Pilgrimage for Peace Litany
GATHERING - Opening Prayer
First United Methodist Church
313 North Center St.
Arlington, TX 76011
A Prayer for Peace in Israel and Palestine
By Rose Marie Berger
God of Comfort,
send your Spirit to encompass all those whose lives
are torn apart by violence and death in Israel and Palestine.
You are the Advocate of the oppressed
and the One whose eye is on the sparrow.
Let arms reach out in healing, rather than aggression.
Let hearts mourn rather than militarize.
God of Justice,
give strength to those whose long work for a just peace
might seem fruitless now. Strengthen their resolve.
Do not let them feel alone. Show us how to support their work
and bolster their courage. Guide religious leaders to model
unity and reconciliation across lines of division.
Guide political leaders to listen with their hearts as they seek peace and pursue it. Help all people choose the rigorous path of just peace and disavow violence.
God of Love,
we lift up Palestine and Israel — its people, its land, its creatures.
War is a monster that consumes everything in its path.
Peace is a gift shared at meals of memory with Christians, Muslims, and Jews. Let us burn incense, not children. Let us break bread, not bodies.
Let us plant olive groves, not cemeteries.
We beg for love and compassion to prevail
on all your holy mountains.
God of Hope,
we lift up the cities of the region: Gaza City and Tel Aviv, Ramallah and Ashkelon, Deir El Balah and Sderot,
so long divided, yet so filled with life and creativity.
Come again to breathe peace on your peoples
that all may recognize you.
God of Mercy,
even now work on the hearts of combatants
to choose life over death, reconciliation over retaliation,
restoration over destruction. Help us resist antisemitism in all its forms, especially in our own churches. All people, Israelis and Palestinians, deserve to live in peace and unafraid, with a right to determine their future together.
God of the Nations,
let not one more child or elder be sacrificed on altars of political expediency.
Keep safe all people from unjust leaders who would exploit
vulnerability for their own distorted ends.
Give wise discernment to those making decisions to pursue peace.
Provide them insight into fostering well-being, freedom, and thriving for all.
Teach all of us to resolve injustices with righteousness, not rockets.
Guard our hearts against retaliation, and give us hearts for love alone.
Strengthen our faith in you, O God of All Flesh,
even when we don’t have clear answers,
so that we may still offer ourselves nonviolently
for the cause of peace.
Amen.
FIRST STOP – Mailing Letters to Congressional Leaders
US Post Office
300 E. South St.
Arlington, TX 76004
Litany by Rev. Dr. Jann Aldredge-Clinton
Leader: Together we make this pilgrimage, this sacred journey.
We walk in prayerful solidarity with people around the world,
calling for permanent ceasefire in the Holy Land.
All: Permanent ceasefire!
Leader: More than 30,000 Palestinian and 1,410 Israeli people have been killed in the Israel–Hamas war.
All: We lament this violence, and cry out for it to stop!
Leader: Thousands of those killed in this war are children.
All: We lament this violence, and cry out for it to stop!
Leader: The Israel-Hamas war has been raging for 6 months and continues.
All: We lament this violence, and cry out for it to stop!
Leader: This war has ravaged cities, leaving people without
homes, food, water, fuel, and other basic human necessities.
All: We lament this violence, and cry out for it to stop!
Leader: The rising death toll and destruction have forced
more than a million Palestinians to flee from their homes.
All: We lament this violence, and cry out for it to stop!
Leader: We urge our congressional leaders to call
for a permanent ceasefire.
All: Permanent ceasefire!
Leader: Our faith compels us to call for a just peace
for the people of Israel and Palestine.
All: Just peace!
Leader: We call for freedom, justice and equality
for all Palestinians and Israelis.
All: Just peace!
Leader: Wisdom’s ways are ways of pleasantness,
and all Her paths are peace.
She is a tree of life to those who lay hold of Her;
those who hold her fast are called happy. (Proverbs 3:17-18)
All: Follow Wisdom’s paths of peace.
Leader: Come join hands, all violence cease,
and follow Wisdom’s paths of peace.
All: Follow Wisdom’s paths of peace.
Leader: “Blessed are the peacemakers,
for they will be called children of God” (Matthew 5:9).
All: Blessed are the peacemakers.
Leader: Our faith compels us to follow paths of just peace and peacemaking.
All: Together we make this sacred journey,
calling for permanent ceasefire and just peace.
SECOND STOP – Across from Local Fire Station
Theatre Arlington Parking Lot
316 W. Main St.
Arlington, TX 76010
Litany by Rev. Dr. Jann Aldredge-Clinton
Leader: We make this pilgrimage, this sacred journey,
with gratitude for first responders.
