PRAYER TO
MARK TORTURE AWARENESS MONTH JUNE 2009
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God of yesterday, today, and tomorrow, we give thanks for your abiding presence with our ancestors
and pray for your continued guidance to us, to all your children, and indeed to all your glorious creation.
Help us, gracious God, to act faithfully
upon this truth: each human being is made in your image, sisters and brothers to one another.
Help us, gracious
God, to teach our children and grandchildren to live together in peace and without fear. May they, like we, be passionate
and persistent in ensuring that all forms of torture and cruel, inhuman, or degrading treatment are prohibited by law, and
that our nation consistently upholds its deepest values.
We confess, gracious God, that we as a nation have permitted the practice of torture. Give us the courage to investigate
our nation’s use of torture, to understand our own complicity and to seek healing for both the tortured and the torturer.
We pray, O God, in the hope that the integrity of our nation and its stature in the commonwealth of nations
will be restored. We pledge ourselves this day to work without ceasing for the establishment of an independent, nonpartisan
Commission of Inquiry to understand the causes, nature and scope of U.S.-sponsored torture.
May such an inquiry help to prevent
the use of torture in the future. O Merciful God, may healing overcome brokenness, hope overcome
fear, and action overcome despair. Lead us in your way of truth and justice. And let us say, Amen.
