National Day of Healing

O God our Father, whose love reachest to the uttermost parts of the earth: Open our eyes and hearts to see in every man our brother, and in every woman our sister; for each of us is thy child, and worthy of our love. Disincline our hearts to subjugate our brothers and sisters by any means or in any manner, for even as we treat the least of thy children do we shew our love for thee; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

In 2008, Project 1619 established African Landing Day in the City of Hampton to commemorate the landing of the first Africans in the Virginia Colony at Point Comfort. For many years, scholars and historians accepted August 20th as the date of that landing, but there was no reliable documentation for that date. Recently, the National Endowment for Humanities was instrumental in creating a database of slave voyage records incorporating 40 years of archival research from 35,000 slave crossings through the Middle Passage. That database has revealed that the White Lion, bringing the first enslaved Africans to Point Comfort, arrived on August 25, 1619. In 2019, the National Park Service established August 25th as a National Day of Healing, with observances at national parks around the nation.

For an End to Racism

Almighty God, Maker of all things, and Judge of all men: We are all sinners before thee, and equally desirous of thy grace. Embolden our hearts to confront them that would judge a man by the color of his skin or by the manner of his speech. Uphold us with thy Holy Spirit as we resist the hatred of them that account themselves greater than others, taking unto themselves the pride and arrogancy of the Pharisees that condemned thy Son, for that he dined with publicans and sinners; for verily we are all sinners in thy sight. Let us not be tolerant of their malice, though it be spoken softly and with a fair tongue; let us not accept their slightest misdeed, for there is no excuse for evil. Stop our ears to the sly words of false prophets, for not every one that sayeth, “Lord! Lord!” shall come into thy kingdom. But cleanse our hands, and purify our hearts, that we may draw nigh to thee, and thou draw nigh to us; through the same Jesus Christ our Lord, who liveth and reigneth with thee and the Holy Ghost, one God, world without end. Amen.