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In response to the horrific immigration policies of this administration, every Tuesday since June 2025, a group of clergy from across the spectrum of religions and communities has gathered at the Federal Building in downtown LA for a Prayer Vigil for the Disappeared created and organized by the Godmothers of the Disappeared. This week, the Los Angeles Queer Interfaith Clergy Council was asked to lead and asked me to write the opening prayer.
We have been here before.
Not just every week
but every generation,
every bruised and battered human being
who yearned for freedom
stood on this holy ground,
in Egypt, in the concentration camps, the internment camps, the plantations, the ever-shrinking native lands, in prisons, in conversion therapy, in the closet,
screaming to the heavens
to the God of us All:
hear us, protect us, be with us.
We have been here before
and here we meet here again,
the weight of our collective ancestors,
propelling us to raise our voices to the heavens once more,
in our privilege, on this side of the wall.
Creator and Protector,
hear our voices as we do Your work and show up again and again
until each and every one of Your children breathes free,
until we stop dehumanizing and dismissing,
until we see Your light and Your heart in everyone
until we stop justifying this abject cruelty,
until the souls hidden away - rights and dignity striped -
can join us here and praise Your name too.
Until that day,
let our voices be heard by the stolen:
we know you,
we care what happens to you,
we fight for you,
we love you.
Holy One of Blessing,
May the day come soon,
when we gather away from this place,
hand in hand
songs of praise on our lips,
freedom lived by all,
out and proud
in every way.
And let us say, Amen!
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