Tonight we pray for the people of our city, our country, and our world because we have seen, participated in, allowed, and suffered so much violence. In our pain we ask for your enduring mercy.
Oh, God, hear and answer us.
Tonight we pray for the parents who have lost children because of police violence, state-sanctioned violence, faith-sanctioned violence, grief-induced violence. In our pain we ask for your enduring mercy.
Oh, God, hear and answer us.
Tonight we pray for the spouses and significant others to those who have died at murderous hands, that you would grant them vision to see again new life even while noticing how all their plans have shattered. In our pain we ask for your enduring mercy.
Oh, God, hear and answer us.
Tonight we pray for the children who are without mothers and fathers, asking that you would come close to them in special ways and offer them every needed grace for a life you never imagined for them. In our pain we ask for your enduring mercy.
Oh, God, hear and answer us.
Tonight we pray for the fallen that their names would be remembered as you recall them, that their stories would be among your best told ones, and that their deaths might inspire us to fix broken law enforcement programs, to face the fundamental wickedness of white supremacy, to turn from the error of all hatred seen and unseen. In our pain we ask for your enduring mercy.
Oh, God, hear and answer us.
Tonight we pray for those Dallas police officers who were murdered this week and for the Alton Sterling and Philando Castile and other victims of excessive force and for every family involved that your grace would be as overwhelming as their grief, that your kindness would envelope each one like a protest, and that your tears would mingle with ours as we suffer. In our pain we ask for your enduring mercy.
Oh, God, hear and answer us.
Tonight we pray for the unarmed who have fallen from bullets by police in 2015 and by name:
Dontre Hamilton
Eric Garner
John Crawford
Michael Brown
Ezell Ford
Dante Parker
Tanisha Anderson
Akai Gurley
Tamir Rice
Rumain Brisbon
Jerame Reid
Tony Robinson
Phillip White
Eric Harris
Walter Scott
Freddie Gray
Matthew Ajibade
Leslie Sapp
Brian Pickett
Andre Murphy
Tiano Meton
Alvin Haynes
Jeremy Lett
Natasha McKenna
Terry Price
Calvon Reid
Thomas Allen
Darrell Gatewood
Charly Keunang
Naechylus Vinzant
Bernard Moore
Anthony Hill
Terrance Moxley
Askari Roberts
Brandon Jones
Denzel Brown
Keith Childress
Bettie Jones
Kevin Matthews
Leroy Browing
Roy Nelson
Miguel Espinal
Nathaniel Pickett
Tiara Thomas
Cornelius Brown
Chandra Weaver
Jamar Clark
Richard Perkins
Stephen Tooson
Michael Marshall
Alonzo Smith
Yvens Seide
Anthony Ashford
Lamontez Jones
Rayshaun Cole
Paterson Brown
Christopher Kimble
Junior Prosper
Keith McLeod
Wayne Wheeler
India Kager
Tyree Crawford
James Carney
Felix Kumi
Wendall Hall
Asshams Manley
Christian Taylor
Troy Robinson
Brian Day
Michael Sabbie
Billy Davis
Samuel Dubose
Darrius Stewart
Albert Davis
Sandra Bland
Salvado Ellswood
George Mann
Jonathan Sanders
Victo Larosa
Kevin Judson
Spencer McCain
Kevin Bajoie
Zamiel Crawford
Jermaine Benjamin
Kris Jackson
Alan Williams
Ross Anthony
Richard Davis
Markus Clark
Lorenzo Hayes
De’Angelo Stallworth
Dajuan Graham
Brandon Glenn
Reginald Moore
Nuwnah Laroche
Jason Champion
Bryan Overstreet
Terrance Kellom
David Felix
Lashonda Belk
Gregory Harris
Terry Chatman
William Chapman
Samuel Harrell
Norman Cooper
Brian Acton
Donald Ivy
Frank Sheppard
Darrell Brown
Dominick Wise
Jason Moland
Nicholas Thomas
Quintonio LeGrier
Bettie Jones
In our pain we ask for your enduring mercy.
Oh, God, hear and answer us.
Tonight we pray for the perpetrators of violence, be they police, children, racists, politicians, citizens, people we love or people we hate; will you do the impossible and the unthinkable and save them in every just way. In our pain we ask for your enduring mercy.
Oh, God, hear and answer us.
Tonight we pray for the people who are responding out of fear and pain alone, that they might arrest their own turmoil and refuse to allow it to cause more harm. In our pain we ask for your enduring mercy.
Oh, God, hear and answer us.
Tonight we pray for the churches and faith communities which have been too quiet, done too little, and barely accepted your truth; that you would open us to reality as you know it and that we would be absolutely changed. In our pain we ask for your enduring mercy.
Oh, God, hear and answer us.
Tonight we pray for a gospel experience with Jesus that will convert us to the truth of love that dies but that always, always, always defeats death. In our pain we ask for your enduring mercy.
Oh, God, hear and answer us.
Tonight we pray for a Pentecostal experience that we might be shaken and roused by the holiest of spirits who will give us right words. In our pain we ask for your enduring mercy.
Oh, God, hear and answer us.
Tonight we pray for hope because Black folk have lost it, protection because no legal system provides it, wisdom because all our best rules never seem to apply to us, and justice because it can only really come from you. In our pain we ask for your enduring mercy.
Oh, God, hear and answer us.
