Land Acknowledgement for Presbyterians in Minnesota

Originally written for the Crossing Currents gathering hosted by the Office of the General Assembly at Westminster Presbyterian Church in Minneapolis, MN, August of 2023.

Before we gather in worship, we want to recognize that the beginning of reparative and reconciliatory work is confession- which requires that we pause to acknowledge the stories of this place. 

Minnesota is the homeland of the Dakota people and from its water comes the creation story that has formed generations of Dakota people. The crossing currents of the Minnesota and Mississippi rivers join in a confluence less than two miles from the airport through which many of you arrived yesterday. 

This confluence is known to the Dakota as the Bdote (for those reading and not hearing first, bih-doh-tay). The Bdote is a sacred, liminal space. It is where spirit and body met for the first time as the Creator shaped mud from its waters into bodies for stars that had traveled the spirit road to earth. In the words of Iyekiyapiwin Darlene St. Clair, “this Bdote is the center of our existence as Dakota people. It is the connection of our histories both between our genesis and our genocide.” 

We acknowledge the ways in which the Presbyterian Church has pioneered, perpetuated, and profited from violence against the Dakota people and these sacred lands. As we gather, paying attention for God’s presence in our midst, may we honor the Dakota people- from those first created at the waters of the Bdote to those living today. 

Please join me in praying using adapted words from the Dakota hymn, Many and Great:

Great Mystery- Many and great are your works, you the maker of earth and sky. Your hands filled the heavens with carefully placed stars, your fingers drew up mountains and spread out plains. At your word, the waters were formed. The deepest seas obey your voice. Make us into a community with you. Come to us. Dwell with and in us. Help us to see that it is with you that we find the gifts of life. Amen. 

Recording of Many and Great hymn

Iyekiyapiwin Darlene St. Clair on Protecting Sacred Spaces at the Parliament of the World’s Religions

Twin Cities Public Television short special: Sacred Minnesota- Water links Dakota and Sacred Sites at Bdote

Prayer before Gathering of Church Councils

God of hope,

We prepare to gather as your people —

a body with many parts,

a garden of your diverse creation,

a community that you have called and formed for just this time and place.

Breathe into us your transformative spirit.

Grow within us both the humility to listen and the confidence to speak.

Ground us in the comfort of your Word,

knowing that in all times and places, you have extended us a grace-filled invitation to partner in creating your kin-dom.

May we stay rooted in our call to serve as we seek to live into hope.

Amen.

Originally shared in the final “On the Road to General Assembly” newsletter before the 226th General Assembly (2024) in Salt Lake City, Utah.

Prayer for Times of Political Upheaval

God of parted seas and turned tables, you have revealed to us over the centuries just how broken we are. We hear it in words that deny the humanity of others. We feel it in the grief of losing relationships to division. We see it on flags that bear your name and carry out sin. 

Give us justice. Call us into the work of repairing our world by reckoning with who we have been and are becoming. 

Give us peace. Stir us into compassion, reminding us that we belong not only to you, but are responsible for one another as siblings in your beloved family.

Give us imagination to see what may be. 
Give us strength to admit what has been.
Give us love to bind us together.

Amen.

God’s Hands: Image Series for the Church Year

Free images for marketing and promotional materials throughout the church year. Please credit Kate Trigger Duffert with use.

Theme: God’s Hands. An exploration of God’s embodiment in the diversity of human experience. The presence of the holy in the mundane. Imagery that is familiar but invites creative interpretation. While they are labeled with specific days and seasons in mind, they may be used in any context that makes sense for your work.

Advent

Christmas

Epiphany

Baptism of the Lord

Transfiguration

Ash Wednesday

Lent

Palm Sunday

Maundy Thursday

Good Friday

Easter

Pentecost

Trinity Sunday

Reformation Sunday

Land Acknowledgement for Zoom Meetings

All councils of the PC(USA) have been charged to begin their meetings with Land Acknowledgements. With the shift to Zoom meetings during the pandemic, the language of Land Acknowledgements is no less important, but may need to be reworked from existing texts. Below is a Land Acknowledgement for Zoom, intended to be used as a gathering before a welcoming prayer. Please feel free to use this text and change it to fit your needs.

