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 Dear Glen Morris United Church and friends,  

On Thursday evening I had the opportunity to share my hopes and vision for the future of The United Church as we continue to live into our commitment to be an anti-racist denomination.  It is always a honour to be invited to be a guest speaker for an event and I'm grateful for all of those who helped create and share that space of prayer and learning.

The conversation about racism within and beyond the church is not new but I continue to engage in this work with the faith that God’s kingdom here on earth is revealing itself and that we all have a part we can play in making God’s loving justice known.

Last night I spoke of the importance of engaging in the work of unlearning and dismantling racism from a place of love.  I hope that by centering ourselves in love we can overcome the feelings of exhaustion, weariness, anxiety, and/or guilt that often arise when talking about such a challenging topic. I hope that this love will act as an invitation to those of you who feel newer to this conversation.  

The 40 Days of Engagement on Anti-Racism (a program run by The United Church of Canada) is relaunching this year with brand-new content! The program will run from Tuesday, October 11 to Friday, November 25, 2022. Click here for more information and to sign up for a newsletter with specific updates about anti-racism work happening in the church.  

I hope you will join me and the larger network of folks passionate about racial justice in a time of prayer, learning, and community building. 

I would like to share with you this Prayer for Racial Justice I prepared for last night's gathering: 

God of Ghost Towns and Ghettos,

You whose Spirit moves through reservations and other open air prisons,

God of the sojourners of truth, justice, and peace,

God of the detained migrant, the always-getting-carded Black youth,

God whose beauty is present through all of creation, and present in those whose relationship to land has been devastated by colonialism and policing and the threat of violence,

Hear our prayers.

Hear the injustice we swallow when we don’t know how safe it is to speak truth

Hear the exhaustion that sometimes sounds like silence, sometimes sounds like last straw desperation,

Hear the grief that sometimes sounds like a prayer for the sea to part only so it can swallow us up, that sometimes sounds like an untraceable perfectionist performance of being okay,

We call on you O Lord, to shepherd all of those we have lost to White Supremacy,

to hold vigil with us at the foot of unmarked graves,

to be a shoulder for every mother like Mary to cry on, for every mother who has watched her son die at the hands of the state to cry on,

May your presence be made known in the ways we laugh in response to racist audacity

May your healing justice come in moments of unapologetic pleasure and deep joy that declares to the world that we have always known and will always worship your boundless Love.

This we pray in the name of a brown Palestininan refugee we know and love as Jesus the Christ,

Amen.  

 

As we make space to grieve all that is lost by the violence of racism, may the Peace of Christ be with you.

As we celebrate and honour the blessedness of our diverse cultures, languages, and bodies, may the Peace of Christ be with you.  

 

Yours in Christ,

Rev Michiko