Prayer is Also Protest
#BlackLivesMatter Vigil and Protest March
June 5, 2020
Canon Lee leads the opening prayer.
Photo by Tom Hurwitz.
As protests against police brutality continue across the nation, the Cathedral Church of Saint John the Divine gathered hundreds upon hundreds of New Yorkers for a prayer vigil and march through Morningside Heights and Harlem on June 5th.
“We are all gathered here in front of God's house, which means it's our house, because we are all made in God's image. Every last one of us. And God loves each one of us as if there were only one of us to love,” said the Rt. Rev. Clifton Daniel III, the Dean of the Cathedral. “In this time of great strife over the loss of Black lives at the hands of white supremacy, our Cathedral cannot kneel, and it cannot march, but it can stand as witness—proclaiming a message at the center of the Gospel of Jesus Christ: that Black Lives Matter.”
Sub-Dean Malloy and Dean Daniel spray paint a cloth banner. Photo: Hope Chang.
Before the Vigil began, members of the Congregation with Cathedral Clergy spray painted large white cloths to hang on the iconic west front of the Cathedral. “In many Episcopal Churches, the altar is stripped and works of art are covered after Maundy Thursday, leaving the Church bare for Good Friday, the commemoration of the perfect sacrifice that Christ makes for us on the cross, ” said the Rev. Canon Patrick Malloy, Sub-Dean and Canon for Liturgy. “Before our march, we took a similar action of mourning, shrouding the signs on the front of our Cathedral with cloths spray painted with ‘Black Lives Matter,’ and ‘I Can’t Breathe.’ We mourn for George, for Breonna, for Ahmaud, and for countless others who have lost their lives to white supremacy, but, just as on Maundy Thursday, we are also pointing ourselves forward—making space in our lives for the change and the justice that we need so desperately to come.”
Fists raised in protest in front of the Cathedral of St. John the Divine.
Photo by Lisa Schubert.
The Vigil was led by the Rev. Canon Steven Yong Lee, Vicar of the Congregation of St. Saviour, the congregation at the Cathedral. Canon Lee led a litany of repentance in which each petition was met with the response “No Justice, No Peace.” The attendees were asked to join in a moment of silent protest. “We are gathered in front of this Cathedral, a House of Prayer for All People. For Episcopalians, whose House this is, our prayer tradition is a tradition of common prayer. But protest is also common prayer,” remarked Canon Lee. “In protest we join together to recognize and demand the dignity and immeasurable value that God has placed in all of God’s children, a dignity being denied our Black siblings. And so I invite you to protest with me. Please take a knee, raise a fist, or make whatever gesture of protest you are able to make.”
The group which grew to over one thousand participants, marched into Harlem, stopping at three statues of iconic black leaders for brief prayer: Frederick Douglass, Harriet Tubman, and Adam Clayton Powell, Jr. At the conclusion of the march, Canon Lee addressed the protestors: “In the three holiest days of our year, Maundy Thursday, Good Friday, and the Easter Vigil, we do not end our services, As each comes to a close and we leave the church, we do not give a final blessing, because our service is not over, it will continue when we gather together again. The same is true of today–our service is not over. We have more work to do.
“This is the proper work of the Cathedral and the Cathedral Congregation—standing up for the dispossessed and against injustice,” said Andi Dixon, a member of the Congregation of St. Saviour who helped organize the Vigil and March. “Protest is prayer, and those who are decrying white supremacy aren’t just on the right side of history; they have the moral high ground. I am glad to see the Cathedral and its Congregation join those who are rising to the occasion and affirming the inestimable value that God has placed in Black lives.”
Litany of Repentance for George Floyd and All Other Victims of White Supremacy
Adapted from a litany by Emilia Allen and the Episcopal Church in Minnesota and prayers for reconciliation and justice from the Standing Commission on Liturgy and Music of the Episcopal Church.
Dear people of God, our history is marred by oppression, by the enslavement of those who differ from us, and by the forces of racism that attack human dignity. The sin of racism is woven into our lives and our cultures, in small and great ways, in things done and things left undone.
As followers of Christ, we reject racism and the oppression of other human beings. In building Christ’s beloved community, we must strive to love all people, respect all people, and work for the good of all people. We must stand alongside God’s children of every race, language, and culture, and work together as agents of justice, peace, and reconciliation.
In the assurance of our forgiveness, let us kneel before God and humbly confess our sins: our participation in racism, our privilege based on racism, and our perpetuation of racism.
God the Father, you freed your people from slavery in Egypt, yet the legacy of slavery deforms our lives today.
Have mercy on us.
God the Son, you prayed that all would be united in your love and service, yet the divisions among us rend your body.
Have mercy on us.
God the Holy Spirit, you inspire us to live peaceably with all, yet the stain of genocide and internment mars our striving for justice.
Have mercy on us.
We have harmed one another and the earth through negligence, greed, and self-interest.
Have mercy on us.
We have failed to condemn discrimination that leads to unrest.
Have mercy on us.
We have decried violence, while overlooking inequity and frustration from which it rises.
Have mercy on us.
We have practiced injustice for economic gain and have oppressed others to make a false peace.
Have mercy on us.
We have sought comfort in advantage for ourselves at the cost of injustice for others.
Have mercy on us.
We have welcomed solace over conflict and ignored the cries of those harmed by our comfort.
Have mercy on us.
We have grasped for this world’s goods, and been arrogant toward those who have little.
Have mercy on us.
We have not shared the good things we have been given, and blamed the poor for their poverty.
Have mercy on us.
We have been fearful and distrustful of those who are different from us.
Have mercy on us.
We have divided ourselves from others, and refused to listen to or believe their experience.
Have mercy on us.
We have been indifferent to the pain and suffering of our sisters and brothers.
Have mercy on us.
We have held in contempt those who need our help, and not loved them with our whole hearts.
Have mercy on us.
We have been self-satisfied in our privilege, and denied our oppression of others.
Have mercy on us.
We have preferred order over justice, and isolation over the struggle for peace.
Have mercy on us.
We have quietly held good intentions, and kept silent the message of reconciliation.
Have mercy on us.
We have failed to act with courage for the sake of love.
Have mercy on us.
Oh God, in whose image the whole human family was created, we pray for all whose lives have been forever altered by racial violence.
In particular, today we remember:
George Floyd.
Ahmaud Arbery.
Breonna Taylor.
Other victims of police brutality and white supremacy.
The Black community of Minneapolis, who have for decades cried out against injustice and brutality at the hands of the Minneapolis police, and who have not been heard by those with the power to make change.
All of our Black brothers and sisters, groaning under the weight of redlining, segregation, underfunded schools, unequal economic opportunity, indignity, and ever-present fear.
Every person who has been traumatized, grief-stricken, enraged, and heart-sickened by the video of one neighbor slowly snuffing the life out of another, and by our own helplessness.
Those who have pledged their lives to racist ideologies. We acknowledge the pain they have caused to victims of violence, to their communities, to their families, and to their own souls. We acknowledge that each of us carries racist ideology within us, and we beg your mercy to free all your people from it.
(Silence is kept.)
Lord have mercy.
Christ have mercy.
Lord have mercy.
May Almighty God have mercy on us, grant us courage and conviction, and strengthen us to love others who are unlike us. May God, the Holy and Undivided Trinity, Father, Son and Holy Spirit, make us compassionate in our actions and courageous in our works, that we may see Christ’s Beloved Community in our own day. Amen.