Black History Month Worship Resources

On February 13 our congregation will celebrate Black History Month. We are a predominately white congregation and the challenge for shaping worship was to blend thanksgiving with confession, hope with forgiveness, recognition both of our racial unity as well as our racial diversity.

Our continued call is to unearth the White American's complicity in maintaining systems of racism and racial predjudice that denies the full recognition of the divine in one another. We pray we will be open to humility as we call on God to be our help and our guide. And we ask God to grant us grace when we are corrected, called out, and invited into a world beyond black and white.


Litany of Thanks
In Celebration of Black History Month
by Carrie Eikler

Leader: God of all people, all races and nationalities, all able and broken bodies, all people who breathe your sweet air of life.
People: We give thanks that you have made us in your image.
L: Today we are called to give thanks for the great gifts of our Black American sisters and brothers that make our lives richer and fuller.
P: Thanks be to God!
L: For the writers: WEB DuBois, Audre Lorde, Langston Hughes
P: Thank you God for their words!
L: For the healers: Harriet Tubman, Dr. Charles Richard Drew, Dr. David J. Peck
P: Thank you Jesus for their healing!
L: For the peacemakers and justice seekers: Sojourner Truth, Fredrick Douglass, Coretta Scott King
P: Thank you Spirit for their passion!
L: For the scientists: Percy Julian, Patricia Bath, George Washington Carver
P: Thank you God for their ingenuity!
L: For the government officials: Thurgood Marshall, Barack Obama, Carol Mosely-Braun,
P: Thank you Jesus for their persistence!
L: For the professors and educators: Cornell West, Ruth Simmons, Charles L. Reason
P: Thank you Spirit for their intellect!
L: For the musicians: Marian Anderson, Duke Ellington, Billie Holiday
P: Thank you God for their creativity!
L: For the athletes: Jackie Joyner Kersee, Jackie Robinson, Arthur Ashe
P: Thank you Jesus for their agility and strength!
L:For these and all our African American brothers and sisters who surround us this day we give thanks.
P: Amen. And Amen!

*Some of these names are likely very familiar to you. Some you may not recognize. As a response to our celebration, take time this month to learn about some about these Black Americans that you are less familiar with.

Prayers of the People
Prayer” by Maya Angelou

Father, Mother, God
Thank you for your presence
during the hard and mean days.
For then we have you to lean upon.

Thank you for your presence
during the bright and sunny days,
for then we can share that which we have
with those who have less.

And thank you for your presence
during the Holy Days, for then we are able
to celebrate you and our families
and our friends.

For those who have no voice,
we ask you to speak.
(silence)

For those who feel unworthy,
we ask you to pour your love out
in waterfalls of tenderness.
(silence)

For those who live in pain,
we ask you to bathe them
in the river of your healing.
(silence)

For those who are lonely, we ask
you to keep them company.
(silence)

For those who are depressed,
we ask you to shower upon them
the light of hope.
(silence)

Dear Creator, You, the borderless
sea of substance, we ask you to give to all the
world that which we need most--Peace.
[Amen.]

Prayer of Reconciliation
adapted from United Church of Canada Black History worship materials

Gracious God, we thank you for creating all of us in your image,
even though outwardly we look different.

We thank you for being faithful.
We thank you that in you there is no superior race; we are all the same in your eyes
We thank you for your justice.

Help us, O God, to look to you for guidance.
We thank you for reconciling us.
Thank you, Lord Jesus Christ, for inviting us to you, the spring that flows with living water.
We thank you for giving us water to drink.

Help us to accept one another in love,
like you did for us,
when you accepted each one of us in your love.

Thank you for your love that is from eternity to eternity.
As we come together to remember Black History Month,
We give thanks because you have made us equal in your sight.
You are calling us to rise and look forward,
and to serve you in justice and peace.

Thank you, loving God,
for giving hope that last forever.
Thank you, for making us to be part of this journey;

We know that you will make all things new. Thanks be to God. Amen.

Benediction from 44th Inaugural Address by Rev. Dr. Joseph Lowery
Lord, in the memory of all the saints who from their labors rest, and in the joy of a new beginning, we ask you to help us work for that day
when black will not be asked to get back,
when brown can stick around
when yellow will be mellow
when the red man can get ahead, man
and when white will embrace what is right.
Let all those who do justice and love mercy say amen
[Amen!]

Hymns:
Yonder come day
Precious Lord take my hand
In Christ there is no East or West
Lift every voice and sing