A Prayer of Confession and Hope
The Closing Prayer from the One America Summit
As Chandra DeNap Whetstine shared in her recent post, the One America Movement’s recent national Summit brought together a diverse group of faith leaders—across regions, religions, races, and ideologies—who share a common belief: that faith calls us to unity over division. These leaders are committed to speaking and acting against toxic polarization—not in spite of their faith, but because of it.
Throughout the Summit, leaders from a broad spectrum of faith traditions were invited to offer prayers before meals. Each was encouraged to pray authentically, in accordance with their own tradition. This created a powerful experience of truly hearing one another—in our heart languages—and of recognizing both the deep desires and values we share, as well as the unique practices that make each tradition unique.
Below is the closing prayer that was shared by Rev. Fred L. Durham, who is an active participant in our Matthew 5:9 Fellowship, our Evangelical Faith Network.
A Prayer for One America
Our Father,
Today we come to You with thanksgiving—
Thanksgiving for life, for food, for fellowship,
For the wonderful time we’ve had together,
And for this great, robust, joyous—and tragic—land:
This land of beauty and aspiration,
Of horrible failure and yet of enduring hope—
This land we know as the United States of America.Lord, we come before You in humility
To confess that we have failed America—and failed You.
Truly, we have failed her by failing You.
In her service, and in Yours,
We have left undone those things we ought to have done,
And we have done those things we ought not to have done.
Apart from You, there is no health in us.1Forgive us, Lord.
Lead us into a new day—
A new day in which we who are many see ourselves as one,
And treat each other with mutual respect, dignity—
And beyond that—the love of brothers and sisters
Who are of one family.Our national motto—E Pluribus Unum—is a noble desire,
Yet it is really the restoring of what has always been.As Paul in Acts said:
You have made of one blood all nations, and
“He is not far from each of us, for in Him we all live and move and have our being,” and again,
For we all indeed are His offspring. All are His children.
Help us, Lord, to move from this place empowered and guided by You,
To work unstintingly to make the hope of One America a reality.May we reflect Your character and Your desire each day:
Blessed are the peacemakers,
For they shall be recognized as the children of God. (Matthew 5:9)—
And so we pray in the words of the great James Weldon Johnson:
Thou who hast by Thy might
Led us into the light,
Keep us forever in the path, we pray.
Lest our feet stray from the places, our God, where we met Thee,
Lest our hearts, drunk with the wine of the world, we forget Thee;
Shadowed beneath Thy hand,
May we forever stand,
True to our God,
True to our native land.2
What resonates with you in this prayer and what feels different from how you might pray?
And where might you have “left undone those things you ought to have done” with respect to speaking and acting against polarization according to your own faith? What small steps might you begin to take towards action?
Rev. Fred L. Durham is the Director of the C.S. Lewis Institute in Dallas, Texas. He has been a pastor for over 40 years serving in the North Texas Conference of the United Methodist Church.
The Confession of Sin. Book of Common Prayer. (The Anglican Church, 1662).
J. Rosamond Johnson and James Weldon Johnson. "Lift Every Voice and Sing." E.B. Marks Music Co., 1921, Notated Music.