Prayer

Prayer (with choir)           Deep in my Heart
by Rev. Douglas Taylor  
2-22-6

Video: https://youtu.be/TuhlU9mimsc

(For our prayer this morning, I’m inviting the choir to join me. They will sing all four verses of We Shall Overcome around the prayer I will offer. At the end, we’ll have a brief silence and we will then all sing the first verse again together in prayer as a congregation.)

Please join me in the spirit of prayer: 

We shall overcome,
we shall overcome,
we shall overcome someday!
Oh, deep in my heart I do believe
we shall overcome someday!

God of life and love, we gather this morning yearning for the optimism in the face of deep struggle witnessed in this song. We yearn for that assurance that someday we shall overcome the injustice of our days. O God, hear our prayer.

We’ll walk hand in hand,
we’ll walk hand in hand,
we’ll walk hand in hand someday!
Oh, deep in my heart I do believe
we’ll walk hand in hand someday!

God of life and love, we long to join hands in the struggle, to make a difference, to have an impact. Teach us, O God to be abolitionists and allies and ambassadors of your truth, your love. Teach us, O God, to join together that we may one day be free. O God, hear our prayer.

We shall all be free,
we shall all be free,
we shall all be free someday!
Oh, deep in my heart I do believe
we shall all be free someday!

God of life and love, we each have our own struggles and pain we carry. Help us to tap into the depth of injustice experienced through the ages by those more marginalized, who hold less privileged than ourselves. Help us to see how we can be better agent of peace and justice in our world. O God, hear our prayer.

We shall live in peace,
we shall live in peace,
we shall live in peace someday!
Oh, deep in my heart I do believe
we shall live in peace someday!

Through the ages, people have sung music that helps lift them and unify their spirits. O God who does reside deep in our hearts, be with us now that we, in this moment and into the future, may tap into that strength, that spirit, that song.

In the name of all that is holy,
May it be so.

-silence-

All congregation sings:

We shall overcome,
we shall overcome,
we shall overcome someday!
Oh, deep in my heart I do believe
we shall overcome someday!

A Protester’s Prayer               
Rev. Douglas Taylor
June 14, 2025 (for the No Kings protest)

Eternal Spirit from Whom all things come and to Whom all things return, strengthen our resolve as we engage in peaceful protest.

We gather as individuals united under a banner of concern for something we hold precious – for truth, for peace, for our children, for the vulnerable. We gather as individuals blending our voices and our presence into the throngs at the courthouse, in the streets, at the detention centers, outside the places of power. We gather in protest of the wrongs committed. Our voices will be heard.

Gracious Spirit, our communities have too long listened to the discordant voices of those who would divide us. We have listened too long to the loud posturing and bluster of would-be-tyrants and liars.

Grant us the courage to be not quiet in our demands for justice, to be loud in amplifying the voices of the marginalized, the abused, particularly the immigrants and queer people currently targeted by those in power today. May we listen to the voices of those most impacted by harm.

Help us remember, O Spirit, that there is no form of protest seen as acceptable in the eyes of the oppressors. May we be bold in asserting – for our communities and for the vulnerable – the demands we have for a better community.

We know fascism is fragile, relying on fear and obedience. Guide our hearts, O Spirit, to not give in to fear and hatred of those we seek to oppose, of those we would challenge, of those we view as adversaries. Help us stay true to our own values of compassion and dignity – lest we become strangers to ourselves and to our goals.

Remind us to support one another – across our causes and rallying cries – to share in the work of building the better world. Grant us the strength that comes in collective voices calling for meaningful change.

Grant that we may have the endurance to persist in our efforts, help us to remain steadfast in our pursuit of justice. Be with us, O Spirit, in our effort. May Your love, and love for all our neighbors, guide our actions. And may we always remember that the prayer for courage is the prayer that never goes unanswered.

This we ask in the name of all that is holy. May it be so.

Prayer for After Another School Shooting

[This prayer is based on one I delivered in 2009 for the mass shooting in Binghamton, NY where I live. It pains me to point out that with a simple alteration of the first paragraph’s details, the prayer is suitable for other mass shootings as well.]

May 20, 2018

We are broken, O God.  We are broken.  We gather in vigil again to mourn the death of school children and school teachers. On Friday, a young man entered the Santa Fe High School in Santa Fe, Texas, killed 10 people, physically injured 10 others, and spiritually shattered countless lives in that community and across the country.

Death and violence are the reasons that draw us together in sorrow, in anger, in anxious grief and loss.  Each of us has been touched by this or another recent shooting, some in a small way, others in overwhelming ways.  We gather together now to declare our allegiance to something stronger than violence and anger and even death.  O God we are broken, we long for healing and for hope.

Eternal Spirit, Loving God, Gracious One: we call on you in different ways and with different names, yet each in our own way – we call.  We pray for strength; we pray for healing.  We pray for the victims of violence.  We pray for the perpetrators of violence.  We pray for our community broken open in sorrow.  We pray for our leaders, for our first responders, and for the families and friends who must live with this into the next day and the next.  We pray for the peacemakers and the healers.  We pray for the teachers.  We pray for all those who seek a better way.

Grant us the courage to reject vengeance.  Grant us the courage to choose to heal what is broken and to redeem what cannot be healed, and to rebuild ourselves as a community of strength and hope.  Grant that we will be known not by our loss or by the violence of a moment, but rather by our loving response.  This I pray in the name of all that is holy, may it be so.  Blessed be and amen.

Eternal Spirit,

From Whom all things come

And to Whom all things return.

We gather this hour as a community of faith

seeking to transform our world through prayer and action.

seeking to transform our lives through justice and beauty and righteousness.

We pause together to reflect.

We reflect upon our times, our culture, and ourselves.

We reflect upon the needs of all people,

and upon our own needs and those of the people we love.

And yet, we gather this way every week,

and every week we work for and pray for

goodness and righteousness to triumph.

Every week we speak of the power of hope and of justice.

Every week we take one step more for peace.

And yet, every week there is registered in the media and in our lives

more tragedy, more injustice, more suffering.

And yet, every week the injustice and assault continue or rise anew.

O Spirit, hear our cry!

Help us to find hope against the embittering despair

to find strength to act in the face of continued injustice and apathy.

to find courage to still believe in those ideals of justice and beauty and righteousness.

Help us to reach out from our very being to transform the world

and to be transformed in ourselves.

Help us to know, despite the messy complexity of life,

that we do not labor in vain,

that peace will one day prevail,

that perseverance will be rewarded

and that hope is a powerful response in the face of such difficulty.

Be thou an ever present strength on the journey, O Spirit.

This we pray to the name of all that is holy

May it be so