Many of us have witnessed events in recent months and years on Turtle Island that we didn’t expect to see again. For a time, politicians spoke of reconciliation and of transforming systemic racism, and passed some progressive policies. Black and Indigenous activists demanding radical change were beginning to gain access to mainstream platforms. Now we are living through a violent white supremacist backlash against this incremental progress.
We hold in our prayers the people of Minneapolis and other US cities targeted by the rapidly expanded and militarized Immigrant and Customs Enforcement agency (ICE):
- the migrants sharing information about their rights and about safety strategies,
- the children kept home from school,
- people bringing groceries to neighbours afraid to leave their homes,
- clergy putting their bodies in the way of deportation flights,
- ordinary people monitoring and getting in the way of ICE.
We remember those who have been killed by ICE and all who have been detained and deported.
We hold in our prayers the Palestine solidarity movement:
- the activists who have been arrested, harassed or assaulted by police,
- those who have lost jobs or visas in retaliation for speaking up,
- the relentless advocates for boycotts, divestment and sanctions,
- the people who keep demonstrating, keep calling their representatives, keep organizing week after week, month after month, year after year,
- the mutual support pods that make sure that those criminalized for solidarity are never left alone.
We hold in our prayers the Iranian diaspora grieving the massacre of protestors and demanding an end to authoritarian rule. We pray for the Sudanese diaspora continuing to organize emergency aid, years into a war our governments don’t talk about.
We hold in our prayers the people and communities that our capitalist society treats as disposable:
- the people struggling to survive without shelter in fatally cold weather,
- the drug users who save one another’s lives with Naloxone,
- the people living on disability pensions whose volunteer work holds our communities together,
- the people with disabilities whose families are overwhelmed by their needs,
- the care workers and outreach volunteers who try to stretch meager resources to provide assistance.
We hold in our prayers Indigenous people surviving and resisting colonialism:
- working to heal from intergenerational trauma,
- caring for relatives of all species,
- teaching children and mentoring youth,
- reclaiming traditions and keeping stories alive,
- opposing the destruction of the land,
- speaking, singing, painting, and dancing truth,
- envisioning futures beyond oppression.
We pray for the dismantling of colonial ideologies that dehumanize everyone who diverges from a narrow vision of white masculine power.
We pray for the growth and thriving of communities:
- that care and cooperate,
- that tend the earth,
- that look ahead seven generations,
- that practice deep listening and mutual accountability,
- that value diversity over conformity and collaboration over control,
- that we may learn good ways of living together.
