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Editors note: We gratefully share this prayer from UUA President Rev. Dr. Sofía Betancourt, written after hundreds of UUs joined a march against ICE in Minneapolis, Minnesota, and as federal agents fatally shot a 37-year-old Minneapolis man on Saturday.
God of many names and one abundant love,
We come with a spirit of gratitude, hearts broken open wide. Thank you for the visible, thriving, insistent power of everyday people that some of us witnessed through frozen lashes, caught up in the swell of humanity on the streets of Minneapolis. Thank you for a labor movement that has long taught us to right size fear of the oppressor and lean instead into the sacred and unrelenting power of the people. Thank you for faith traditions that are grounded in love of neighbor—a love that calls us to care unflinchingly for one another and to respond when violence comes in all of its forms.
On this day as we once again grieve in horror at the mindless and morally bankrupt murder of yet another observer in South Minneapolis, help us to stay connected to one another as grief and rage, exhaustion and despair, make their way through us and through our communities.
We know that the egregious use of violence, the deployment of young children as bait, the threatening of our leaders, and the violation of our basic human rights are all tactics to trap us in fear, and convince us to believe lies about our own power and moral responsibility. The cost of such terrorizing tactics are unspeakably high.
Help to prepare our resistance for the long haul. Inspire our disruption and keep us connected in these destabilizing times. Keep the strains of protest songs alive in our hearts for the coming weeks, months, and years. “No one is getting left behind this time…”
We will sing together until our songs are songs of victory, and our children know themselves to be safe and whole.
May it be ever so. Amen, Axé, and Blessed be.