Note: Attendees should visit Native Land and search their location before the Land Acknowledgement. The names of tribes who have lived in their locations can be shared in the chat feature or out loud.

As we gather in this virtual space, we recognize that we are connected with one another through the winds that blow air into our lungs and through the waters that move deep into the earth and up into the sky. We acknowledge that the ground beneath our feet is historically the home of Indigenous Peoples, many of whom have been forced to leave for other lands. We share now the names of the peoples who were the first to live, celebrate, lament, and sing upon the land where we now sit. 

Tribal names are shared

May we also remember that Indigenous Peoples are not a people of the past, but are here with us know. If there are Indigenous People on this call, you are invited to share your tribe so that we may recognize you. 

Time to Recognize Indigenous Attendees

Rooted in these places, as a diverse gathering of God’s people, we move into a space of prayer.

Communion

Written for the Mid Council Leaders Gathering of the Presbyterian Church (USA) in Baltimore, October 2019. Feel free to use with credit.

One:           God has called us all together in this place, just as God called creation into being.
All:                  All living things breathe God’s breath and are called to serve.

One:           God’s story of grace, freely given, flows to this table through the generations like 
                        waters.
All:                  Nourish us, so that we may live into your will here and in all places.

We come here to join in communion with one another and with all people who have gathered around the table to partake of this meal in every time and place. We come in the wholeness of our lives: welcomed, embraced, and called with the fullness of our humanity. We come because we are God’s people and this is God’s table.

We remember that on the night he was arrested, power and division ruled the land. But Jesus offered a different path. Instead of tearing people apart, he gathered people together. In setting the table, he brought together those who society had turned aside. In that moment he joined together the disciples and all who have sat at the table to participate in the most simple and profound of acts- this communion meal. He did so by giving thanks to God and breaking the bread, saying, “Take, eat. Do this in remembrance of me.”

In the same way he took a cup and said, “This is the cup of renewed covenant.  Whenever you drink it, remember me.” Christ calls us to remember, the Spirit gathers us into this community, and we are invited to partake in the transformative power of God at work in the world.

 You are invited and called to this table. Because we are all called to be here, the bread is gluten free and the cup is grape juice. We invite you to hear the promise of God as you take the bread and dip it into the cup.

But God shows up where we are. If you would prefer to remain seated, let us know and someone will come and join you in the meal where you are.

All is ready. Let us join the joyful feast of God!

Affirmation of Faith

This Affirmation of Faith was written for the Mid Council Leaders’ Gathering of the Presbyterian Church (USA) in Baltimore, October 2019. The text is drawn from the Confession of ‘67, Belhar, Barmen, and the Brief Statement of Faith. Feel free to use with credit.

We believe in one living God, who is infinite, incomprehensible, wise, and free.

We believe in Jesus, a Palestinian Jew, who lived among his own people and shared their needs, temptations, joy and sorrows. He expressed the love of God in word and deed and became a sibling to all, though this led him into conflict with religious aspirations and national hopes.

We believe in the working of God’s Spirit, a binding force for unity which guides us in our pursuit of eradicating separation, enmity, and hatred between people and groups.

We reject the false doctrine that the church should abandon this message for its own pleasure or to adapt to changes in prevailing ideological and political convictions. Therefore, we must speak with one voice in this matter today. We may not keep silent, since we believe we have been given a common message to utter in a time of common need and temptation.

We believe that in doing this we are a part of God’s work, because in life and death we belong to God.
Amen.

Devotional: Reading Hagar through the lens of Obstetric Racism

Composed as the culmination of a course on Faith and Violence, this devotional was written to address the ways in which our biblical stories can frame expectations that we bring into the world. Through combining resources on Obstetric Racism and exegesis of Hagar’s story in Genesis, readers are invited to move through four sections at their own pace.

Note: The devotional is intended to spur action and to be used in community. While you may read on your own, I encourage you to have conversation partners regarding the topic. If you choose to use this for a group devotional, please contact me at ktriggerduffert@gmail.com.

