A Litany of Confession

Left: Lord, we have handicapped people by our pity. We have stared at people who look "different" and refused to meet their eyes. We have given up talking to people who do not hear the way most people hear or see the way most people see.

Right: Help us to see more than the outside of people. Help us to hear one another in the sharing of feelings and of stories. Help us to see the many different perspectives and levels and forms of living, being, and moving, the ways of tapping new depths and dreams.

All: Deliver us, Lord, from our lack of creatively and our insensitivity! Help us to see ourselves realistically, and acknowledge our own challenges and weaknesses. We are neither “whole” nor “holy” people.

Left: Teach us, God, to see the growing population of people who are oppressed because our culture builds barriers of attitude, architecture, and communication. Teach us to tear down the walls that separate one person from another. 

All: We praise you for making each person in your image and your likeness!

Right: We praise you for the parts of your body that seem to be weaker but are indispensable. [1 Cor. 12:22]

All: May we never shut away the gifts of personhood, no matter where people are in their journey, but instead join together in the one body that is your church!