A Liturgy For Survivors Of Abuse

The following liturgy is designed for use by survivors of abuse. It allows for the pain and suffering of the abuse to be turned into prayers that seek healing from God. This service may be adapted for use in local congregations for other acts of personal injustice.

Gathering for Worship Call to Worship: Psalms/Now (Leslie F. Brandt) (Read by the worship leader. Perhaps this might also be danced as it is being read:)

O God, my life is cluttered up with conflicts.

And there are times when you seem so oblivious to it all. The pitfalls before me, the weakness within me— all this is most depressing. I feel as if I am groping in utter darkness. Break into my darkness, O God. Set me free from my hang-ups. May these daily pressures that threaten to strangle me drive me to your fountainhead of grace. Then night will give way to the dawn, depression shall resolve into joy, and I shall sing your praises once more. O foolish spirit, why do you fret over so many things? God is here! God knows all about your troubles and trials. Renew your faith in God, and rejoice. I shall rejoice. No matter how black the night, God is my ever-present and eternal Hope.

Statement of Welcome (read responsively by the pastor and the survivors:)

Pastor: God loves you. God created you. You are a child of God.

Survivors: Today we come together in worship in the full knowledge that we are survivors of abuse. We cannot change that fact about our experience. However, we can chose to not let that fact be the only identity we have. We were not created to be abused. We were created to be children of God. Pastor: God loves you. God has called you. God welcomes the childlike choices of your life. God offers you a life of childlike peace within. Survivors: The fact that we are survivors has controlled how we have made responses to the world in which we live. Now we can make the choice to let healing begin, or continue, so that our ways of making choices can change. We were not created only to hope, but to have life and live it abundantly. All: We are wonderful results of creation, unique, and special in very many ways. We have every right to honor the special people we are, our behavior, and what has brought us to this point in our healing where we seek reconciliation. We ask God to join in our prayers, our songs, our readings, our worship. We ask God to be with us in our pain and our joy, our hopes and our fears.

Rites of Confession Preparation for Confession

Pastor: As we prepare for a time of confession, we must remember to come as children. We must come simply and openly. We need to remember that we must not bear the guilt of the sins of others. We are children who have been affected by the choices of others. God is a gentle parent who welcomes us.

Litany of Confession (Adaptation of Psalm 44:) Speaker 1: Lord, I have heard of how you have been with your children throughout history. They assumed you were with them even in their afflictions. You were with them in the crises of their lives. Speaker 2: I long to behold your face. My tears drip into my food day and night. Where were you, God, when I felt abandoned? Survivors: Forgive me, O God, when I couldn't even call upon your name. Speaker 1: You have watched over me in the midst of my conflicts. You have enabled me to overcome many of the obstacles of my life. Even when I failed, you directed me to the course you wanted me to follow. You helped me learn to cope with most things. Speaker 2: But I am aware of how much I need you, God. I am incapable and inadequate at times. I struggle to believe you have been with me in my deepest pains and longings. Survivors: Forgive me, O God, when I couldn't even call upon your name. Speaker 1: But where are you now, O God? I cannot reach you. You have gone from me and left me with my bag of pain. Speaker 2: My cry for help is only an echo within me. I find only insurmountable walls and the darkest of corners. No one seems to speak to me with love or concern. Survivors: Forgive me, O God, when I couldn't even call upon your name. Speaker 1: The shame and the pain are too deep to bear. No one can help me. If others knew of my problem, I am sure they would only shun me. Speaker 2: I am in deep trouble, and there is no one to turn to for help. I have not forgotten you, O God. Survivors: O God, listen to me. Respond to my cry for help. You can deliver me from this terrible conflict before it destroys me. Help me to sense your loving concern. Save me before it is too late. Forgive me, O God, when I couldn't even call upon your name. Pastor: The God who can hear your crying before your silent tears are shed; the God who can hear your calling when your voices cannot speak; the God who can give you shelter when you are abandoned and alone is the God who does understand your coping, forgives your wrongs, and upholds you in your healing. Survivors: The child in us wants to be forgiven, yet the pain of our tears still burns on our cheeks. Pastor: Water can be in the form of tears, but it can also wash away the tears. As the bowl of water comes to you, hold it for the neighbor who passed it to you. They will use a finger to get a drop to wash under each of your eyes, and then dry the cheeks with the towel. Then, passing the bowl, wash the tears away for the next person. As you do this act of washing, tell the person, "?Feel the cool water of forgiveness wash the salt of your tears away.?" (After the entire group has washed away tears, the pastor continues:) Pastor: Your tears are washed away. You are forgiven. You are loved. You are precious children. All: Amen. Hymn of Loving "?What a Friend We Have in Jesus?" Scripture Matthew 18:1–5 Pastoral Message Communal and Pastoral Prayer Call to Prayer (from The Wounded Healer)

When we are not afraid to enter into our own center

and to concentrate on the stirrings of our own soul, we come to know that being alive means being loved. This experience tells us that we can love only because we are born out of love, that we can give only because our life is a gift, and that we can make others free only because we are set free by God, whose heart is greater than ours. When we have found the anchor places for our lives in our own center, we can be free to let others enter into the space created for them and allow them to dance their own dance, sing their own song, and speak their own language without fear. Then our presence is no longer threatening and demanding but inviting and liberating. Pastor: Are there any joys or concerns you wish to bring at this time? When an individual shares a joy or concern, will another volunteer to pray for that which is brought to our prayer? (Allow time for the exchange. Then begin the prayer, let others share, and close at the appropriate time.)

Offering We have sung. We have read the Word. We have shared the spoken word. We have prayed. We now come to the time of offering. Ours is a symbolic offering of the child within, an offering of light joining with the light of life in others; with the light of the precious ones to whom redemption is promised; with the symbolized light of creation of which we will sing. Join the dancers at the end of the song in celebration that today your child is welcomed again by the Lord as Jesus promised. (This song would be beautiful with four dancers interpreting the directions of the earth, bringing forth the symbols of light. In addition, each person would be given a candle. The survivors then could have the opportunity to join in the dance, bringing forth their candle and lighting it from the fire of the day. They would set them into a pan of sand so that each candle would add to the light as an offering of their child's shining face.)

Rising from the East, women bring the dawn;

hear our waking song arising. Shining from the South, women bring the day; earth at work and play all shining. Praising from the West, women bring the evening; fire gives the light for praising. Dreaming from the North, women bring the starlight; darkness births the dancing and dreaming. With her wings unfurled, we are gathered in and blessed in our rising. ("?Rising?" by Colleen Fulmer)

Celebration of Silence (At the end of the lighting, we will join in a moment of silence to give the child peaceful welcoming within and peaceful acceptance without.) Song of Welcoming the Lord's Joining Our Child "?Come My Way, My Truth, My Life?" (Vaughan Williams) Benediction Pastor: You have risked in coming here. May God the Creator bless your departing from this place. Survivors: Amen. Pastor: You have risked in opening yourself in prayer. May God the Christ bless and welcome your child in love and healing. Survivors: Amen. Pastor: You have risked in celebrating who it is that your child is. May God the Holy Spirit enable you to continue to feel the power of redemption as you live life in the richness of the present moment and anticipate the joy of eternity to come. Survivors: Amen.