““A beautiful, powerful devotional on the theme of obstetric violence. A great example of practical theology, weaving together an impressive range of resources with the goal of abundant life for all.” ”

— Dr. Amy Plantinga Pauw, Henry P. Mobley Jr. Professor of Doctrinal Theology at Louisville Presbyterian Theological Seminary

Download Reading Hagar: A Devotional on Obstetric Violence

Visit Black Mamas Matter to access the Toolkit mentioned in the appendix

Call to Worship for Sabbath celebration

Written for a chapel service in honor of Radical Rest as Resistance at the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) Center on July 17, 2019. Feel free to use with credit.

Call to Worship

One: God who gave birth to all of creation, you have taught us to rest.

Many: We seek to rest in you.

One: Gather us into your embrace, offering us a vision of a world that does not see us as commodities, but as your beloved children.

Many: We seek to rest in you.

One: Fill us with your breath so that we may bring the fullness of our being into your divine ease.

Many: We seek to rest in you.

Invocation of Celebration and Lament

This invocation was written for a 2019 Ecumenical Leader’s Gathering at the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) Center honoring the life of Rev. Robina Winbush. It was read by Dr. Kathryn Johnson, representing the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America. Feel free to use with credit.

As we gather together in this space to celebrate God’s work through the lives of God’s diverse peoples, let us bring the whole of ourselves to God.

Sustaining Spirit,
We thank you for the ways in which you move among us, holding us together in times of celebration and sorrow. In the moments when we can see your vision of the world so close at hand and in the times when the work seems long and hard.
Fill us with a breath of hope.
Stir us to seek love in community.
Remind us that in all things that have been and are to come, you are the foundation from which we go into the world as your disciples.
Amen.

Father's Day Prayer

With frequent references to “Father God” in many churches, the celebration of Father’s Day becomes unavoidable in worship. Even if there are no mentions of the holiday, the presence of Trinitarian language which utilizes a masculine parent for God leaves many ears buzzing when the outside world is celebrating the day. Below is a prayer offered on social media for Father’s Day 2019. Feel free to use with credit.

For everyone whose father was never a father.

For those who stepped up to fill those shoes.

For those whose loving fathers have died and are deeply missed.

For those whose fathers have died and complicated relationships make feelings unsure.

For those whose example of a dad was abusive.

For those whose fathers were taken by violence, war, the prison system.

For fathers and children who no longer recognize one another due to degenerative disease.

For single fathers who do not have a partner to help their kids celebrate.

For fathers who are told by society that they are less of a parent.

For unknown fathers.

For fathers who made themselves unknown.

For those who want to be a father and cannot.

For fathers who have lost children.

For fathers who have adopted.

For fathers who have been barred from adoption by bigotry.

For those whose fathers disowned them.

For those who do not fit the father/mother holiday binary.

For those who hear 'Father God' and feel pain.

For all these we make space on this day in the hopes that the presence of love and healthy relationship may emerge for all from any number of sources.

Mother's Day Prayer

In general, the mentioning of Mother’s Day during a worship service is not the greatest idea. There are so many ways in which we can harm those in the pews when we casually uplift this holiday that is not tied to our liturgical calendar. However, I also recognize that there are many who come to church in need of hearing their pain surrounding Mother’s Day recognized. Below is a prayer I offered on social media for Mother’s Day 2019. Feel free to use this with credit.

This Mother’s Day let us celebrate all of those who have mothered us in our lives- and also remember:

Those who have carried children and have never been able to hold them.

Those who made the difficult decision to give their child up for adoption.

Those who have lost a child.

Those who want a child but cannot have one.

Those who were forced into pregnancy.

Those who parent alone and do not have a partner to remind their kid to make a card.

Those who are adoptive and step-parents and have heard the lie that they aren’t “real” mothers.

Those who have had their children taken away.

Those who are searching for their children or for their mothers.

Those whose children are being kept in cages.

Those who do not want to become a mother and are told this is a flaw.

Those who have painful relationships with their mother.

Those whose mothers were not present.

Those whose mothers have died.

Those who want to be mothers but adoption policies are biased against them.

Those who are parents beyond the binary of our mother’s and father’s day.

May we all take the best of what mothers should be and give that gift to one another.