us to imagine anew how we want to be in relationship with one another, with ourselves and with the world, far beyond the…
November 27 - Keeping Awake
…“keep awake” comes as tensions are rising between his ministry and the powers that be. It is part of Jesus’ last set of stories and teachings to his disciples before the events that led to his death unfold. I imagine the disciples had experienced so many awakenings, so many cataclysmic moments that changed and challenged them. Their complacency had been…
Stop Cop City Week of Prayer
Pray in solidarity with the movement to STOP the construction of a militarized police training facility funded by corporations on 381 acres of Weelaunee Forest leased by the City of Atlanta to the Atlanta Police Foundation. Stop Cop City.