The Immigration Task Force
of the Western Jurisdiction of The United Methodist Church
The Western Jurisdiction Immigration Task Force invites all United Methodists of the jurisdiction to pause during your observation of our nation’s birth to offer prayers on behalf of our immigrant and migrant neighbors who are suffering from our government’s current policies and practices.
Whether individually or in your various gatherings on the 4th of July, pause to pray for these neighbors, one another, our government, and those who put these policies into practice. May our prayers lead us to greater solidarity with our immigrant and migrant neighbors, and to faithful action and witness on their behalf.
Thank you for joining us in prayer and action as together we seek to be a faithful witness to the gospel of Jesus Christ at work in the world.
A Prayer of Confession
Leader:
Creator God, You placed within each of us Your divine flame. You tenderly breathed Your Spirit into us with the command to love one another.
All:
We have failed to honor Your Spirit of love. Forgive us, O God.
Leader:
As children are torn from their families, call us back to the hope You breathed into us at creation. Call us back to your spirit of radical welcome.
All:
“Give me your tired, your poor, your huddled masses yearning to breathe free. The wretched refuse of your teeming shore. Send these, the homeless, tempest-tost to me, I lift my lamp beside the golden door!”*
Leader:
Remind us, O God, that we are called to comfort the suffering. Remind us of the
depth of love we sprang from. Remind us of Your light that shines in each of us.
All:
God, forgive us, and send us out with a spirit of boldness to set right the wrongs caused by our blindness to Your divine love in all Your children, on every side of every border we’ve created. Amen.
Echo Park United Methodist Church 