Here’s a litany of national repentance from Bruce Prewer. It was written for the country of Australia, but could easily be adapted for use in other countries.
National Litany of Repentance
As we are typical citizens of the Australian nation, let us repent both the individual and corporate evil that has afflicted us during this century.
Loving God, Friend and Saviour, we confess the sins which have infected and blighted our life style, and alienated us from each other and from you.
We repent the racism, sometimes open, sometimes furtive, which has increased the loneliness and misery of minority groups.
We confess our reluctance to understand or alleviate the pain of indigenous people; we repent the massacres which took place early in this century and present-day evasions and injustices.
We repent our ignorant, and at times wilful, abuse of the land and its creatures, and our despoiling of the soil, air and water.
We confess the destruction of forests, depletion of the ozone layer, extinction of unique animals, salination of large tracts of lands, and pollution of river systems.
We repent our past arrogance towards the races of the Pacific Islands and South East Asia.
We confess hiding behind the infamous ‘White Australia Policy’, exploiting Papua-New Guinea, resenting Asian refugees, and using aid for political purposes.
We repent our apathy, and sometimes scorn, towards the unemployed and the unemployable.
We confess the sin of condemning youth to frustration and futility, or discarding loyal employees in their fifties.
We repent our slide into opinion poll morality, the cult of self indulgence, and taxation by casino and poker machine.
We confess the politics of expediency, the lack of prophetic courage, the use of the media for mass lying.
We confess a legal system that favours the rich and a church culture which favours the respectable.
We repent our neglect of prayer, Scripture, social justice, evangelism, and our reluctance to make friends among the disreputable, for Christ’s sake.
Lord have mercy.
Lord have mercy.
Christ have mercy.
Christ have mercy.
Lord have mercy.
Lord have mercy.
My friends, step free from the dark face of the past
and turn to the light and hope of tomorrow.
Listen to the Gospel:
God did not send his Son to condemn this century
but that through Christ this world might be saved.
You are a much loved and forgiven people!
Thanks be to God!
— written by Bruce Prewer, and posted on Bruce Prewer’s Prayers for the 21st Century page. http://www.bruceprewer.com/b_p21.htm
For more resources suitable for national celebrations, click on National Prayers in the list of “Labels” at the lower right side of the page.
