Becoming Welcoming Communities: Liturgical/Worship Resources

Becoming Welcoming Communities: Selected Liturgical/Worship Resources
You can cut and paste these prayers into your church’s worship bulletin or other worship resource. Please note: seek permission from the original source if this is to be shared in a print resource, and always provide credit! Follow the links for more prayers and resources for worship, study and liturgical art

Interfaith Worker Justice
Dear Jesus,
Our journey through life is long and hard. We cannot make this trip alone; we must walk together on the journey.
You promised to send us a helper, your Spirit. Help us to see your Spirit in those you send to journey with us.

In the refugee family, seeking safety from violence,
Let us see your Spirit.

In the migrant worker, bringing food to our tables,
Let us see your Spirit.

In the asylum-seeker, seeking justice for himself and his family,
Let us see your Spirit.

In the unaccompanied child, traveling in a dangerous world,
Let us see your Spirit.

Teach us to recognize that as we walk with each other, You are present.

Teach us to welcome not only the strangers in our midst but the gifts they bring as well: the invitation to conversion, communion, and solidarity.

This is the help you have sent: we are not alone.
We are together on the journey, and for this we give you thanks. Amen.

• • • Interfaith Worker Justice Collected Prayers for Immigrants

Lutheran Immigration and Refugee Service
Dear heavenly Father, tenderly bless all vulnerable children who are journeying alone in this world. Comfort orphaned children whose parents have been taken from them by violence. Provide for refugee children who are far from home and don’t know where their families may be. Guide migrant children who take dangerous journeys to find family or opportunity. Rescue trafficked children whose freedom and innocence have been betrayed. Protect all children who need your care, bringing them justice, safety and home. In Jesus’ name, amen.

• • • Prayers for immigrants & refugees, links to social media with weekly prayer posts
    • Congregational Resource Library with Bible Study & Worship Resources

Episcopal Migration Ministries https://episcopalmigrationministries.org/study/

God our Creator: We ask for your loving presence and for your peace to be with refugees in our local communities and around the world. Be with all who are in fear. Be with those whose lives and livelihoods are under threat, and whose religious freedoms are being compromised. Be with us as we strive to enact your will in our welcome and support of refugees. Be with those in positions of leadership, that their decisions may bend toward peace and not division, and that they might realize the power they hold to do justice. Give us all strength and courage. Equip and empower us to be witnesses to your love – as advocates and as servants, as ministers of welcome and bearers of hope, especially for those seeking refuge. In your Holy name we pray. Amen.

Shared by the Refugee Community Center at the Episcopal Church of the Mediator (Allentown), Diocese of Bethlehem

• • • Episcopal Migration Ministries – Study and Worship Materials
      • Seasonal devotions, Bible Studies, Stations of the Cross
      • Refugee Sunday toolkit, Book Discussions toolkit
      • Prayers of the People for Refugees & Displaced Persons Worldwide

Mennonite Church USA

• • • Learn. Pray. Join. – Immigration Justice 
      • Includes video highlights of Mennonites involved in immigration justice
    • Safe Home Safe Community Worship Resources
    • Peace Sunday Prayers and Worship Resources

Caminemos Juntos
O God the Father, Creator of heaven and earth,
Have mercy upon us.

Oh Dios el Hijo, Redentor del mundo, [God the Son, Redeemer of the world,]
Ten piedad de nosotros.

O God the Holy Spirit, Sanctifier of the faithful,
Have mercy upon us.

Oh santo, bendito, y gloriosa Trinidad, un Dios, [holy, blessed, and glorious Trinity, one God,]
Ten piedad de nosotros. [Have mercy upon us.]

Officiant: “God created humankind in his own image,
in the image of God he created them; male and female
he created them.”[1] But we have, through our thoughts,
words and deeds, denied the truth that each immigrant
and refugee is made in your image.

Pueblo: Lord, have mercy upon us.

Officiant: You said: “Don’t oppress an immigrant.
You know what it’s like to be an immigrant,
because you were immigrants in Egypt”
But we have forgotten the hardships faced
by our ancestors who came to this country
from other lands and we have forgotten that as
a church we are an immigrant people.

Pueblo: Señor, ten piedad de nosotros.

Officiant: You said “When a stranger sojourns
with you in your land, you shall not do him wrong.
You shall treat the stranger who sojourns with you
as the native among you, and you shall love him as yourself.”                                                                                                                           

But we have done wrong to the sojourners to this land:
separating children from parents and husbands
from wives, limiting opportunities for work
and education opportunities and not loving these        
new neighbors as ourselves.   

Pueblo: Lord, have mercy upon us.
You said “Go therefore and make disciples of
all nations, baptizing them in the name of the
Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit
teaching them to observe all that I have
commanded you.”  

But rather than recognizing your sovereign
disciple-making purposes in the dispersion of
peoples across borders, we have seen
immigrants as a threat. We have failed to
practice Godly hospitality and instead embraced
protectionist nationalism, not submit our ways of
thinking to the authority of your word.

