News and Views

Bishop LaTrelle Easterling, episcopal leader of the Baltimore-Washington and Peninsula-Delaware Conferences , offered a prayer for  the people of Ukraine and Russia at the Love Your Neighbor Coalition prayer service on Feb. 26. 

By Bishop LaTrelle Miller Easterling

 Even on the mountain of the Lord, we are invited to be our authentic selves.
For there is a season for everything under the heavens.
There is a time to weep

 God always hears the cries of God’s children
God heard the cries in
In Egypt
In the wilderness
At the cross
In Ghana
In Aleppo
In killing fields across the globe
And in Kyiv, all of Ukraine and Russia on this day.

 Our Savior wept
and our Savior weeps with us now.

 We weep today for the souls suffering
fleeing bombs and bloodshed
seeking shelter and safety
clustering together desperately seeking refuge from cluster munitions

 We weep today for civilians taking arms
seeking to protect their homes and homeland
defending their right to live in freedom and self-determination
sacrificing themselves for the sake of a war they did not create
which was begun on the altar of ego and vainglory.

 We weep for tanks terrorizing the innocent
borders invaded
schools demolished
sacred spaces smoldering in the carnage

 Sometimes tears are our only language.
They speak when we have no words.
They cleanse and heal.
They water the dry ground of
our wounded, parched souls.
They release the torrent of emotion that swells within us as
we watch in horror and cannot make it stop 

We weep as our savior wept,
not out of weakness but out of love.  

We weep at the loss of innocence
We weep at the loss of peace
We weep at the loss of life
We weep at the loss
We weep

 Our brothers and sisters in Ukraine and Russia do not cry alone;
the world stands with you
opening homes and hearts,
tables and tabernacles,
minds and mouths in solidarity.

 And as we weep, may we examine ourselves,
for the greatest atrocities known to humankind
were first malformed and malignant desires
conceived within the human heart.

 As our tears fall and our hearts break, may we live lives that transform
swords into plowshares,
spears into pruning hooks.
May we study war no more
and walk in your light.

 Holy One of Israel
Receive our tears, and the groans
too deep for words as our prayer today.
Receive our weeping and send swiftly the peace and joy that comes with the morning.

 Amen.