O God, who has made man in thine own likeness,
And who loves all whom Thou hast made,
suffer us not because of difference of race, color, or condition
to separate ourselves from others
and thereby from Thee;
but teach us the unity of Thy family
and universality of Thy Love.
As Thou Savior, as a Son, was born of a Hebrew mother,
who had the blood of many nations in her veins;
and ministered first to Thy brethren of the Israelites,
but rejoiced in the faith of a Syro-Phoenician woman and of a Roman soldier,
and suffered your cross to be carried by an Ethiopian;
teach us, also, while loving and serving our own,
to enter into the communion of the whole family;
and forbid that from pride of birth, color, achievement and hardness of heart,
we should despise any for who Christ died,
or injure or grieve any in whom He lives.
We pray in Jesus’ precious name. AMEN.
Robert C. Lawson, 1883-1961, 20th-century African American clergyman
_______________________
I appeal to you, dear brothers and sisters,
by the authority of our Lord Jesus Christ,
to live in harmony with each other.
Let there be no divisions in the church.
Rather, be of one mind, united in thought and purpose.
prayer & verse 
