Closing
prayer and message given by Reverend J. Herbert Nelson, II during the religious
leaders’ breaking of the fast at the National Religious Campaign Against
Torture Press Conference (NRCAT). The press conference followed the first ever
hearing on solitary confinement. Religious leaders participated in the 23 hour
fast representing the number of hours that persons are allowed under the
present law to be held in solitary confinement.
Let us pray.
Gracious and Eternal
Creator, we thank for allowing us to stand one more time in your name. We give
thanks that You allow us to stand through this public witness in obedience to
Your will. Consecrate our fast, that it may be a light upon the hill to those
who are bound by incarceration, and detention. We come asking that You be with
those suffering in solitary confinement. And, may the hearings today be a new
beginning to much needed reform throughout our criminal justice system. Let our
collective witness beyond religious affiliations be a beacon of light for the
world to see our witness and follow Your will as we have been guided to
remember in our fasting and prayers. We pray in the name of the Sovereign
Creator who gives us life, health, and strength to make a difference.
Amen.
As an Interfaith group of justice
advocates, we are engaged in fasting to remind and be reminded of our common
commitment to end prolonged solitary confinement, while reinforcing our commitment
to our Creator and one another. Our fasting is not for display; however, our
public presence here today is a collective witness on behalf of our brothers
and sisters who undergo mental, emotional, and spiritual torment while in
solitary confinement.
We fasted
for the past twenty-three hours to sound the alarm, for our prophetic
traditions call us to speak truth in love to power, while alerting our nation
to engage in this struggle against the spiritual, emotional, mental, and
physical lockdown of the human spirit encountered by persons who are
incarcerated and detained throughout the world.
We fasted to
symbolize the deep spiritual hunger and relational void that many encounter
while held in isolation from other human beings.
We fasted
for righteousness’ sake, while acknowledging our own human frailty. We recognize that only our Creator is perfect
in both will and Spirit. While we are
seeking to be used by the Almighty we offer ourselves in humble submission to
the only help that we know who can overturn wayward powers and principalities
in this present age.
We fasted and prayed that our
President and our Congress can one day see the global vision of reforming laws,
so that love may be the ethos of our engagement, even with those persons who
are guilty of crimes. We believe that this effort can begin with making it
illegal to hold human beings in solitary confinement for twenty-three hours.
Now, we publicly break our fast by
partaking of this bread which symbolizes our collective belief that through our
standing together in solidarity within our various faith traditions, our
Creator will break open new possibilities through us and others while we hold
the light of awareness on this critical issue of our day. We break the fast,
but not our commitment to end prolonged solitary confinement.
