The Presbyterian Church in Canada prayer for the Lives Lost at Kamloops Indian Residential School…
God, we are deeply saddened by the ongoing atrocities against your creation. We have learned of more Indigenous children lost, more children who never were able to return to their families from schools they should never have been forced to attend in the first place. This news is devastating.
We pray first for healing for the children’s families and communities, who are met again today with pain too deep to name.
We acknowledge the actions of your church, our complicity in running residential schools and taking children like these, who were just found, from their families. We repent for the pain and ongoing harm we have caused. We ask for the will and wisdom to act to end that harm. We have asked for forgiveness and we are committed to work for healing and reconciliation. But we recognize that for many, that change came too late.
Comforting God, we pray for healing in the communities and families of all who experienced residential schools, comfort for all those grieving, and strength for all to pursue reconciliation.
O holy One, we desire to hear your voice of love, to receive the gift of the Holy Spirit, and to see you clearly. By your Spirit who breathes within us, strengthen our faith, use our gifts, and work in our lives to bear witness to Christ who taught his disciples to pray, …Our Father who art in heaven, hallow’ed be thy name. Thy Kingdom come, Thy will be done, on earth as it is in Heaven. Give us this day our daily bread and forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us. Lead us not into temptation but deliver us from evil, for thine is the kingdom, the power and the glory, forever and ever. Amen.