Editor's Note: Download a formatted version of this prayer for use in bulletins and for distribution here.
God,
The overwhelming message of the day has been to separate and to divide ourselves along the wrong lines. Racial lines, economic lines, gender lines, lines of different abilities and orientations. And we have tried to resist by standing in solidarity with one another, and we have tried to resist by showing up in bodily defiance. We have tried to resist by letting our rage be known.
And as we go to vote, we ask for your Spirit to draw us together en masse. Across every line, every neighborhood, every city, and every state. Place us on the same plane, on one accord, to move fearlessly to our polls and to a new chapter in the narrative of our nation.
The people of Israel were broken and in bondage, dissonant in their faith. But, when it was time to leave Egypt, they had to get together and move. Today, as we pray and worship, allow us to commit to You — and to each other — that we will not sit on the divine right and responsibility of voting. Allow us to come together and to move, purposely. And as we go, we know we do not go alone. We are accompanied by every black life that has been taken in this age of #BlackLivesMatter. Every person who has survived sexuality’s violence in this age of #MeToo. Every family that has been separated at the southern border of this country, and every person who has been deported from their homes, their families, and their dreams. We are accompanied by every uninsured and underinsured child. We are accompanied by the poor, the orphan, the widow, and the infirm. We are accompanied by every ancestor who was denied the right to vote, but who died trying to obtain it.
We ask you to protect the vulnerable from being suppressed at the polls. We ask you to protect our ballots from being disregarded.
Thank you for allowing us to be alive for such a time as this. Thank you for drawing us together to fulfill this call and this responsibility. We believe that righteousness, justice, and truth will prevail.
We place these, and all things, in Your hands.
Amen.
Rev. Dr. Neichelle R. Guidry is the creator of shepreaches, a virtual community and professional development organization that aspires to uplift African-American millennial women in ministry through theological reflection, fellowship, and liturgical curation. She is a contributor to What Would Jesus Ask?: Christian Leaders Reflect on His Questions of Faith (Time Books, 2015), and the author of Curating a World: Sermonic Words from a Young Woman Who Preaches (self-published, June 2016).
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