A Kwanzaa Prayer for Christian Services

Habari Gani? (which is Swahili for "What's the News?" )

Well, the news is it's the first day of Kwanzaa. While Christians will continue our journey through Christmastide, or the 12 days of Christmas, some of us will also celebrate Kwanzaa.

 I recently participated in a pre-Kwanzaa program where I wrote this prayer that followed a brief discussion about the Gullah-Geecchee culture. I'll likely pray this prayer differently in the future, but this is what God gave me for our gathering a few weeks ag0. 

 Feel free to use it as written, edit for your setting, or read it to inspire your own offering to God. Although Kwanzaa is a secular celebration, for African-American churches it can be beautifully incorporated into our settings. 

 "Faith" is the final principle celebrated on Jan. 1. May you keep the faith this season and continue to Look, Learn and LIVE!

  A Kwanzaa Prayer for Christian Services 

©2013 Arlecia D. Simmons  

Oh holy God, God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob...

God of Sarah, Rebekah, Leah and Rachel...

The God who heard Hagar's cries as she sat with Ishmael in the wilderness...

Our God who heard our ancestors’ cries as they crossed the Atlantic Ocean in slave ships; heard their cries as they picked cotton and tobacco; heard their cries through the shouts of Lynch mobs. Our God.

We come (today, tonight) asking you to be in our midst as you have been from generation to generation. Come now, Holy Spirit

Lord, we thank you for allowing us to gather to worship you, and to celebrate the heritage passed down to us.

Even while experiencing the injustices of this life, our big mamas and papas proclaimed you as a just God. Calling on the name of Jesus, who was also a suffering servant.
Lord, we thank you for every prayer our ancestors ever prayed and how you answered them. We thank you for being the lifter of our heads when oppression, racism, segregation sought to keep them bowed down.

May we not be a forgetful people; forgetting our ancestors and forgetting your benefits. May we forever remember that if it had not been for the Lord who was on our side, where would be.

Touch now your people as we give back to you the gifts that you have given to us. 

Bless your children and those whose hands you have placed them in (Optional verse to be used when children are included during celebration). 

We offer this prayer, in the mighty name of Jesus. Amen.

Yes We Can

Habaragani (''What's the good news?'' in Swahili):

December 26 marks the first day of the African American cultural holiday known as Kwanzaa. I would like to share my thoughts on the first of seven principles, known as the Nguzo Saba. Today’s principle is Umoja, which is the Swahili word for Unity. The principle simply suggests that we “strive for and maintain unity in the family, community, nation and race."

We’ve all heard the saying, “there is strength in numbers,” and after the 2008 Presidential Election we saw firsthand what happens when people get on one accord. Most recently, we heard or read about how various entities have come together to improve their conditions. Whether it was the automobile industry executives lobbying Congress for a bailout, or the Chicago factory workers who refused to disband until their former employer honored their contractual obligations, we saw what happens when forces unite. Even workers who never shared a cup of coffee began carpooling as gas prices increased. While many of these relationships may have never existed before, desperate times called for desperate measures. The same can be said for the situations in our families, communities and in the world.

In the next few months, I believe we will begin to see cooperation like never before. This concept was not foreign to our foreparents who raised each other’s children, fed their neighbors, and cared for the orphans and widows of their ilk.

While many black Christians are a tad skeptical about the nonreligious celebration, to me, the principle of Umoja that Kwanzaa creator Dr. Maulana Karenga proposes is similar to the message shared by Pastor Hezekiah Walker when he sings, “I Need You To Survive.”


“I need you, you need me.
We're all a part of God's body.
Stand with me, agree with me.
We're all a part of God's body.
It is his will, that every need be supplied.
You are important to me, I need you to survive”

Desperate times call for desperate measures, and we must begin to consider how we can combine our various resources to make our families, communities and world a better place for our children and our children’s children.


Happy Kwanzaa!!!
Arlecia

Visit http://www.officialkwanzaawebsite.org for more information about Kwanzaa