The non-bolded sections may be read by the leader or part of the congregation, with the boldface sections read by the entire congregation or part of it. Alternately the entire litany may be read by one person as a prayer.
Spoken Introduction to the Prayer Litany
Born on January 15, 1929, Martin Luther King, Jr. became the leading figure in the civil rights movement from 1955 until his assassination in 1968. The son and grandson of Baptist ministers, King pastored congregations in Montgomery, Alabama and Atlanta, Georgia. Soon after he arrived in Montgomery, he was called upon to help lead the bus boycott protesting Jim Crow laws about who could sit where on a bus. Influenced by Mahatma Gandhi, King saw nonviolent resistance to unjust practices as central to his mission as a pastor and civil rights leader. King became especially well known for his “Letter from Birmingham City Jail” (1963), his “I Have a Dream” speech (1963), and his final speech, “I See the Promised Land” (1968). This prayer litany is adapted from his “Letter from Birmingham City Jail.” Let us pray.
The Prayer Litany
Dear Lord,
we commemorate the life of a champion of justice,
one who recognized that,
“Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere.”
You have created us as your children
and tied us together
in “an inescapable network of mutuality.”
Whatever affects any of us directly
affects all of us indirectly.
Injustice pervades our world,
distorting and harming your people.
But you are a God of justice
whose laws are just.
You entered our world,
not advocating “bitterness and hatred,”
but “love, truth, and goodness.”
You have called your people
not to preserve injustice,
but to advocate for “the cause of justice.”
You have called us as your church,
not to be an “irrelevant social club,”
but instead to carve “a tunnel of hope”
through a mountain of injustices.
Help us, as your people,
to “meet the challenge of this decisive hour”
by working to advance your “eternal will.”
Amen.
—Barbara Bradley Feenstra and Ronald J. Feenstra, © 2025 Calvin Institute of Christian Worship, Creative Commons AttributionNonCommercial-ShareAlike. Used by permission. Quotations are taken from Martin Luther King, Jr., “Letter from Birmingham City Jail,” in A Testament of Hope: The Essential Writings of Martin Luther King, Jr., ed. James M. Washington. New York: HarperCollins, 1986.
Check Back in February
This is the first of several blog posts of litanies developed by Dr. Barbara Bradley Feenstra and Dr. Ronald J. Feenstra for use in worship to commemorate events such as MLK’s birthday (January 15, 1929), Abraham Lincoln’s Second Inaugural Address (March 4, 1865), Juneteenth (June 19, 1865), July 4/5, and the anniversary of the March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom (August 28, 1963). Any of these may also be used during Black History Month. Each litany or prayer is based on documents connected to the event being commemorated.
More from Reformed Worship
A Prayer from Martin Luther King Jr.
A Service in Celebration of Juneteenth