First Reader:

Oh God of creation and liberation,

God of resurrection and redemption,

God all merciful and beneficent,

God, the remover of difficulties,

God of enlightenment and compassion,

God of revelation and transcendence,

God who suffers and overcomes suffering,

God revealed in the heart of every woman and man.

Second Reader:

We call you by many names.

We know you in many ways.

We know you call us to incarnate justice, peace, and love in the world.

Yet we have failed to make peace.

We stand in judgment for our active support or our passive acceptance of religious persecution, hatred and war.

Third Reader:

We know the greatest evil is to make war against religious minorities.

The greatest sin is to murder in God's name.

We sigh in sorrow for a century where bullets blaze and martyrs bleed, and the love of God is betrayed by rulers, dictators, generals and tyrants.

Fourth Reader:

We pray for those who have fallen in the name of faith.

We remember those who are victimized for their love of God.

We pray for the martyrs of Armenia, Greece, and World War I.

We remember the Jews who suffered in the Holocaust and the pogroms.

We remember the Christian victims of the Nazis and the Communists.

We remember the Muslim, Palestinian, Hindu, Sikh, Buddhist, and Baha'i leaders who suffered under secular empires and totalitarian dictators.

Fifth Reader:

We remember the victims of religious oppression in Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland, in Kosovo and Bosnia, in the Sudan, Indonesia and East Timor, in China and Tibet, in the Holy Land, and the Middle East...

Sixth Reader:

...gypsies, immigrants, refugees, and religious minorities everywhere.

We remember the women and other minorities who suffer at the hands of arrogant extremists who use religion as a mask for power.

We remember the children in America's churches, synagogues, and schools who were murdered by their fellow students, or by lone gunmen.

Seventh Reader:

We remember our heroes:

Martin Luther King Jr., Gandhi, and Bishop Desmond Tutu, and so many others who fought to bring wars of religious persecution, racial oppression and spiritual annihilation to an end.

We pray for those who work to end religious wars today.

We ask for strength as we commit ourselves to work for peace.