RESPONSIVE READING

 

A Litany for Restorative Justice

 

Holy and incarnate one, who longs to set the prisoner free and to heal the broken hearted:

We pray for our brothers and sisters who are offenders, 

Who stand accused in our courts and who serve time in our prisons.

Let justice roll down like waters, and righteousness like an ever flowing stream.

We pray for our brothers and sisters who are victims of crime, 

And who, like many victims, are re-victimized by our criminal justice system.

Let justice roll down like waters, and righteousness like an ever flowing stream.

We pray for our Church, remembering that in our corporate history we have been both offender and victim.

Let justice roll down like waters, and righteousness like an ever flowing stream.

We pray for all those in our criminal system who try to do justice:

For police officers, judges, lawyers, chaplains, and for corrections, parole, and probation officers.

Let justice roll down like waters, and righteousness like an ever flowing stream.

We pray for our neighborhoods, our communities, and our society, 

Where the impact of crime and the fear that it breeds harm people, damage relationships, and tear at the human spirit.

Let justice roll down like waters, and righteousness like an ever flowing stream.

Blessed are you, Lord our God, who sent your Son among us to bear the pain and grief of humankind.

Receive the prayers we offer this day for all those in need in every place and grant us strength on our journey. 

Amen.

 

(adapted from the Church Council on Justice and Corrections, “A Justice that Heals and Restores,”  www.anglican.ca/partnerships/EcoJustice/documents/AJustHeals.pdf)

 

PRAYER OF CONFESSION

 

God, we observe and ask as the friend to Job, “Upon whom does God’s light not arise?” (Job 25:3). 

We see your goodness and your grace toward all: prodigal and priest, sinner and saint,  and we often feel like the prodigal son’s elder brother: confused, resentful, even angry. 

We confess that we readily join the world in deciding what and who is worthy of reward or censure, for that way we can know where we stand. 

But with you, the world's rules do not apply! 

We want to cry “injustice,” but are constrained by your love, and we feel ashamed. 

Forgive us for our graceless, judging attitudes, our selfish, unloving ways. 

And forgive us for doubting that your grace can extend even to us.

In the name of Christ our Lord, Amen.

 

(adapted from Correctional Service Canada, “Service Suggestions,” www.csc-scc.gc.ca/text/portals/rj/rj2006/ch4_e.shtml)

 

Intercessory Prayer

 

We pray in thanksgiving for those men and women 

Who are showing us a new way of doing justice based on accountability, healing, and reconciliation.

We pray for open hearts to receive and bless so that we may let go of our need for revenge and punishment, 

And for strength and courage to choose the path of life in our thoughts, words and actions.

We pray for Native Americans, whose community-based ways of doing justice are a light in the darkness.

We pray for victims that their tears which are as plentiful as the drops of water in the ocean may be as healing rain.

We pray for men and women in prison that they may find new life through forgiveness, reconciliation and healing.

We pray that as Christians we may embody the compassion, mercy and tenderness of God for those who need it most.  

In Christ’s name, Amen.

 

(adapted from Correctional Service Canada, “Dignity and Healing for All,” www.csc-scc.gc.ca/text/prgrm/chap/faith/christian/8_e.shtml)

 

 

The Power of Redemption

 

Merciful God, in your dear Son we have redemption, even the forgiveness of sins.  Give us such strong belief in this the

only power that can abolish evil that we shall be enabled to forgive our enemies.  Grant us grace not only to forgive but to

accept forgiveness through Christ, the crucified. Amen.

 

(adapted from the Center for Christian Ethics, “Restorative Justice,” www3.baylor.edu/christianethics/PeaceandWarStudyGuide6.pdf )

 

For Prisons and Correctional Institutions

 

Lord Jesus, for our sake you were condemned as a criminal: Visit our jails and prisons with your compassion and judgment. Remember all prisoners, and bring the guilty to genuine repentance, and give them hope for their future. 

When any are held unjustly, bring them release; forgive us, and teach us to improve our flawed systems of justice. 

Remember those who work in these institutions; keep them humane and compassionate;  and save them from becoming brutal or callous. 

And since what we do for those in prison, O Lord, we do for you, may we work to improve their situation. 

All this we ask for your mercy's sake.  Amen.

 

(adapted from Restorative Justice Online, “Selected Prayers from the Book of Common Prayer,” www.restorativejustice.org/chapel/studies/selections)

 

A Prison Litany

 

For Our Community

For those who through word and deed bring true humanity to relationships, and show compassion to the needs of others,

For those Christians whose thoughts turn into prayer and whose prayer turns into action, let us bless the Lord. 

For those who show forth the gifts of the Spirit in love, joy, peace;

For those who are patient, good, gentle, self-controlled and faithful; 

Let us bless the Lord, Thanks be to God.

For those whose love bears all things, hopes all things, endures all things, whose love never ends,

Let us bless the Lord: thanks be to God.

For the ministry to which God calls us as a community to make Jesus present to inmates as well as victims,

Let us pray to the Lord:

Holy, blessed and glorious Trinity whose unity draws us together, have mercy on us.

 

For the Needs of Those in Prison

For those in prison for the first time, and for the families and friends from whom they are separated, 

For the weak who are abused by the strong; for those who desperately long to be accepted; 

For those who stand firm in the faith and witness to Christ in word and in deed,

Lord, in your mercy, hear our prayer.

 

For the Needs of Those outside Prison

For those contemplating crime today; 

For those who work for a greater justice in an overcrowded, underfunded justice system and for those who don't; 

For those who have abandoned hope in a fair trial, and for those who are victims of rough justice;

For the strong who put pressure on the weak; for those who create anxiety and fear; 

For those who by their false and evil beliefs lead the simple away from the truth in Christ, 

Lord in your mercy, hear our prayer.

 

For Corrections Staff

For strength for those employees who see their work as service; for those who have lost their vocation; 

For those who compromise their professionalism; who find it hard to see good in anyone, 

Lord in your mercy, hear our prayer.

 

For the Needs of Victims

For those who have been victimized that their cries may not go unheard, 

May their injuries be healed by a justice that seeks to restore and reconcile.

For ourselves, as neighbors, that we might grow in awareness of others' fear, anger and helplessness, 

And learn how to bring wholeness again, by the grace of God.

Lord, in your mercy, hear our prayer.  Grant us a vision of your justice, which makes us all whole.  

In our glimpses of the kingdom, where justice and mercy kiss each other, may we be empowered to live 

As ministers of reconciliation in our homes, our neighborhoods, our cities, our nation and across the world.  Amen. 

 

(adapted from Correctional Service Canada, “Chaplaincy,” www.csc-scc.gc.ca/text/prgrm/chap/faith/christian/3_e.shtml)