PAAM is the United Church of Christ’s Pacific Islander and Asian American Ministries. Sunday April 25, 2021 is PAAM Sunday. You are welcome to use this prayer poem anytime. It was created by the NCNC UCC PAAM BLM Sacred Conversations Group, especially Charlene Kiyuna, Teipo Brown, Darlene Hamady, and Kathryn Schreiber.

“Little children, let us love, not in word or speech, but in truth and action.” – 1 John 3:16-24

Dear God, open my heart to hear and know the truth. 

Give me the humility to learn and reflect. 

With truth and humility,

may I serve as Your instrument to help heal.

Holy One, we thank You for the wisdom bearers:

“What you do makes a difference,

and you have to decide what kind of difference

you want to make.” – Jane Goodall

May we commit to making the kinds of difference

that are most pleasing to You, O God.

Beloved God, thank You for opportunities to learn.

May we look back on old experiences with new eyes

correctly seeing systemic racism.

May we revisit old, uncomfortable feelings

and witness the empowerment they engendered

inspiring us to repair social norms.

Source of all Life and Love,

we place into Your hands, for transformation,

the xenophobia of today, the past, and the future.

Remind us that most of us came from other lands.

We arrived taking from indigenous peoples what was not ours.

May we honor the first peoples, our mother cultures,

and our beloved, increasingly blended, identities, too.

Most Holy God, on this PAAM Sunday,

we pray for a world which cherishes social diversity

uplifting our fundamental, essential equality

anointed by Your original design. AMEN.

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