All: We’re grateful for first responders.
Leader: First responders in Gaza continue to save lives
as months of war take a severe physical and emotional toll.
All: We pray healing for first responders.
Leader: Volunteer rescue teams, medics, and ambulance crews
risk their lives as they work to save others.
All: We pray protection for first responders.
Leader: First responders struggle to cope with the scale of suffering and death.
All: We pray grace for first responders.
Leader: First responders struggle to cope with the emotional pain of
losing colleagues.
All: We pray comfort for first responders.
Leader: First responders work long hours with few breaks.
All: We pray strength for first responders.
Leader: The humanitarian disaster in the Holy Land
is growing as people lack food, water, and other basic necessities.
All: We pray for humanitarian aid.
Leader: We make this sacred journey with gratitude for
first responders in the Holy Land and everywhere.
All: We’re grateful for first responders everywhere.
Leader: “Blessed are those who mourn, for they will be comforted.
Blessed are the merciful, for they will receive mercy” (Matthew 5:4,7).
All: We pray blessings for first responders in the Holy Land and everywhere.
THIRD STOP – George Stevens Park for Holy Communion
George Stevens Park
400 W. Sanford St.
Arlington, TX 76011
Holy Communion
INVITATION
Siblings in Christ, you are invited now,
in this open space, in public,
where light and love mingle as one.
All are invited to this table,
All are welcome and no one is excluded
For those who seek to live in peace with one another.
Are united in the Kin-dom of God.
THANKSGIVING AND COMMUNION
The Lord be with you.
And also with you.
Lift up your hearts.
We lift them up to the Lord.
Let us give thanks to the Lord our God.
It is right to give our thanks and praise.
Holy are you, and blessed is your Son Jesus Christ. Jesus, the one who walked in love, acted with justice and served the poor. Jesus, the one who called us to shine our lights and open our hearts to the least of these. Jesus, who resisted empire and dreamed of a Beloved Community for all.
On the night before Jesus died, he shared a meal with his friends. And taking the bread, he gave thanks, broke it and gave it to his disciples, saying, “Take, eat; this is bread of life given for you. Even when we are broken, God blesses us with nourishment and new life. Do this in remembrance of me.”
When the supper was over, he took the cup, gave thanks, gave it to his disciples, and said: “Drink from this, all of you: Drink from this all of you, as a sign of a new covenant of forgiveness and healing available to all. Do this, as often as you drink, in remembrance of me."
And so, in remembrance of these your mighty acts in Jesus Christ, we offer ourselves in praise and thanksgiving, in union with Christ’s offering of love, as we proclaim the mystery of faith.
Pour out your Holy Spirit on us gathered here,
and on these gifts of bread and wine.
Make them be for us the life of Christ,
that we may be for the world the body of Christ,
redeemed by his love.
By your Spirit make us one with Christ,
one with each other,
Amen.
BREAKING THE BREAD
Because there is one loaf, we, who are many, are one body, for we all partake of the one loaf. The bread which we break is a sharing in the body of Christ.
LIFTING THE CUP
The cup over which we give thanks is a sharing in the love of Christ.
GIVING THE BREAD AND CUP
Let us join as one in taking the elements together.
The body of Christ, given for you. Amen.
The love of Christ, given for you. Amen
CLOSING – Flying of Kites
First United Methodist Church
313 North Center St.
Arlington, TX 76011
We close with a reading of a poem by Refaat Alareer. Refaat Alareer was born in 1979. He was a professor of world literature and creative writing at the Islamic University of Gaza and the editor of Gaza Writes Back: Short Stories from Young Writers in Gaza, Palestine (2013). He was killed by an IDF airstrike on December 6, 2023, along with his brother, nephew, his sister, and three of her children.
Prior to his death, Refaat Alareer wrote the following poem.
A Poem for Gaza
If I Must Die
If I must die,
you must live
to tell my story
to sell my things
to buy a piece of cloth
and some strings,
(make it white with a long tail)
so that a child, somewhere in Gaza
while looking heaven in the eye
awaiting his dad who left in a blaze —
and bid no one farewell
not even to his flesh
not even to himself —
sees the kite, my kite you made, flying up above,
and thinks for a moment an angel is there
bringing back love.
If I must die
let it bring hope,
let it be a story.
Following his death, this poem and the white kite has become a symbol of hope for the Palestinian people. Today, let us join with the people of Gaza with hope for a just and lasting peace as we fly our white kites in memory of Refaat, his family, and the more than 30,000 lives lost since October 7, 2023.