Pastoral prayer offered at
Danville Congregational Church, UCC

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This morning we gather to lift up our joys and concerns to you, oh God, because we believe that you hear the prayers of those who call on your name.

Some, we hold in the silence of our hearts, knowing you dwell even where the words do not.
Others, we have spoken aloud this morning
And still others we must bring before you seeking your action, your justice oh God.

Right now we pray for the children who have recently died in the custody of the US.

• Darlyn Cristabel Cordova-Valle, 10, El Salvador
• Jakelin Caal Maquin, 7, Guatemala
• Felipe Gómez Alonzo, 8, Guatemala
• Juan de León Gutiérrez, 16, Guatemala
• Wilmer Josué Ramírez Vásquez, 2, Guatemala
• …and just this past week Carlos “Goyito” Gregorio Hernandez Vasquez, 16, Guatemala

Say their names:

Darlyn…
Jakelin…
Felipe…
Juan…
Wilmer…
Carlos…

We pray for transgender women, joining the three already killed this year–all of them women of color:

Muhlaysia Booker, age 23.

I invite us to say her name: Muhlaysia Booker

Michelle Washington, age 40.

I invite us to say her name: Michelle Washington

God of a migrating people, divine parent of a child executed by the state, God who created us all in your image:

We seek justice for these children and the women lost.

We seek compassion for those detained, separated from families, those who find themselves homeless…

We seek comfort for families experiencing such tragic loss…

We seek an end to violence of all kinds and to conditions that provoke  anyone to live in fear.

Compassionate God, we seek a world where hospitality guides our response to sojourners, people without homes, those whose experience is different from our own, toward a world where love drives out all fear.

Make us, your people who call on your Name…

make us ambassadors of your hospitality,
cause us to be peacemakers,
help us be those who above all seek justice, show mercy, and walk in appropriate smallness

…so that these our prayers may not only be heard by you but answered through the action of our own lives.

Amen and Ashé

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