We pray for those with power to create peace

May you be tender and gentle with yourself

How can I be love instead of being anger and fear?

We are an angry and beautiful people.

Hold us gently as we gather closer together, comforting each other, healing each other.

Sing in our hearts all the stirrings of compassion for the oppressed, for those who are scared and hurting.

Somehow, the things that are too much to bear alone are bearable together.

Church is for helping people stay human in the face of inhumane circumstances.

Let it be said by generations to come that when the pain of our separation was revealed, we moved closer to the promised land of our beloved community.

I am afraid and exhausted from the constant fear. I don’t know who to trust for information about the virus.

Holding people accountable for the impact of their behavior is not revenge; it’s what makes change and growth possible, and no real healing in community can come without it.

Hope continues, uncertain and true, like candlelight, ready to spark again.

When we feel overwhelmed, we gather to find a path, to find new ways forward.

Years ago, I did one of those mud run obstacle races. There were eight physical obstacles on the course, but my biggest learning was that we all had a ninth obstacle.

In this community, we hold hope close. We don’t always know what comes next, but that cannot dissuade us. We don’t always know just what to do, but that will not mean that we are lost in the wilderness. We rely on the certainty beneath, the foundation of our values and ethics. —Rev. Theresa I.

This ritual begins by lighting a candle from the chalice, and placing it in position. A list of supplies is at the end of this resource. One: Fire. Source of warmth and life for our ancestors; and for humans still today....

We are broken, O God. We are broken. We gather in vigil again to mourn the death of school children and school teachers. Death and violence are the reasons that draw us together in sorrow, in anger, in anxious grief and loss....

We pray for the three Jewish congregations who meet at the Tree of Life Synagogue in Pittsburgh, PA. We hold those taken too soon in our prayers even before we know all of their names – 11 people so far....

My beloved people, I cannot pretend, And so I will not tell you, That everything is okay right now. That there is no reason to be angry, That you must be optimistic Or at peace. I cannot pretend these things, And so I won't tell them to you. But now our chalice is lit, And so all I ask in this...

This is a prayer for when words fail, for when they are not big enough or small enough to slip into the little cracks left in our hearts by life’s unbearable pressures....