Pueblo: Señor, ten piedad de nosotros.

Officiant: You said that before you will be a  great multitude, from every nation, tribe, people and language.[6] But we have failed to prepare for  this multicultural and multilingual future.  We have not embraced the diversity of gifts and vitality immigrants bring to the Church. We have opposed change resisting any giving up of our ways of worship and life. 

Lord, have mercy upon us.                
Christ, have mercy upon us.                   
Lord, have mercy upon us.                                    

Let us pray. Oremos.

A Collect for Refugees and Immigrants    

Heavenly Father,  from whom every family on earth derives its name, have mercy on all those who sojourn in this world. As you sheltered your Son Jesus who fled from the tyranny of Herod, so now provide new homes for all those who flee the violence of this age that they may know the peace of Christ. Grace your people with hearts of welcome and lives of courage through Jesus Christ who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, forever and ever.  Amen.[7]               

• • • A Litany of Lament and Repentance For Our Treatment of Immigrants and Refugees – In Spanish and English, from the Anglican tradition

Ukrainian Orthodox Church of the USA
O Lord Jesus Christ, our Hope and Salvation, have mercy on those that are driven from their homelands and seek refuge elsewhere. Guide their steps as You did Your holy family who fled the murderous rage of Herod, and keep them from every danger, evil and disaster as they flee from war, unrest, persecution and cruel injustice. You Who declared that the foxes had dens but You had no place to lay Your head, grant rest and succor to those who are weary, wounded and unprotected.

And to those cities and lands to which they travel, grant peace, wisdom and compassion to receive those who come in great numbers and in great distress. Bless and multiply what they can provide as You multiplied the loaves and the fishes to feed multitudes, blessing those who give as well as those who receive. Enlarge them in bounty and spirit that they may be havens of rest and relief to those in need, that Your hospitality may overcome the madness of evil men and chaos of natural disasters.

Forgive every transgression of those who are forced to leave their homes and have mercy also on those who receive them and offer them shelter, for You are good and the lover of mankind.

To You our gracious Lord and God, we ascribe glory, together with Your Father Who is from everlasting and the all-holy, good and life-giving Holy Spirit, now and ever and unto ages of ages. Amen.

• • • Prayer for Refugees of the World-wide Community

United Church of Christ
Creator God,
open our eyes so we can see you in the eyes of our immigrant brothers and sisters,

eyes downcast for having lived so long in the shadows,
eyes challenging us to join them in the streets or picket lines,
eyes lifted looking for the Christ light in us.

Compassionate God, who has come to dwell among us,
open our ears to hear the cries of your children,

children being separated from their parents,
rounded up in raids,
led to detention centers,
silently giving up dreams.

God of Justice, who crosses all boundaries,
give us courage to resist, to say NO
to unfair labor practices,
to unjust laws like SB 1070, 287g contracts.

Give us the strength to stand with and for
your inclusive love,
faith to believe,
another world is necessary and possible.

Let it begin with us.

• • • Immigration Prayer  Original Prayer by Noel Anderson.  Reprinted with permission from Worship Ways © 2022 by United Church of Christ, Cleveland, Ohio. All rights reserved. Permission given for churches to reproduce and stream in worship or educational programs.

US Conference of Catholic Bishops
Lord Jesus, when you multiplied the loaves and fishes, you provided more than food for the body, you offered us the gift of yourself, the gift which satisfies every hunger and quenches every thirst! Your disciples were filled with fear and doubt, but you poured out your love and compassion on the migrant crowd, welcoming them as brothers and sisters.

Lord Jesus, today you call us to welcome the members of God’s family who come to our land to escape oppression, poverty, persecution, violence, and war. Like your disciples, we too are filled with fear and doubt and even suspicion. We build barriers in our hearts and in our minds.

Lord Jesus, help us by your grace,

To banish fear from our hearts, that we may embrace each of your children as our own brother and sister;

To welcome migrants and refugees with joy and generosity, while responding to their many needs;

To realize that you call all people to your holy mountain to learn the ways of peace and justice;

To share of our abundance as you spread a banquet before us;

To give witness to your love for all people, as we celebrate the many gifts they bring.

We praise you and give you thanks for the family you have called together from so many people. We see in this human family a reflection of the divine unity of the one Most Holy Trinity in whom we make our prayer: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Amen.

• • • Prayer for Migrants and Refugees

Visual art for worship bulletins, etc.

• Kelly Latimore IconsDigital downloads of modern icons available for purchase on themes relating to immigration, refugees, racial justice, and poverty, such as:
  • • Our Lady of the Journey: Mothers
    • The Good Neighbor
    • Ruth and Naomi
    • Dorothy Day and the Holy Family of the Streets
    • Our Lady of the Journey (1) (2)
    • Mother of God: Protectress of the Oppressed
    • Refugees: The Holy Family
    • La Sagrada Familia