Written by Rev. Floyd Thompkins, Jr.; Peter Goldblum, Ph.D.; Rev. D. Mark Wilson, Ph.D.
Download Litany for Libation for Mental Health (pdf)
For #BlackHistoryMonth
All: Stony the road we trod,
Bitter the chastening rod,
Felt in the days when hope unborn had died;
Yet with a steady beat,
Have not our weary feet
Come to the place for which our people sighed?
We have come over a way that with tears have been watered,
We have come, treading our path through the blood of the slaughtered,
Out from the gloomy past,
Till now we stand at last
Where the white gleam of our bright star is cast.
From “Lift Every Voice and Sing” by James Weldon Johnson
Leader: Zulu, Maasai, San Bushman, Yoruba, Xhosa, Hausa, Himba, Oromo, and Chaga from out of Africa we suffered drama, trauma
People: Upon these
[Leader pours water on rocks with the names of mental illnesses on them]
Leader: Slavery, Sharecroppers, Jim Crow, Segregation, Integration, and Gentrification are policies and practices of systematic death and denial of human dignity.
People: Upon these
[Leader pours water on rocks with the names of mental illnesses on them]
Leader: Racism, Sexism, Transphobia, Xenophobia, Homophobia, and arrogant Eurocentric expressions of faith smothered the culture of a people and rob them of their coping and healing ways.
People: Upon these
[Leader pours water on rocks with the names of mental illnesses on them]
We are here to pray, hope and work with the Spirit of the living God and the faith of a loving people! In the name of the Creator, Redeemer and Giver of life.
Created through a grant from the Northern California Kaiser Foundation to Project Trust.