Invocation by the Right Reverend Julia E. Whitworth
56th Annual Martin Luther King, Jr. Breakfast
January 19, 2026
Boston, Massachusetts
Eternal God—
Source of truth, justice, and human dignity—
we gather in this city shaped by conscience and contradiction,
a city that has known both the courage to challenge injustice
and the cost of failing to live up to its ideals.
We come carrying our history with us—
A history of revolution and righteousness,
and also of enslavement, segregation, and exclusion,
and the ways those sins have been defended, excused,
and woven into our institutions and traditions.
Give us the honesty to face that past,
the humility to learn from it,
and the resolve to root out the evils which bind us still.
For these are perilous days.
White Supremecy is no longer hiding at the margins, and
Authoritarianism is no longer a whisper but a shout—-
With Nationalism claimed as moral destiny,
Imperialism justified as strength,
And religion distorted to sanctify violent dominion.
God of our weary years and silent tears —
Do not let us be deceived.
Do not let us grow inured to cruelty.
Do not let our fear become tinged with hopelessness or resignation.
Do not let us confuse silence with peace.
Strengthen us with courage equal to this moment—
the courage to name what is wrong,
to refuse what dehumanizes,
and to stand publicly for the dignity of all.
Give us resilience for the long work ahead,
and grant us joy—not naïve or complacent joy,
but the deep, disciplined joy
that sustains hope and fuels action.
We give thanks for the life and legacy
of the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.—
for his moral clarity,
His disciplined nonviolence,
and his insistence that justice is essential to democracy,
and love without justice is no love at all.
Let his witness bind us together today—
in Boston and beyond—
to become a community of compassion and resistance,
committed to truth, to accountability, and to the common good.
May this gathering nourish us in Body and in Spirit, that we might find
true Communion with one another,
for the path to liberation is not wielding the tools of empire,
but choosing relationship as our way forward.
Bless every speaker, every musician, every shout and every silence,
that this time might form us as a community of solidarity and hope,
A people empowered, not for dominance,
but for freedom and belonging,
for resistance and mutual care.
And finally, Send us forward from this place
clear-eyed about the moment we are in,
honest about the work before us,
and unafraid to proclaim, as Dr. King did, that there is another way to be,
For this nation of ours, another dream to pursue, together .
For this moment has been entrusted to us—
and we are called to live, to speak, and to stand
Bravely side by side,
for a time such as this,
for the fierce urgency of now.
Let the people of God say Amen!