The Arizona Disciples Anti-Racism/Pro-Reconciliation Team encourages all Arizona Disciples congregations to utilize the resources available on this page and denominationally at https://www.discipleshomemissions.org/resources/juneteenth-freedom-day/.
You can download this resource list by clicking here.
About Juneteenth
Juneteenth is a U.S. federal holiday that commemorates the day in 1865 when the final enforcement action of the Emancipation Proclamation occurred in Texas. The capture and kidnapping of people from Africa, and subsequent transporting of them by ship, mostly to the southern states in the U.S. is the typical and most applicable understanding of slavery as a practice in the U.S. Indigenous people and some other groups of people were also enslaved, and the practice extended some beyond the South. Slavery and the subsequent systemic racism that followed, and continues in many ways today, is often referred to as “America’s original sin.”
We encourage Arizona Disciples and all Arizona Disciples Congregations to include this information in their newsletters or bulletins, celebrate freedom on June 19, and to pray for the descendants of enslaved people. We also pray for our society, as the unjust attitudes and unfounded racial prejudice that grew out the horrific institution of slavery continue to fester and churn in this country today. We also encourage congregations to include commemoration of Juneteenth in their worship services.
You can find additional resources from the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ) at: Disciples Home Missions: https://www.discipleshomemissions.org/resources/juneteenth-freedom-day/
Scripture & Sermon Topics
Luke 4:18-19 – Jesus proclaims his ministry as one that give liberation.
Exodus 3:7-10 – God hears the cries of those who suffer.
Amos 5:21-24 – In order for justice to be lived, it must be accompanied by intentional work of healing.
Galatians 5:1 – There is freedom in Christ.
Responsive Litany
One: God of justice and mercy, we come before You as a people shaped by a history we did not choose, but must now confront.
MANY: We remember the generations enslaved, whose bodies they did not have autonomy over, whose families were torn apart, whose labor built nations but bought no freedom.
ONE: We confess the sins of slavery; not only in the past, but the systems still shaped by its shadow.
MANY: The wealth passed down, the trauma inherited, the silence maintained.
ONE: Too often, we have benefitted from injustice we failed to name.
MANY: Too often, we have sought reconciliation without repentance,
ONE: Forgive us, O God, for the ways we have ignored the cries for reparative justice.
MANY: Forgive us for centering comfort over courage, peace over truth.
ONE: Let this be the generation that turns confession into repair.
MANY: Let this be the embodiment of the church that remembers honestly, speaks truthfully, and loves boldly.
ONE: Guide us by Your Spirit to restore what has been stolen, to heal what has been wounded, and to live Your justice with integrity.
MANY: In the name of Jesus, who proclaimed release to the captives and good news to the poor, we commit ourselves to the long work of repair. Amen.
Prayer
Holy God,
You who walked with our ancestors through fire and flood,
Who breathed life into the silenced and hope into the oppressed.
We come before you as a people in need of healing,
A church in need of courage,
A nation still bound by unspoken chains.
We name the truth:
That this land bears the weight of stolen labor,
That the wealth around us grew from the backs of those never paid,
That the sin of slavery is not only history,
It is legacy, untended wounds, and unfinished work.
We grieve the memory and suffering that cries out from the ground.
We grieve the families torn, the languages lost,
The bodies deemed property,
And the systems that still echo that lie.
God of the brokenhearted and the brave,
Do not let us settle for soft forgetting.
Do not let us trade justice for silence, or repair for comfort.
Stir in us a holy unrest,
A longing not just to confess, but to restore.
Give us wisdom to repair what was stolen,
Boldness to speak when it would be easier to remain quiet,
And humility to follow the lead of those most harmed and affected.
Teach us to live the truth of the gospel:
That good news must mean freedom,
That reconciliation demands reckoning,
That love always sides with the oppressed.
O God, may we be the ones,
Who do not look away from painful histories,
But look back with honesty,
And forward with purpose.
In the name of Jesus, the Liberator,
Who calls us not just to believe, but to become disciples of repair.
Amen.
Book Resource List
James by Percival Everett
My Grandmother’s Hands: Racialized Trauma and the Pathway to Mending Our Hearts and Bodies by Resmaa Menakem
Juneteenth for Mazie by Floyd Cooper
Chautauqua Leader Book — (coming soon)
