We Pray Freedom

A book of prayers, rituals, and liturgies that grows out of communities committed to abolishing poverty.Prayer has long sustained movements for social change. Ritual gives shape to our desire for justice, and liturgy lends power to our work. In We Pray Freedom, we learn from activists and movement builders the songs, stories, and ritual practices that keep them going for the long haul. The Freedom Church of the Poor, called for by Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., has existed in many forms; today it includes laborers, poor folks, pastors, organizers, and others bound together by a conviction: It does not have to be this way.Edited by Liz Theoharis, theologian, pastor, anti-poverty activist, and editor of We Cry Justice, and Charon Hribar, song leader, cultural organizer, and social ethicist, this book guides readers through a journey of remembering, healing, mourning, action, and celebration. It is a collection of prayers, resources, and stories from the communities in which they arose, including:A Prayer to Protect a Sacred PlaceA Prayer for BurialsA Black Friday Prayer for Workers' JusticePassover SederVigil for the DetainedHealthcare VigilA Shinnecock Song of PeaceEarth LiturgyA Ramadan RitualA Poem in the Wake of Police ViolenceA Revolutionary Advent WreathA Prayer for DiwaliBenediction for Homeless Persons' Memorial DayJoin Chaplains on the Harbor on their Stations of the Cross, Iglesia del Pueblo for Día de los Muertos, Domestic Workers United in their community garden ritual, and an of encampment of unhoused residents in Alabama for their communion service. With more than fifty resources from eighty contributors, We Pray Freedom is useful for individual reflection, corporate worship, and protest and action. Through liturgies of liberation, join a movement that bears witness to the justice of God and to human faith, suffering, protest, and love.