July 14, 2017

Prayer for Centering:

Introduction
Pattern Two: Institutional Racism is the term given to patterns of social and racial superiority that continue as long as no one challenges them. In this pattern of racism, people assume (consciously or unconsciously) that white people are superior and therefore create and sustain institutions that privilege white people while habitually ignoring the contributions of other peoples and cultures. White privilege often goes undetected because it has become internalized and integrated as part of one's worldview by custom, habit and tradition.**

Let us pray as we reflect on some of the injustices resulting from this form of racism.
•    Institutions that devalue the presence and contributions of people of color and celebrate only the contributions of people of European descent.
•    Indifference to rates of violence against lives of Blacks, Latinos, Asians and native peoples.
•    A disproportionate number of Blacks, Latinos, Asians and Native Americans and economically poor are on death row.
•    A 1992 study by the Federal Firearms and Drug Trafficking Charges found that the average sentence for Blacks was 49 times longer than for the Whites convicted of the same crimes.
•    Health Insurance -- the uninsured rate for African Americans, Latinos and Native Americans is more than one and a half times the rate for white Americans.
•    In professional circles of politics, business, social groups, and religious entities, the official representatives are predominately white.

Good and gracious God, you invite us to recognize and reverence your divine image and likeness in our neighbor.  Enable us to see the reality of racism and free us to challenge and uproot it from our society, our world and ourselves.

All:  We beg for both forgiveness and conversion as we open our hearts and minds in communal prayer.  Amen. 

Invitation to Silence:

Open our hearts 
 

Closing Prayer:

The Coventry Litany of Reconciliation

All have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God.

The hatred which divides nation from nation, race from race, class from class,
Father, forgive.

The covetous desires of people and nations to possess what is not their own,
Father, forgive.

The greed which exploits the work of human hands and lays waste the earth,
Father, forgive.

Our envy of the welfare and happiness of others,
Father, forgive.

Our indifference to the plight of the imprisoned, the homeless, the refugee,
Father, forgive.

The lust which dishonors the bodies of men, women and children,
Father, forgive.

The pride which leads us to trust in ourselves and not in God,
Father, forgive.

Be kind to one another, tender-hearted, forgiving one another,
as God in Christ forgave you.

Amen. 

Weekly Reflection Questions:

1.    What questions can we begin to ask and how can we examine the policies of our local, national and international community to make sure they do not discriminate against people of color?
2.    How can you influence the institutions of which you are a part ( in your work, school, church, and neighborhood) to eliminate racist practices, behaviors and attitudes that maintain the status quo?