God of all nations and peoples, Lord of

God of all nations and peoples, Lord of all places and lands, who didst form man of the dust of the ground, and make of him a living soul, we praise thee for the infinite variety of thy human creatures. We thank thee for the wonderful shadings of color and shape, the incredible differences of insight and habit, and especially the endless flights of heart and mind that lift thy children above the beasts of the field and let them share a holy comradeship with thee. Glory be to thee for thy creation of man! Glory be to thee for his manifold diversities.

Yet even as we magnify thy name, we seek thy forgiveness; for we have sinned against our brothers and done evil in thy sight. We have looked on the outward appearance and not on the heart, passed judgment in terms of what men had and not of what they were, called ourselves thy sons but lived as if we thought all other men our slaves. We have seen pain without pity and heard of want without compassion. We have despised our brothers for their ignorance but denied them the means of knowledge, forced them to fight for what they needed but condemned their aggressiveness, offered them no opportunities except servitude but complained because they were nothing but servants. We have withheld our neighbors' rights and thought we had the right to withhold them, and we have hated thy creatures without understanding that we were hating their Creator. Forgive us, we pray. Forgive us.

Save us from the insecurity that makes us fearful, and free us from the fear that leads to arrogance. Teach us whence we came, who we are, and whither we shall go; and grant that, proud to be thy sons and daughters, we may need no other cause for pride. If we have beaten our plowshares into swords and our pruning hooks into spears, give us grace to shape our swords to plowshares and our spears to pruning hooks. Deepen the roots of our faith. Widen the circle of our love. And help us so to live with all our brothers on the earth that thou wilt have a place for us among them in thy realm of many mansions. Through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.