Weep, o church, for God has been shot in the streets.

O God, we have sinned against you
in thought, in word, and in deed.

Hang your head, o church, for failing to attend God’s wake.

We have left undone everything
that we ought to have done.

Cry out and gnash your teeth, o church, that God has been taken too soon.

We have not loved you
as we should.

Where will you go, o church, without God beside you?

We have abandoned
our neighbors, too.

How will you spend your Sundays, o church?

Have mercy on us.

WIll you close your doors, o church, because God has gone?

Please give us your life.

Will you sit in your empty pews, o church, as though God is still there – captured in stained glass?

We repent;
hear our prayers.

Look and see, o church: the resurrected God marches now in the streets.

Forgive us, and deliver us
to streets paved in gold.

Lift up your eyes, o church, to see God breaking curfew, unarmed with hands in the air.

It is proper to wait here
for your return to us.

Listen, o church, as God shouts for justice on earth.

Holy, holy, holy. Let heaven
be full of your glory.

Austin Channing Brown’s post, “Black Bodies White Souls,” is a must-read for the white American church on the collective silence of white Christians in the face of individual & systemic racism and on the inability/refusal of the white church to express shame and remorse.