LEADER:
Oh Lord, your Spirit in-dwells your people and produces rich fruit: love, joy, peace, forbearance, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control.
When we are found in you and formed by you, we will produce good fruit–fruit that last, fruit that brings peace, not war, fruit that gives way to love, not hate.
EVERYONE:
May it be unto us as you have said.
LEADER:
We lament the violence committed at in both Atlanta and Boulder and we pray for peace and healing to wash over the neighbors and families there.
War, hate, and violence are not what you intended for your people. We lament that the world is not as it should be.
[pause for a moment of lament and reflection]
Lord, come quickly.
EVERYONE:
Christ, come quickly.
LEADER:
We confess our addiction to violence. We confess our propensity to solve differences with weapons rather than kindness. Aggression is so readily on our lips, at our finger tips.
Lord, have mercy.
EVERYONE:
Christ, have mercy.
LEADER:
May we protest and reject violence and aggression in our local schools, groceries stores, neighborhoods, and elsewhere. May we propagate and reflect your character, which is rooted in love, not hate.
EVERYONE:
May it be unto us as you have said.
LEADER:
May we be a people who fight for friendship and renounce the culture of gun violence that too often plagues our society.
[pause for a moment of confession and reflection]
Lord, have mercy.
EVERYONE:
Christ, have mercy.