Sunday, June 11, 2017

A Litany for Remembering a Massacre

This is the litany recited at the Taize liturgy at St. Richard’s Episcopal Church, Winter, Park, Sunday, June 11, 2017. The liturgy commemorated the massacre at Orlando’s Pulse Nightclub one year ago tomorrow.



O God, in whose image all people are made,
Have mercy on us.

O Jesus, healer and lover of all souls,
Have mercy on us.

O Holy Spirit, source of courage and hope,
Have mercy on us.

Holy Trinity, divine community, gather us as one,
Have mercy on us.

We weep as Rachel for her children,
Have mercy on us.

We weep for the innocent victims of Orlando and everywhere,
Have mercy on us.

We weep for the perpetrators of violence and hate,
Have mercy on us.




We weep over our country and our world as Jesus wept over Jerusalem,
Have mercy on us.

We pray healing for those wounded in body or spirit,
Have mercy on us.

We long for mercy and truth to make a home with each other where righteousness and peace embrace,
Have mercy on us.

Help us to end a culture of violence and the fetish of guns,
Have mercy on us.

Inspire our earthly rulers to break open old arguments and act for the common good,
Have mercy on us.

Lead us in examining our own consciences for the remnants of prejudice and hate within us,
We fervently pray, O God.

Give your LGBT children the courage to be and the equal dignity of every human being,
We fervently pray, O God.

Keep us from acting out of our fear to brand others as enemies,
We fervently pray, O God.


Protect our brothers and sisters of Islam, that they may live in the peace which is their true proclamation,
We fervently pray, O God.

Surround us with your loving arms, draw us together across lines of religion, sexual orientation, and all those many ways we separate ourselves from one another,
We fervently pray, O God.

Inspire us to act in ways that bring all people closer to your promised reign of peace,
We fervently pray, O God.




For the dead we pray,
Lord have mercy.

For the wounded we pray,
Christ have mercy.

For a transformed world we pray,
Lord have mercy.

(Adapted from A Litany After the Orlando Massacre, The Rev.  Michael Hopkins, President, Integrity, the LBGTQ ministry of the Episcopal Church, 1998-2003)

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Harry Scott Coverston
Orlando, Florida



If the unexamined life is not worth living, surely an unexamined belief system, be it religious or political, is not worth holding.

Most things worth considering do not come in sound bites.

For what does G-d require of you but to do justice, and to love kindness, and to walk humbly with your G-d? (Micah 6:8, Hebrew Scriptures)

© Harry Coverston 2017
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