Lynching Site/E xecution Site Prayer Vigils (Central Region)
Friday, J anuary 22, 12:00 pm
Modern day death penalty is birthed out of Virginia's history of slavery, lynching and J im
Crow segregation. As we prepare to support legislation to abolish the death penalty,
thank you participating in our prayer vigils throughout the state.
Please share pictures and videos of your prayer vigil with Roberta Oster at
roberta@ virginiainterfaithcenter.org. Please take a moment and read the safety
suggestions listed below:
e Please stay home if you feel sick.
e Please stay home if you have been exposed to COVID-19 in the last 14 days
or are showing COVID-19 symptoms. Anyone who has had close contact with
a person who has COVID-19 should also stay home and monitor their health.
If you live with those at higher risk, you should also consider the potential risk
to your loved ones.
e Please wear a mask that covers your nose and mouth.
e When you arrive, please minimize gestures that promote close contact. For
example, don’t shake hands, do elbow bumps, or give hugs. Instead wave
and verbally greet each other.
e Please maintain a social distance of 6 feet or more
Prayer Vigil Litany
Leader: As people of faith and goodwill, we are grateful for our world rich
with difference and diversity. We are thankful for all people, the connection
we have with each other, and the connection we have with the Divine.
People: For all this, we give thanks.
Leader: For historical acts of injustice and oppression perpetuated against
Aboriginal communities, Black, and various Asian communities in this
abundant land of the First Nations:
People: Forgive us, we pray.
Leader: For the times we have failed to recognize racism in ourselves, in our
faith community, in our society, and the times we have failed to take action,
People: Forgive us, we pray.
Leader: For complicity in systems of privilege and power over those whose
skin color, culture, or creed differ from those of the majority, even today:
People: Forgive us, we pray.
Leader: For the one hundred plus lives that were violently taken through
lynchings all throughout the state of Virginia:
People: Forgive us, we pray.
Leader: For the almost 1400 lives that were lost to public execution in
Virginia.
People: Forgive us, we pray
Leader: Grant us patience in enduring periods of non-action, persistence in
resisting the evil of radical oppression, and faithfulness in working toward
racial justice among your people, in the church, and in the world:
People: We beseech you, Eternal Spirit.
Leader: We stand before this Wall of Injustice in solidarity with all men and
women condemned to a state sanctioned death. Based on our
understanding of redemption, love and mercy, we reject retribution or
collective vengeance as a reason for taking human life. Will you work and
pray for the abolition of capital punishment in our country?
People: We will with help from the Divine.
Leader: We stand before this Wall of Injustice recognizing that capital
punishment is an expensive, racist, classist, error-prone system with no
internal consistency. While we give thanks for the exonerated men and
women whose lives have been spared since 1973, we rend our hearts over
the individuals who remain on death row. Will you pray for all who are
imprisoned on death row, that their lives may be spared?
People: We will, with help from the Divine.
SOURCES: A litany suitable for the ic Day for the Elimination of Racial Discrimination by Wehn-in Ng,
from That All May Be One: A Resource for Educating toward Racial Justice (The United Church of Canada, 2004);
Litany for Capital Punishment from Episcopal Peace Fellowship
