Transgender Day of Remembrance in 4 Voices
The following prayer was first given at First UU in Brooklyn on Nov 6th, 2011 as part of our early service honoring the Transgender Day of Remembrance. It was spoken with 4 voices. Each voice’s part is listed in bold. Some lines have only one person speaking them; some lines have two; and some lines have all four voices. I have repeated the prayer below four times – with the appropriate bolding for each voice.
Prayer for Transgender Day of Remembrance
Voice 1
Spirit of Life, God of Many Names and One Transforming and Abundant Love,
Broaden our imagination to see you in the faces of all those we meet along the way.
May your teachers come in all shapes and sizes, all genders and all sexes,
and may we have the courage to hear their lessons so that our lives may be moved.
We live in a world whose bodies are sometimes broken, or broken down, or weighted under burdens that none could hope to carry alone.
We live in a world where we have all the capacity we ever needed to make another life that much easier.
And yet we don’t always use our power to help…
we don’t always allow others in…
we don’t always accept help when it is offered…
we don’t always know when we can no longer do it alone.
Spirit of Life – open our hearts to the community of souls that surround us;
Allow our words to be softened before the miracle of being;
Strengthen our voice so that it may be a service to others;
And stir in us compassion when it is gone, temperance when we are in our might,
and hope when it is hard to find.
We especially hold dear this morning all the lives who have suffered harm for the bodies they were born into;
for the genders whose expressions didn’t stand up to the gaze of society;
and the lives that were lost due to violence born of fear, of hatred or of self-doubt.
We pray for our youth who are wrestling with the choice of whether to live or to die.
May our love, our compassion, and our commitment to seeing a world more free, and more free-spirited, help them to find the hope they need to continue living.
Voice 2
Spirit of Life, God of Many Names and One Transforming and Abundant Love,
Broaden our imagination to see you in the faces of all those we meet along the way.
May your teachers come in all shapes and sizes, all genders and all sexes,
and may we have the courage to hear their lessons so that our lives may be moved.
We live in a world whose bodies are sometimes broken, or broken down, or weighted under burdens that none could hope to carry alone.
We live in a world where we have all the capacity we ever needed to make another life that much easier.
And yet we don’t always use our power to help…
we don’t always allow others in…
we don’t always accept help when it is offered…
we don’t always know when we can no longer do it alone.
Spirit of Life – open our hearts to the community of souls that surround us;
Allow our words to be softened before the miracle of being;
Strengthen our voice so that it may be a service to others;
And stir in us compassion when it is gone, temperance when we are in our might,
and hope when it is hard to find.
We especially hold dear this morning all the lives who have suffered harm for the bodies they were born into;
for the genders whose expressions didn’t stand up to the gaze of society;
and the lives that were lost due to violence born of fear, of hatred or of self-doubt.
We pray for our youth who are wrestling with the choice of whether to live or to die.
May our love, our compassion, and our commitment to seeing a world more free, and more free-spirited, help them to find the hope they need to continue living.
Voice 3
Spirit of Life, God of Many Names and One Transforming and Abundant Love,
Broaden our imagination to see you in the faces of all those we meet along the way.
May your teachers come in all shapes and sizes, all genders and all sexes,
and may we have the courage to hear their lessons so that our lives may be moved.
We live in a world whose bodies are sometimes broken, or broken down, or weighted under burdens that none could hope to carry alone.
We live in a world where we have all the capacity we ever needed to make another life that much easier.
And yet we don’t always use our power to help…
we don’t always allow others in…
we don’t always accept help when it is offered…
we don’t always know when we can no longer do it alone.
Spirit of Life – open our hearts to the community of souls that surround us;
Allow our words to be softened before the miracle of being;
Strengthen our voice so that it may be a service to others;
And stir in us compassion when it is gone, temperance when we are in our might,
and hope when it is hard to find.
We especially hold dear this morning all the lives who have suffered harm for the bodies they were born into;
for the genders whose expressions didn’t stand up to the gaze of society;
and the lives that were lost due to violence born of fear, of hatred or of self-doubt.
We pray for our youth who are wrestling with the choice of whether to live or to die.
May our love, our compassion, and our commitment to seeing a world more free, and more free-spirited, help them to find the hope they need to continue living.
Voice 4
Spirit of Life, God of Many Names and One Transforming and Abundant Love,
Broaden our imagination to see you in the faces of all those we meet along the way.
May your teachers come in all shapes and sizes, all genders and all sexes,
and may we have the courage to hear their lessons so that our lives may be moved.
We live in a world whose bodies are sometimes broken, or broken down, or weighted under burdens that none could hope to carry alone.
We live in a world where we have all the capacity we ever needed to make another life that much easier. And yet we don’t always use our power to help…
we don’t always allow others in…
we don’t always accept help when it is offered…
we don’t always know when we can no longer do it alone.
Spirit of Life – open our hearts to the community of souls that surround us;
Allow our words to be softened before the miracle of being;
Strengthen our voice so that it may be a service to others;
And stir in us compassion when it is gone, temperance when we are in our might,
and hope when it is hard to find. We especially hold dear this morning all the lives who have suffered harm for the bodies they were born into; for the genders whose expressions didn’t stand up to the gaze of society; and the lives that were lost due to violence born of fear, of hatred or of self-doubt.
We pray for our youth who are wrestling with the choice of whether to live or to die.
May our love, our compassion, and our commitment, to seeing a world more free, and more free-spirited, help them to find the hope they need to continue living.
RevWho 
One Response to “Transgender Day of Remembrance in 4 Voices”
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