A More Honest Liturgy (post by Misuzu)

A heartfelt liturgy for these troubled times…

The white evangelical church’s relatively more organized response to national tragedies such as Wednesday’s massacre at Emanuel AME Church is noticeable. The response could have been worse. It has been worse.

One thing I spotted on the Twitters was a link to onechurchliturgy.com. I clicked, anticipating a liturgy that would unite the church in calling out the sins of our culture and center those who are suffering.

It’s a beautifully written liturgy, but when I didn’t see a single reference to race, power, and privilege, I knew we could do better. I sent it out to my girlfriends, and a writer friend Kathy Khang went immediately to work, revising the liturgy to name specific pains and groans. Here is our revised and hopefully more honest liturgy.

A LAMENT FOR THE TRAGEDY IN CHARLESTON

(appropriate for multicultural and non-black homogeneous congregations)

[Leader]

We stand before you today, oh Lord

Hearts broken, eyes…

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Published by Ruth E. Hetland

Ruth E. Hetland is the pastor of Saint Peter's Lutheran Church of Audubon, Minnesota. She is a mom, wife, skeptic, and Alt for Norge (Norwegian reality show) participant. She has served as a pastor in three other congregations prior to Saint Peter's: Trinity Evangelical Lutheran Church of South Newstead in Akron, New York, First Lutheran Church in Colorado Springs, Colorado, and Our Savior's Lutheran Church at Norse of Clifton, Texas. She has been published in The Lutheran magazine, Christ in Our Home, the Word in Season, the Upper Room, Sundays and Seasons, and several other worship resources. Her most recent book is "Writing With a View of the Graveyard: Loss, Life, and Unruly Grace;" (2018). This devotional with photographs of rural churches is available in black and white on Amazon and in full-color by contacting Ruth at ruthehetland@gmail.com; Ruth's first book, a preaching resource, "The Power of Place and Story in Preaching," was published in 2012 and is available on Amazon. Ruth can be contacted at ruthehetland@gmail.com. View more posts