Prayers, Services, Sermons/Reflections & Essays
You are invited to submit services, sermons/reflections or essays about the death penalty. Email the CPF North Coordinator or CPF South Coordinator.
You need Adobe Reader to download the pdf documents below.
SAMPLE PRAYERS
.: Service of Lament and Healing
A prayer vigil to be offered at site of a violent death.
By Council of Churches of Santa Clara County (pdf)
Word document
.: CPF Sample Prayer (pdf)
.: Sample Prayer for Murder Victims' Families by Maria Hines - a former member of MVFR (pdf)
.: United Methodist Sample Litany General Board of Church and Society (pdf)
SERVICES
.: Whose Concern is it? —Deacon
Carl Bunje at St. Thomas Aquinas Church, as part of Weekend of Faith on
November 16, 2008 (pdf)
.: Dominican Sisters of San Rafael — Interfaith Service of the Eve of Scheduled Execution (pdf)
.: Generic Version of Service of Lament and Healing: Council of Churches of Santa Clara County (pdf)
.: Sample Interfaith Service on eve
of an execution from St. Paul's Episcopal Church, San Rafael
(pdf)
.: Sample Interfaith Service National Weekend
of Faith in Action Interfaith Service: Frst Iconium Baptist
Church, Atlanta GA (pdf)
.: Sample National Weekend of
Faith in Action Christian "Restorative Justice" Service:
Oakhurst Baptist Church, Decatur, GA (pdf)
SERMONS/REFLECTIONS
.: The Bible and The Moratorium — Rev. Jack McKinney (pdf)
.: Can Justice Be Destructive? A Reflection on Mishna Makkot 1:10 — Rabbi Jerrold Goldstein, former state chairperson of CPF
.: Dismantling the Cross: A Case Against Capital Punishment — L. Michael Jendrezjczyk (pdf)
.: Does the Death Penalty Make Our Society Safer? — Statement of the Most Reverend John C. Wester, Apostolic Administrator of the Archdiocese of San Francisco on day of execution of Clarence Ray Allen 1/17/06 (pdf)
.: Execution
of Jesus — Good Friday, 33 A.D. Execution of R. Robbins and M. Pruett
— Bishop Andrew J. McDonald, April 12,
1999
.: The Healing Power of Forgiveness
— Bill Pelke (pdf)
.: If There is One Thing I am Sure of, it's that God Can Always Surprise Us —Joanne Leslie, Deacon at Holy Faith Church
.: In
the Name of God — a Rosh HaShana sermno by Rabbi
Stacy Friedman
.: Mend Holes in Fabric with
Kindness and Compassion— Hozon Alan
Senauke, S.F. Zen Center, 1/17/06
.: Sermon
for Kol Nidrei Evening Yom Kippur 5760 —Rabbi
Peter J. Rubinstein
.: Sermon
by Rev. John Marsh —Unitarian Universalist
Minister
.: What Would Jesus
Have to Say? — Terry McCaffrey, 10/12/06
.: Why Ending the Death Penalty is critical for us as Dharma Practitioners — Diana Lion, Associate Director of Program, Prison Program Director, Buddhist Peace Fellowship (pdf)
.: With a Human Being Who's About to Be Killed — Sister Helen Prejean (pdf)
.: Who Should Live and Who Should Die — Rev. Michael McGee
.: A Yom Kippur Reflection on the Death Penalty —Daniel Sokatch, Executive Director of the Progressive Jewish Alliance, 10/13/05
.: Zacchaeus: A Lost Sheep, not a Lynched Sinner…A Reflection on Luke 19:1-10 —Eric DeBode, 10/30/04
ESSAYS
.: Death Penalty and a Constant Pro-Life Ethic — Fr. Michael Carson
.: In the Shadow of Death—Letters from a friend on death row shed light on the ultimate legal penalty — Amy Runge Gaffney
.: Descending into Greater Darkness — Chuck Carlson, 1/06
.: Lethal Injection — Louana George
.: A Mother and Father Want to Know — Who Killed Jojo? — Naomi White and Derrel Myers, 1/06
.: Walking as a Buddhist
— Jerry Bolick, Walk for Abolition participant
1/06
.: Small San Quentin Sutra
— Mark Mitchell, poet and Walf for Abolition participant (pdf)